1. Present information in groups of three.

Make sure the rules are clear, simple and direct.

When listing information or giving examples, presenting your points in groups of three can be an effective strategy for emphasis. 'Tripling' can give a phrase a distinct pattern, shape and form, and therefore make it more memorable. Some of the most famous speeches in history use triple structures: 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness', 'government of the people, by the people, for the people', 'friends, Romans, countrymen'. If you are using a triple structure, you should use the same grammatical structure in each part. For example, the phrase government of the people, by the people, for the people uses exactly the same grammatical structure for each of the three parts (government + PREPOSITION + the people).

2. Reverse the normal word order.

The largest city in Japan is Tokyo.

In most English sentences, general or already-known information comes before specific or new information. In short, this means that you have to introduce a topic before you comment on it. For emphasis, however, it can be effective to introduce new information before making clear what is being referred to, as in The largest city in Japan is Tokyo.

3. Start with an emphatic adverb.

Importantly, the email was sent on time.

Emphatic adverbs, often placed at the beginning of a sentence, can say something about the whole sentence. Such adverbs often show your opinion of the information which follows (interestingly, controversially) or show its relationship with the previous sentence (particularly, specifically).

4. Use a dummy auxiliary.

I do like your cooking - honestly!

Historically - for example, when William Shakespeare was writing - the verb do was commonly used for emphasis as an auxiliary verb in positive statements. Although this use, sometimes called the 'dummy auxiliary', is less common nowadays, it can still be very effective. It can also be used in the past: She did arrive on time.

5. Use a short sentence.

She left yesterday.

Short, simple sentences can often be very effective for communicating your idea emphatically. In writing, short sentences can be particularly effective at the beginning of a paragraph (to present a concise overview of the paragraph) or at the end of a paragraph (to provide a focused summary). A short sentence can also work well as the first or last sentence of a whole essay. However, be careful not to overuse short sentences; otherwise your writing may lack coherence.

6. Use the active voice.

The President made a mistake.

Although the passive voice has an important function in English, the active voice is more commonly used. The active voice tends to be more emphatic because it says who is doing something, and so increases the strength of the sentence.

7. Use different punctuation.

I think it's amazing!

Using an exclamation mark is a very effective way of adding emphasis to a declarative sentence. You should only do this very occasionally, however. Rewriting a sentence so that it is interrogative and, if appropriate, adding a question mark, can also occasionally be a useful strategy.

8. Use an ‘it’ cleft sentence.

It is Alan who works hardest at school.

A CLEFT SENTENCE uses a special construction to focus the reader or listener on specific information. One common cleft sentence construction is: it clause + relative clause. The structure of the it clause is: it + be form + phrase. Here, the it clause it is Alan is followed by the relative clause who works hardest at school.

9. Use a 'what' cleft sentence.

What we want is less homework.

Another common cleft sentence construction is: what clause + be form + phrase. In the example here, the what clause is What we want, which is followed by the be form (is) and the phrase less homework. Often, an emotive verb is used in the construction, such as dislike, enjoy, hate, like, love, need, prefer or want. Remember that a full stop, not a question mark, is needed when using this construction - even though the sentence begins with what.

10. Start with a negative adverb.

Never have I seen such a brilliant film.

Using a NEGATIVE adverb at the beginning of a sentence is a way of emphasizing a point very strongly. Use the construction: negative adverb + auxiliary/modal verb + subject + main verb + object.

(source: 50 steps to improving your grammar by Chris Sowton)