Crafting a personal essay can be a rewarding yet challenging task for writers. Whether you’re an experienced writer or just starting out, certain tips and techniques can help you create a compelling and impactful personal essay.
Personal essays allow writers to share their unique experiences, thoughts, and emotions with readers. They can be powerful tools for self-expression and connecting with others personally. However, writing a personal essay requires careful consideration of structure, tone, and content to effectively convey your message.
If you’re looking to enhance your personal essay-writing abilities, this blog post will provide you with seven valuable tips to guide you through the writing process. From finding your voice to selecting a compelling topic, these tips will help you craft a well-written and engaging personal essay that resonates with your audience. Whether you’re writing for a publication or for personal reflection, these tips will help you create a memorable and impactful piece of writing.
What Is A Personal Essay?
A personal essay is a writing that provides details of the experience, event, or realization from the past and how it left a lasting impression on the writer. Many employers and admissions departments ask aspirants to submit personal essays because they contain a lot of information about a person’s personality, outlook, and motivations and how specific circumstances formed them.
A personal essay often describes a memorable event from a first-person perspective and can be done in different writing styles, like a formal essay or creative nonfiction. Personal essays usually adopt a conversational tone that creates a deep connection with the reader.
Personal essay topics range from various subject matters such as the first time you failed a test in high school, an estranged family member, a moral turning point encountered during adolescence, how you handled an issue at work, survival of abuse, or a professor that changed the way you feel about literature.
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Structure of A Personal Essay
A personal essay consists of three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion, and it differs from formal essays in their length, tone, and purpose.
Let’s take a look at each section individually.
- Introduction: The first sentences of your personal essay must have a hook that captures the reader’s attention. Here you are expected to provide a statement that you plan on proving in the body of your essay. Avoid common cliches like opening with a famous quote (especially if this is a college essay), and try to form a unique connection with your audience.
- Body: The body of your essay is the main part of your story and should include your main points and personal evidence supporting the thesis statement of your narrative essay. This is where you give details of how your personal experiences shaped your point of view, and reflect on the knowledge gleaned.
- Conclusion: The conclusion of every essay is where you restate your thesis and share the moral of your story or a revelation of a deeper truth. Review why this essay matters and sum up the things you want the reader to take away from this particular piece.
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Step by step Process Of Writing A Personal Essay
While everyone’s writing process differs, there are a few step-by-step processes to guide you while writing a personal essay.
Step 1: Choose an essay topic
The best essay topics are often deeply relatable. Although the story itself is unique to the author’s experience, there’s some universal truth that speaks to us from just below the surface. Topics like facing a fear, falling in love, overcoming an obstacle, discovering something new, or making a difficult choice tackle feelings and events that happen in everyone’s life.
Step 2: Create an essay outline
Drafting a personal essay outline first can help you lay out the main points and tone of the message you are trying to share. Your outline will help you figure out early on if this specific moment is worth writing about. Whichever topic you choose for your essay, it must have had a strong emotional impact on you or have taught you a lesson in some way.
All it takes to understand the importance of an outline is listening to someone who struggles to tell a personal story. Often, the story will seem to have no real point. The switchbacks where the teller says “But wait, I have to tell you about this part, first!” are maddening and disruptive. An outline will help you organize your thoughts before committing them to text.
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Step 3: Start with your introduction
Include your hook, state your main point, and form an emotional connection with the reader. Stir your audience up for what your piece will be about and give them something to look forward to.
Step 4: Write the body of the essay
Use sensory details about the sequence of events surrounding your thesis to lead the reader through your personal essay. This is where you build up your personal story and eventually lead the reader to your main point.
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Step 5: Be specific
Don’t try to write about a general topic. Your essay may well be about climate change, but you need to illustrate it through the lens of a defining incident that’s deeply personal to you using specific terms. What did your experiences teach you about sexism? What does it mean to you as an individual? Provide details about real-life characters and the feelings you experienced.
Step 6: Include a conclusion
Your conclusion is a summary of your experience as presented in the body of the essay. Here, you are expected to conclude in a positive and helpful note that will show the reader how aspirational you are.
Your essay should end with your reflection and analysis. What did you learn from the experience? How have the events and thoughts shaped your life? It’s not enough to say “And that’s what happened.” You have to describe how whatever happened shaped you.
Step 7: Proofread and edit your work
After writing your personal essay the next thing to do is proofread and edit. While checking spelling and grammar is important, also ensure your intent is clear and your narrative is in line with what you are writing. No matter how good your writing skills are, it’s always helpful to reread your own work and ensure your point is clear.
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7 Key Tips On How To Write A Personal Essay
Here are 7 key tips that will help you write the best personal essay:
1. Write from a personal point of view
We all have a unique point of view towards issues and experiences. Since you are the only one who has experienced a particular event in that moment, in that particular way, in that place or time, with those people, you’re the best person to tell the story in the best way possible. When writing a personal essay flow naturally and let your inner thoughts tell the story.
2. Be original
As readers, we all crave new information and new experiences. When asked about how to submit effective queries, editors will often say, “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Admissions counselors seek out candidates of value. You need to show what makes a college campus more valuable? Students who exude enthusiasm, fortitude, leadership, drive, diversity, originality, and the ability to motivate others are always preferred. These kinds of qualities should be highlighted in the story your essay tells. Tell your tale because no one else has lived your life or experienced what you have in the same manner. Speak in a genuine voice for you.
Writing creatively doesn’t require you to be a genius or to have seen the world. Simply pay close attention to your surroundings and recognize when your thoughts are taking an odd slant on a subject.
3. Be vulnerable
Don’t be afraid to let your strengths, challenges, and personal stories shine through in your essay! Scholarship and admissions committees love to see that you’re self-aware of how you can improve as a person, or how you’ve grown because of your experiences. Honest writing can help tell the best stories (in this case, your story).
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4. Use vivid descriptions
When writing a personal essay try to create a visual image in your reader’s mind. Describe what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch clearly so your readers can experience it with you. Let’s say you take your son to the State Fair for the first time. How did he feel while walking into the arena? What was his impression of the place? While writing, give a clear description that will give the reader a clear picture of what is being discussed.
5. Tune into your own emotions
We are emotional beings wired to feel the emotions of the other person. As writers, when we’re authentic, others react. Dig deep to remember the exact feeling you had at the time of the event you’re writing about and develop a vocabulary that matches your emotion and moments.
6. Use the right tone
While writing a personal essay ensure your tone matches your essay. Don’t be sarcastic when you should be affectionate and vice versa. Also, don’t overuse a tone, it will bore your readers. You don’t want to risk alienating your readers by being overly political, preachy, crude, gross, or intolerant. How far you can go will depend upon your own comfort level, your intended audience, and the publication you’re targeting.
7. Be concise
As we know from speakers who drone on and on, sometimes the most profound way to say something is to use as few words as possible. Say what you mean and don’t veer off track. It’s okay to write your way into a story—it can help get the juices flowing—but you have to be willing to delete the off-topic chatter during the editing process.
Bonus Point: Write in active voice
Use action verbs in your writing and try to avoid passive voice by making sure the subject performs the verb’s action. Be direct.
- Active: Monkeys eat bananas. The cashier counted the money.
- Passive: Bananas are eaten by monkeys. The money was counted by the cashier.
FAQs On How To Write A Personal Essay
A personal essay is a writing that provides details of the experience, event, or realization from the past and how it left a lasting impression on the writer.
A personal essay consists of three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion, and it differs from formal essays in their length, tone, and purpose.
Always end your personal essay with a reflection and analysis. What did you learn? How have the events and thoughts you described changed your life or your understanding of life?
Conclusion
From finding your voice to selecting a compelling topic, these tips will help you craft a well-written and engaging personal essay that resonates with your audience. Whether you’re writing for a publication or for personal reflection, these tips will help you create a memorable and impactful piece of writing.
References
- masterclass.com – How to Write a Personal Essay: 6 Tips for Writing Personal Essays
- writersdigest.com – How to Write Compelling Personal Essays: 9 Ingredients for Spicing Up Your Writing
- grammarly.com – 7 Helpful Tips on How to Write A Memorable Personal Essay
