Personal Essays

Personal essays are some of the most fun pieces of writing to read.  Most magazines and newspapers publish personal essays.  Most authors (of both fiction and nonfiction) spend at least some time writing personal essays.

Personal essays can cover any topic.  Sometimes authors write essays in response to a particular topic (maybe a magazine is putting together an issue about wars or experiences in schools).  Other times, writers just write personal essays because they experience something that they feel is “writable” and they have to write it down.

The only requirement for a personal essay is that it’s interesting.  Some personal essays are funny.  Others are deep.  Still others are sad.  Some are silly.  But, they should all hold a readers interest.  A personal essay is not necessarily meant to persuade or instruct (like the writing we have done on previous days) but it is definitely meant to entertain.  Really good essays also push readers to think. 

The best personal essays push the readers to think about something in a new way (or a way that they have not thought before) and leave readers thinking even after they have finished reading the essay.

The average person probably doesn’t write many personal essays (although most people have to do some forms of descriptive, expository, and persuasive writing for their jobs – just imagine convincing your boss to sign a deal or trying to describe a process for a new employee!). 

However, learning to write personal essays is extremely important for students.  Why?  Because all colleges require personal essays as part of their applications.  In fact, many middle schools and high schools also require personal essays as part of their applications!  Although many schools have specific questions or prompts that they want applicants to write to, most prompts are fairly general.  If you can write a good personal essay, it’s pretty good to “tweak” it to get it to fit a prompt.  The trick is writing a good, interesting, compelling personal essay.

What components do you need to write a personal essay?

• An interesting, funny, sad, or deep experience or set of experiences. 

                    -  You can tell one story in great detail OR 

                    -  You can tell several related stories and pull them together. 

• A lingering emotion.

                    -  What feeling do you want readers to leave your essay with?  Do you want them to feel happy, proud, amazed, sad, interested, or...?

• The final thought that you want readers to leave your essay with.

                    -  What question do you want to linger in the heads of your readers?  The best essays leave their readers thinking.  What do you want your readers to think about when they finish?

The most important component is the story.

To write a good personal essay, that story should:

                    - Have a lot of good details (thick description).

                    - Some kind of dialog (either between people or internal dialog where the writer talks to himself or herself).

                    - Something happening (it can happen to you, or it can be something that you observe).

                    - A conclusion: the story should have some kind of ending, which you can either talk about in the essay or leave the reader to think about.

The story does not have to be:

                    - Complicated.

                    - Full of action.

                    - Important.

Some of the best essays are written about every common, everyday kinds of stories.  The story is important, but it’s the small details, and the way that you write about it, that makes it really fun and important.  Your essay can start with a very minor story!