What Is A Personal Essay? [ Brief Guide of Writing ]

A personal essay serves the primary purpose of sharing personal stories with others. It is typically assigned to school and college students. In fact, authors and writers also utilize personal essay formats to share the crucial lessons they have learned from real-life experiences.

Further, it helps in communicating the ideas and thoughts precisely. Thus, It helps the audience gain insight on several aspects and enlightening them.

In this blog, we are going to go into the depth of personal essay writing, its format, and various elements. Moreover, we will help you with interesting personal essay topics that you could use. It’s time we jump in and explore everything related to personal essay writing.

What Is A Personal Essay?

A personal essay is a piece of non-fictional writing with an interesting, stimulating, or entertaining story with the audience. The storyline is by and large drawn from the personal experiences of the writer. It chiefly is a narrative of the events that worked as a turning point in the individual’s life but is different from the narrative essay.

Hence, it is clear that a personal essay is different from other types of essay writing. Students are often asked to write a personal essay for college while applying for universities. A special committee of the authorities assesses the letter thoroughly before proceeding with the admission process.

The 5 Essential Elements Of A Personal Essay

It takes some special ingredients to maintain and enhance the flavor of a recipe. Similarly, some specific elements can make your personal essay powerful. These 5 elements would help you draft a compelling and meaningful personal essay.

Something To Hook The  Readers

You need a compelling hook to catch and hold the attention of the readers. Remember, the audience may lose interest. Thus, try to keep things as interesting as possible. Adding a little humor would help. Moreover, you could also try including a provocative factor in your write-up. What matters is to make sure there is a hook-worthy element.

Engagement Is Primary

Good content is something that keeps the audience engaged. Hence, a personal essay with a storyline needs to follow a good storyline.

Moreover, it should be intriguing enough to induce an emotion in the audience’s mind. This could be sadness, joy, disgust, horror, surprise, or just anything. Be mindful of the reaction you wish to generate as that can make or break your efforts.

Characters With An Interesting Touch

Whether your story is fictional or non-fictional, the characters in it are vital. Therefore, focus on keeping them interesting. Usually, a personal essay is based on the life of the narrator.

However, you can follow a different approach. Keeping the author aside and focusing on other characters of the story is equally helpful. Thus, you should figure out a way to illustrate the characters involved.

Provide An Immersive Experience To The Audience

The prime idea of a personal essay paper is sharing the real incidents. If you are confused about how to write a personal essay just focus on the entire set.

Additionally, the readers must immerse in an experience that facilitates their senses. This includes sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Addressing this ensures highly impactful outcomes.

Keep Things Meaningful

While you must intend to share a good storyline, it is equally important to focus on the message you wish to share with the readers. A write-up that gives you a sense of learning is better than the one that leads to nowhere.

It could be anything related to your life experiences. Keep a theme in mind and then follow it throughout Related everything to the central theme for effective results.

Best Topics For Personal Essay For College In 2021

We have compiled a list of the best personal essay topics for you.

1. Describe the best place in your city.
2. How was your experience of your first trip abroad? Write in detail.
3. What makes you the happiest in life?
4. How vital is personal growth in your life?
5. What was the most precious moment in your life?
6. Write about the time you met your college roommates.
7. What are your opinions on virtual learning programs?
8. Give a detailed account of the first time you got a job.
9. Share about the most unfortunate incident that happened in your life.
10. Have you ever experienced failure? Write about your experience.

Read here for more essay topics

What is a Proper format of a personal essay?

By now you must have understood what is a personal essay. So, it is time we move further and understand the proper format of personal essay writing. Follow this structure to ensure winning results in your essay papers.

• Introductory paragraph: The opening of your essay should be hook-worthy. Moreover, it should capture and hold the reader’s attention. Also, include a personal statement and further prove it in the main body.

You must steer clear from using popular quotes. Instead, try to build a strong and personalized connection with the audience.

• Main Body: This is the soul of your essay. It should include all the key points, examples, personal evidence, etc. Besides, the thesis statement should be backed up with relevant claims.

Therefore, you should always share your life experiences. They make your viewpoint look more concrete. Moreover, they are a reflection of your understanding and knowledge.

• Conclusion: While wrapping up your essay, restate the thesis. Provide the readers a sense of closure through the conclusion. Give a takeaway point to the audience from your write-up.

Useful Tips For Writing A Personal Essay

Here are some highly useful tips to achieve efficient results in personal essay writing.

• Always start with an outline: We have said it before, and we will say it again; you must follow an outline to ensure a well-structured outcome. It helps you share your message clearly while following a specific tone throughout. Regardless of the topic, stick with an outline draft to achieve positive outcomes.
• Begin with an introduction: Your introductory body should clearly state a thesis, a hook, and an emotional factor. It prepares your readers for the road ahead by providing an idea about the context. Consequently, they are willing to read further.
• Keep the body paragraphs informative: You should try to maintain a logical sequence of ideas in the body. Organizing everything while connecting it with the thesis enables the readers to guide the audience.

Furthermore, it helps in maintaining a logical flow of ideas. It allows you to work up a story and then connect it to the key idea.

• Specificity is crucial: Needless to say, be specific with the events instead of keeping things vague. When you share a descriptive view of a certain event, it ensures a highly engaging outcome.

Moreover, you can provide the details of the events. Talk about the characters involved for an enriching experience.

• Concluding views: Do not forget to share a quick summary of your experiences. Moreover, mention significant learning that you have gained from the incident. Try to end things on a positive note, or leave the audience with an uplifting feeling.
• Proofread everything: It is important to proofread your copy for any errors or plagiarism. Perhaps you are confident about your writing skills. However, it is always better to be careful.

Rechecking everything allows you to identify the mistakes that might have been unaware of. Correct the mistakes and structure the sentences properly.

Mistakes You May Commit While Writing A Personal Essay

You are bound to make mistakes while working on any type of writing task. Similarly, students sometimes unknowingly make these mistakes that can be avoided with proper knowledge. Let us discuss them one by one.

• Do not vent out: Your essay is not a journal where you can vent your feelings or frustration. It is an opportunity to express your thoughts and experiences.

Further, you must take a stand on the issue. Basically, the idea is to present a logical explanation rather than a reaction.

• Avoid being wordy

There is no need to stretch the write-up with unnecessary sentences. That’s why following an outline is recommended.

After drafting the paper, you must go through everything and review the information. In case you detect irrelevant details, delete them.

• Repeating yourself leads to the mundaneness

You should completely refrain from repeating the words and phrases in your personal essay. Aim to achieve rich results while keeping the write-up fresh. Otherwise, it is natural for the essay to seem boring.

Hence, strictly follow the rule of using an expression only once. Instead, you may try using alternatives to maintain the flow and uniqueness.

• Writing about everyday life might not be effective

Many people mindlessly pick a topic from their daily lives. This approach sometimes results in boring essay copies. Hence, make it a point to include a life-changing or eye-opening incident that could help others.

Moreover, your essay could motivate the audience or help them progress in a specific direction.

• Avoiding indulging in the topic

Often, people are afraid of opening themselves up about the event. It happens due to the fear of being vulnerable in front of the world. Successful results only come when you present a situation from different perspectives.

Therefore, you need to be vulnerable while drafting the essay paper. Only that is when you would be able to provide a wholesome experience to the readers. There is no need to skip sensitive aspects related to the incident.

How To Write A Personal Essay?

It is natural to panic when you are asked to write a personal essay. However, with the right guidance, things become easier. Let us help you with a perfect way to draft a personal essay paper.

 

• Understand The True Meaning Of A Personal Essay

First thing first, analyze what a personal essay really is. What is the appropriate structure and objective of your essay?

The idea is to express personal experiences. It is not just about restating an event that happened in the past. In fact, take it as a memoir of your life.

• Pick An Interesting Topic

Whether you are writing a personal essay for college or any other purpose, choose the topic carefully. The quality of a powerful essay lies in its uniqueness.

Hence, choose a topic that describes your life experiences while also connecting with the universal truths. It could be about personal relationships, tackling obstacles, or new discoveries.

• Attention-Getter Beginning

You must aim to catch the reader’s attention from the very first sentence. It is important to hook them in and maintain it throughout. Thus, try to include a topic sentence within the introduction itself. Doing this would set the tone for your personal essay.

• Draft An Outline

This is the first step in drafting any piece of writing. Adhering to a structure makes everything organized. Moreover, it helps in sticking to a specific tone throughout. This way, you can move in a specific direction.

Another thing to consider is, include an emotive touch in your essay. Doing this will stimulate the perspective of the readers and leave an ever-lasting effect.

• Bring The Focus To What Matters The Most

Instead of adopting a general approach, try to relate it to your personal life. Illustrating the point through a personal incident would serve the purpose of a personal essay. Moreover, you can include your takeaways from the incident. This would help the audience with deeper insight.

• Demonstrate Your Experiences Through Words

Do you know the best way to leave an eternal imprint of your ideas? It is by facilitating a sensory involvement.

When all your five senses are engaged in an experience, you just don’t understand the expression. In fact, you immerse in the feeling itself. This is the best way to achieve promising outcomes in your essay writing task.

• End With A Thought-Provoking Perspective

As the end of your personal essay approaches, make sure to present an analysis. Here, talk about the learnings, or how the event changed your life. Nevertheless, restate the thesis statement and provide takeaways to the audience.

Final Words

A personal essay is a reflection of your thoughts and personal episodes that you have gone through in life. Thus, it should always include an emotive touch to facilitate the reader’s perspective. Moreover, it is a narrative story rather than a plain, generic essay.

We hope our guide helped you in understanding the complexities involved in personal essay writing. But if you need a little more help from experts just ping us to write my essay for me and leave the rest to our writers.