Writing about Yourself: How to Write a Good Personal Essay

A personal essay is a form of writing which explores a particular topic from the perspective of the writer. Such a piece of writing includes specific examples from the writer’s personal life in supporting the main ideas in the essay. Personal essays allow readers to understand the sense of the writer’s personality and abilities, and can be perceived as a form of an interview. In other words, it is a short autobiographical and a nonfiction work archetypical to conversational and intimate manner.

Good personal essays often inspire and move readers, and on the other hand, they can leave readers uncertain, anxious and full of further questions. While it is similar to conventional writing where at least five paragraphs are required, the use of the first-person language “I” and bias is acceptable.

Although many people often face problems constructing personal essays, writers at EssayZoo provide handy tips that can help in writing perfect personal essays. University writing departments also provide invaluable resources on how to write a personal experience essay. Therefore, visiting such departments can help in gaining important skills that will enhance your writing.

So, the following are steps and tips on how to write a personal essay for college.

Understanding the Structure

Before writing a personal essay, it is better to understand the structure of the writing. It is always a good idea to begin by ensuring that you fully understand its composition. The simplest structure of such an essay will include an introduction, the body and the conclusion. You will need to emphasize on a five-paragraph essay, with at least three paragraphs. In the introduction, you will begin with an interesting sentence that hooks your readers, and you will want them to have an urge to read even more of your composition. From your main topic, you will have to lay down compelling ideas that you want your readers to grasp.

In the body, the first sentence of each paragraph will inform readers about what the topic is all about. The second sentence offers information regarding the main point and the concluding sentence will drive your reader home to understand your idea and lead to the next paragraph. Ensure you have an outline to help you organize the essay. In the entire essay, you will keep the paragraph into the same structure, and each of the paragraphs will have a new idea and be logical as much as possible. Ensure you maintain a 10 line-rule per paragraph to keep the consistency of the essay. The conclusion section is the end of your essay that sums up the points that you have made in the body. This section also comprises of your opinion regarding the topic.

Sharpen Your Grammar

To compile a great personal essay, an individual should place emphasis on his grammar. Grammar simply pertains to the kind of language which an in individual uses to express information, or to pass an idea from one person to another. It is important to note that being an individual who is perfect in grammar can be very challenging since even a native English speaker finds it difficult to speak grammatically correct English. Nevertheless, studies have revealed that there are numerous ways through which an individual can write a personal essay, even when he is not an experienced speaker.

To compile a great personal essay, an individual should first try to analyze whether his fluency in the English language is free of mistakes. This implies that a good personal essay should put emphasis on grammar that is not only clear but also understandable. It is important to note that good grammar does not have to make use of complicated vocabularies, or difficult words. Although mastery of English is an important part when it comes to the compilation of a good personal essay, it is essential to ensure that an individual uses a language that is clearly understandable to the audience.

Use Your Own Vocabulary and Voice

There is a huge difference between the passive and active voice, and this mostly applies when it comes to the way people write their personal essays. It is important to note that when writing a personal essay, an individual should always use the concept of assuming that he is speaking to other people. This implies that instead of saying words such as “A certain assignment was assigned to Mr. Johnson,” the correct way of writing such a phrase is “Mr. Johnson conducted the assignment.” Using active language is essential when it comes to writing a personal essay since an individual is expressing himself from a personal perspective.

Conclusion

In conclusion, scholars have found that most personal essays usually contain the passive voice, and this is influenced by the kind of language that is used during social gatherings. The active voice is recognized as the most appropriate means of writing personal essays since it describes the attributes of an individual. This implies that instead of writing an essay as if someone else is describing you, it is important to write from a first-person perspective. This implies that a personal essay basically requires an individual to give a description of himself and not to require the description of someone else. Therefore, using the active voice instead of passive voice is crucial when it comes to a description of personal attributes and perspectives. One of the greatest problems that students face pertains to some of the essential attributes of using their ideologies to write an attractive personal essay.