How to Write a Strong Personal Essay?

What is a Personal Essay?

A personal essay is a piece of writing where the author elaborates on a former experience, incident, or realisation and how it shaped who they are as a person. Since they may reveal a lot about a person's character, worldview, motives, and how certain experiences shaped them, personal essays are frequently requested from applicants by admissions committees and employers.

An introduction, a body, and a conclusion make up a personal essay. Its length, tone, and goal are all different from those of formal essays.

Here are eight pointers that you may use while writing a personal essay to make sure it interests your audience and compels them to read more.

Prepare

Consider who your audience is and what you want them to know before you start writing your personal essay. Determine how your tale ties to your writing objectives by asking yourself questions. Making a list of the ideas you wish to express can help you create an essay that makes your tale relevant and interesting.

Get organized

An excellent method to arrange your thoughts and ideas is to write an outline. In order to prevent losing your major points, you may stay on topic and avoid covering too many topics by using an outline. In order for the plot to flow smoothly from beginning to end, your essay should follow a specific order of events.

Examples

• Explain your feelings and perspective on the occurrence in the first paragraph of the body.

• Second body paragraph: Provide the story's specifics; maintain a logical flow; respond to the how, what, where, and why questions.

• In the third body paragraph, describe how the narrative ends and elaborate on your feelings and attitude towards the incident.

• Restate the story's key details in the conclusion paragraph(s) and offer the moral or lesson.

Choose your topic

Your narrative or experience should support the point you're trying to make. Your personal essay can describe a success or achievement, or it might discuss how certain events or circumstances significantly altered your perspective on the world. Choose a tale that advances your aims after deciding what you want to achieve with your essay.

Examples

• A friend or family member who gave you advice that was helpful.

• A small-scale yet important personal or professional event

• Which teachings have influenced you?

• What has meaning for you?

• How well you would fit a certain vocation?

• What you've discovered from prior errors

• Personal viewpoint on an issue or current event (diversity, inclusion, seclusion)

Consider your tone

While writing a personal essay, consider the emotion you want to convey or the environment you want to create that provides insight into your personality. Your essay may discuss a former experience and be written as a reflection on an incident and how it connects to the current situation. If you're writing on a current occurrence, you may write your essay from the perspective of how it is now and what influence it has. Focus on engaging the reader in the tale, taking into account the tone of your essay.

Include a lesson or moral

Your personal essay should have a main point or moral that you are trying to convey to the reader in order to highlight your skills, credentials, or moral character. Explain how, why, and what your experience has taught you by considering what you want the reader to take away from your essay.

Examples

• Overcame adversity.

• Surpassed the opposition.

• Associated with a group or culture.

• Became a leader.

• Benefited from past errors.

Write the introduction

Keep your introduction to one or two paragraphs and keep it focused on your primary arguments without going into too much detail. The story's essential elements are highlighted in the beginning, and the first line should have an effect. Create a hook in the first sentence to entice the reader to stay reading to learn more. Think about starting your introduction with a motivational, humorous, or insightful phrase or comment.

Write the body

The main body of your essay, which often has two to three paragraphs, comprises the majority of the content. The main paragraph, or body, follows a chronological order and elaborates on each of the arguments you stated in the introduction. This is where you offer evidence in support of the lesson or moral your narrative is trying to teach.

By describing scenes or events in your essay using the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, you may make the narrative engaging and accessible as well as establish an emotional connection with the reader.

Write the conclusion

Your personal analysis and reflection should be the last part of your essay. What did you discover? How have the experiences and ideas you've shared altered your life or your perspective on the world? Saying "And that's what occurred" is insufficient. You must explain how whatever occurred changed you.

The conclusion usually has one or two paragraphs and restates the key ideas from the body. Aim to focus on communicating your unique message rather than introducing any new facts. Your essay should be concluded with a statement that summarises the lesson learned from the narrative and ties everything together.

To strengthen your essay, spot faults, and improve clarity, use the following tips −

• Use an active voice

• Write in a casual manner

• Proofread

• Read the article aloud

• For advice, consult your friends or co-workers

• Make use of writing tools.