What Is a Personal Essay (Personal

Statement)?

A personal essay is a short work of autobiographical nonfiction characterized by a sense of

intimacy and a conversational manner. Also called a personal statement.

The personal essay is an attempt to write about thoughts and then to question as to why
thinking those thoughts. Each person will define it differently.

It differs from biography/memoir because it places no real importance on chronology.

A personal essay wants the essayist’s considered reflections, whether they relate or not. This
fragmentary nature makes it ideal for writing about and during times of transition and
confusion.

How is The Structure?

If you want to understand what a personal essay is, you should first get familiar with its
common structure. A regular personal essay, as well as any other type of the paper, should
contain the following elements:

 Introduction. Start your personal essay with a brief introduction to the topic. Explain the
main goal of your story, express your outlook on the subject and describe what results
the reader will get at the end of the essay. Close this paragraph with a catchy thesis
statement. It should contain a sentence about the aim of the paper and a hook to
engage the audience;
 Main paragraphs. Their quantity depends on the number of issues you want to discuss.
Start every paragraph with a topic sentence and then support it with arguments and
additional details. If else is not indicated, try to limit the number of arguments to 3-5
not to make your essay too long and boring;
  Conclusion. Close your essay with a summary of everything you have discussed in your
work, making predictions for the future. Try not to add new information in this section,
as it is only for summarizing the essay not for introduction new details.

Here are the things you need to keep in mind, when working on your personal essay!

 The matter should be significant. It is quite boring for the audience to read about your
routine, so you need to choose a topic, which arouse inner conflict, helped you to
change your personality or caused a certain impact on your surrounding;

 Start with an opening sentence, which intrigues the audience. It can be a joke, a quote,
a question or a brief introduction to the situation you are going to discuss. Don’t start
with straightforward details if you want the reader to stick with you till the end;

 Always write from your own angle. You may feel tempted to use samples online or
someone’s thoughts but remember that a personal essay is all about your experience
and ideas. Stick only to them!

 Work on the characters. If you want your essay to be as informative and interesting as
possible, you need to build thorough characteristics of every person in your essay;

 Write an outline. It is a plan of your future essay, which allows to stick to the point and
follow the structure. With its help you won’t be able to miss important details and will
make your essay detailed and vivid;

 Use various literary tools, like repetitions, metaphors, personifications and so on. They
will enrich your text and will make your story stronger than ever;

 Read your essay aloud. With the help of such a simple technique, you will be able to find
weak spots of your paper and eliminate them before the delivery;

 Ask your friends to read the essay or use online software to detect grammar and lexical
errors. Most of the students neglect this important stage not knowing that in-text
mistakes and typos greatly influence their final grades.

The Topics

A personal essay is an essay about your life, thoughts, or experiences. This type of essay will
give readers a glimpse into your most intimate life experiences and life lessons. There are many
reasons you may need to write a personal essay, from a simple class assignment to a college
application requirement. You can use the list below for inspiration. Consider each statement a
starting point, and write about a memorable moment that the prompt brings to mind.

 Your bravest moment

 How you met your best friend
 What makes your mom or dad special
 How you overcame a fear
 Why you will succeed
 Why you made a difficult choice
 A special place
 A place you try to avoid
 When a friend let you down
 An event that changed your life
 A special encounter with an animal
 A time when you felt out of place
 An odd experience that didn't make sense at the time