How to write a personal essay?

25 November 2017

What is a personal essay?

A personal essay is a broad form of essays that requires writers to present an important person or event or a period significant period in their life. The main aim of writing it is to present why an event is significant to the audience.

What is the purpose of personal essay writing?

Personal essays are different from other types of an essay in that it presents the writer experience of an event using descriptive words. The writer presents an account of an event, including his feeling, emotion, personal opinion, and experience to present to the reader why the event is significant and is worth writing about.

How to start a personal essay

The first step is to choose a good topic, personal essay topics needs to be relatable, topics, like falling in love, overcoming obstacles, discovering something new and making difficult choices, are all interesting topics one can explore to come up with an interesting personal essay. Students should choose a topic that has a significant impact on your life, perhaps it can be something that you have never examined in detail before.

Writers can describe his family and why the family is important including some of the most memorable events you had had with your family. If you decide to write about the importance of the family, the author needs to vividly describe the events they have undertaken as a family. A good personal essay topic should capture the sensory environment to enable the audience picture what the story is all about. A good personal essay should connect facts, events, reflect back and include sensory detail to engage the audience.

Example of an outline on the random topic

Introductory sentence
Thesis statement
Brief background about your family

Body Paragraphs

Paragraph 1.

Why the family is important
Some of the personal experience your family

Paragraph 2

Supporting the thesis statement about the importance of the family
Present details about the meaning and the importance of a family.

Paragraph 3

The third supportive paragraph to justify why a family is important
Restating the thesis statement
Summarizing the main point
Making the final, conclusive sentence.

To begin a personal essay, the first sentence is the introduction, which informs the audience about the topic. The introductory paragraph makes readers be aware of what the writer intends to talk about. The introduction needs to grab the audience attention right from the beginning. The introduction should have a thesis statement to show the audience the main theme of the essay. For example, you can start by stating that, we all know that the family is the foundation of the society, the family shapes us by supporting us in achieving our goals in life.

When writing an essay, you should have the main idea or the central message you want to present. A thesis statement needs to reflect this main idea at the beginning of an essay. A thesis statement needs to answer the question you want to raise. According to essayzoo.org, a good thesis statement should present the topic and state the writer’s position regarding the topic. The thesis should be provided relay in the essay within the introductory paragraph to give the reader a sense of direction.

A good body needs a detailed explanation of the main idea, the body paragraphs should be three paragraphs each paragraph explaining the topic in detail. The body paragraphs need to have organized ideas into the different section to enable the reader to follow through. When writing a personal essay, the writer needs to show what happened using detailed descriptions using strong verbs. The writer should incorporate sensory detail when describing an event or the topic he wants the readers to know that is important to him. Using a variety of senses like smell, touch, sight, and taste reader can be brought into the essay.

Connecting the event and place into a larger idea without necessarily losing focus on the main idea. Describe how such experience or event has changed you and describe how all this fits into the thesis. Do not forget to specify the importance of the event or a person. Even though you will be describing a past event, be sure to use appropriate verb tense. To make your essay lively describe the past event using the present tense, remember to be consistent. Remember to use transition words to enable readers to connect the ideas of different paragraphs and sentences.

When finalizing an essay summarize all the main ideas presented in the body using a few sentences to show the significance of your topic. A good conclusion needs to convince the reader or leave the reader with a lasting impression.

A personal essay is one of the common types of writing assignment that requires students to present an account of an important event or a person in her life. By following the above steps, students will learn how to write a personal essay.

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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How to write a personal essay?

What is a personal essay?

What is the purpose of personal essay writing?

How to start a personal essay