How to Write a Personal Essay: Step-by-Step Guide

Many times students, right after listening to the term ‘personal’, start rushing over words, completely unknowing what actually the “personal essay” is. It is not something that can be written hastily.

In the personal essay, though the student shares a personal real-life experience or creates a non-fiction scenario that sounds real, yet it must have a purpose. It’s not about sharing an experience but teaching something to the reader through your story.

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Basic Guidelines about Personal Essay Writing

A personal essay can be written as a formal essay or creative non-fiction. Here are some basic guidelines about its language, structure, narration, and formation.

Language and Style

Clear and easy words vocabulary is used to write a personal essay. Your language should be comprehensive and your style should be compelling.

Type of Narration

It is usually written in first-person narration. You should develop a plot in such a way that a reader can relate to the discussed scenario. You can add a general idea with a combination of personal perspectives.

Structure and Formation

The ideal structure of a personal essay consists of five paragraphs i.e. an introduction, conclusion, and three body paragraphs. All paragraphs must be interconnected and should follow a flawless flow.

Use of Tense

You are mostly written in the past simple tense but past perfect and present perfect tense can also be used while projecting the background of the story.

Step-by-Step Guide to Write a Personal Essay

Writing a personal essay is not like chewing iron nuts, still, there are students who face difficulty in understanding the idea. Services, like Write My Essay for Me UK based, are serving all over the internet to resolve students’ concerns regarding essay writing.

In both cases, either student take online assistance or write their essays themselves, they must learn how to write a personal essay. The composition of a personal essay can be divided into five sections in accordance with the distribution of its paragraphs. Following are some easy steps to write a personal essay.

Step 1 – Select the Topic

Select a captivating topic. You may use the phrase ‘Why I Believe in Tit for Tat’ or you may write a creative topic like “The first time I was scolded at school” or “when I was a Turtle”. It is necessary that your topic is unique and engaging otherwise no one has any interest in knowing your personal life.

Step 2 – Make a Mind Map

Make a mind map of the ideas you have in your mind related to the selected topic. If you writing about a personal experience then remind yourself of all the helpful aspects of that incident.

If it is creative non-fiction then gather all the ideas in the form of brainstorming. It will help you to write the incorporated information in the body paragraphs fluently.

Step 3 – Write an Interesting introduction

The personal essay introduction is based on the factors that can excite the reader. You may use emotional elements too in the introductory paragraph or can make a hilarious statement. An ironic phrase can also be used to develop an interest in the introduction of the personal essay.

You should focus on the following points while writing the personal essay introduction.

· Begin with a Catchphrase

A catchphrase is like a punch-line that hits the reader’s heart at once. You can use a relevant quote as the catchphrase. If you start your personal essay with a catchphrase, it will create a grabbing impression on the readers’ minds and persuade them to enter into body paragraphs.

· Tell the Purpose

Your personal essay introduction must tell the reader the purpose of your writing. You should make it prominent what has made your words slip out of your pen and touch the paper. Without a purpose, there is no means of writing a discourse.

· Add Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a must in an introduction regardless of the genre and purpose of a piece of writing. In this statement, you should give a comprehensive account of what and how you are going to discuss something in the essay.

Step 4 – Describe Background Scenario

Write the second paragraph of the essay comprising the background story of a particular scenario.

For example, if you are telling the story of the day when you were late in your class then you should describe in the first paragraph of the story why you were late. It helps you develop a strong plot and make your essay comprehensive.

Step 5 – Explain the Incident

Coming towards the third paragraph of the essay, make sure that you have all the required information about a particular happening. Discuss in detail the experience you once had; it can be a good or bad experience. While describing the incident you should follow 5Ws and 1H pattern that covers the following points:

What happened
When it happened
Where it happened
Why it happened
To Whom it happened and how it happened

This is the most favored form of writing for the demonstration of a real-life incident. It is widely used for report writing in journalism as well.

Step 6 – Share Consequences

In the next paragraph, you give a proper ending to the story you have portrayed with the consequences that the incident brought to you or any other person.

Maybe you are sharing an experience that has carried out a big change in your life; it can be a loss or a gain from a particular action. Maybe you have quoted an incident that you observed and it had touched hard your senses. It is simply the closure of the plot of your personal essay.

Step 7 – Tell what you have learned from the Experience

Now you can conclude your essay with the lesson of the experienced that has been shared. This paragraph is the supporting paragraph to the purpose of your personal essay. It represents a strong moral that the discussed scenario has given to you.

Usually, personal essays end up with a lesson like ‘Never lose hope’, ‘belief in yourself’, adversity is a blessing, etc. You may design a distinctive wrap-up that can bring to bring to you a big applaud from the reader.

Conclusion

By following the above-mentioned steps and guidelines you can write a personal essay perfectly. You may also take help from the best essay writing service UK based to get done with your personal essay with a professional outlook. Your personal essay shows your mental capabilities and intellect so you should be sound and audible in your thoughts and writing style to satisfy your teachers.