Somewhere within your academic experience, you are going to be tasked with writing a personal essay. It might be for part of the process of applying for admission to college or part of the requirements of applying for a scholarship, and will be important because admissions committees and scholarship programs use these essays to determine eligibility and to discover what sets you apart from the rest of the applicants.
A lot of writers enjoy this type of assignment, while others easily spin their creative wheels and end up not sure where to begin. Depending on who your reader will be and how easily you open up to strangers, a personal essay could be one of the most anxiety-producing types of essays you'll ever have to write. After all, its very purpose is to reveal something deeply personal and that's not always easy to do. Or, it could be an easy task, especially if you are able to articulate matters of personal growth and change that have occurred and the catalysts for that change.
In either case, a personal essay assignment doesn't have to be difficult, especially if you understand some of the basic techniques to getting a personal essay written. Here are a few steps to follow to help you write it and stand out from the crowd with your writing.
Start with a story
People are drawn to stories. From the dawn of time, we've been telling stories and painting pictures with words to engage an audience, it's just part of human nature. Admissions committees and scholarship panels want to know who you are, what has shaped you, and what series of events has led you to apply to their particular program.
It should be a story that does several things at once. First, it should reveal something about you as an individual—something that sets you apart from other people because of your unique experience. Second, it should connect to an overall theme that you wish to relate, whether that's personal growth or a life lesson learned or a goal achieved. This shows the reader that you are able to look at your experiences and analyze the moments when personal growth occurred and when you recognized something about yourself that you might not have known before.
If a story about yourself doesn't readily come to mind, ask yourself these questions:
- What are my life goals?
- What was an event that happened in my life that prompted me to set those goals?
Let's look at an example. As discussed above, for a sample essay that begins with a story, I would respond that my life goals are to do creative work as a profession, because creating is what I most love to do.
For the event that happened in my life that prompted me—the first story that comes to mind is my tree fort in the woods where I would go to write. So, I might begin my personal essay like this:
In the summer of 1988, I was 12 years old and I had a secret. Behind our house, on a dusty trail that led into the woods, there was a tree fort hidden on one side. I'd sneak in with my journal and a pen, sit in the half-grass half-dirt "living room" and write things—poems, songs, stories, and boys' names—whatever inspiration that happened to swing by in my concealed castle in the trees.
I knew even back then that I wanted to be a writer. I knew that chasing and choosing words was my passion and that I could do it all my life and never grow bored of it. Those hours I spent in my tree fort were some of my most memorable moments from childhood and I still have some of the poems I wrote, tucked into a pink folder that's now worn and stained.
Know what a personal essay is (and isn't)
A personal essay is a short, autobiographical, nonfiction piece that should be written in first person point of view and should be conversational in nature. You can think of it as a kind of confessional, and it should contain insight into something you've learned, something that's changed in you, or something you've realized about yourself through your personal experiences. In the example I gave you, I started with a personal story and then segue into how that personal experience gave me insight about my passion for writing.
It's important to keep in mind, however, that although your personal essay is confessional in nature—that doesn't mean it's the time and place to pull out skeletons from your closet. Although there are no rules saying you can't use a personal essay to reveal deeply personal facts, it's important to remember the purpose of the assignment, which is to allow a group of strangers to learn a little more about you.
Chose a great topic
Sometimes, it's difficult to think of a personal story to relate to others, particularly strangers who might be sitting on an admissions board or scholarship committee. That's why it's a good plan to have a list of potential topics to tackle for your personal essay to get you started. Here are a few ideas:
- A time when you overcame a fear
- A moment when you made a difficult choice and how that choice has shaped your life
- A unique and special place you know of and why it's special to you
- A moment when you were betrayed by someone you trusted
- An event or moment that changed your life
- A disappointment you've experienced
- A time when you disappointed someone important to you
- The moment you realized you had grown up
- If you could switch lives with someone, it would be….
- Something you would do differently if you could have a do-over
- A book you've read that changed your worldview>
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
- A choice you've made that turned out to be the wrong one
- A moment in your life that changed everything
- The most beautiful thing you've ever seen
- A hard lesson you had to learn and how you learned it
- A person who is your mentor and why
Sample personal essay
Sometimes, it's easier to understand how to do something by looking at an example of how it's done. To continue the personal essay example I began earlier, here's a sample of what a well-written personal essay might look like. Notice how I have begun the essay with a story, and then applied that story to a lesson I've learned about my passion and best choices for a career path.
In the summer of 1988, I was 12 years old and I had a secret. Behind our house, on a dusty trail that led into the woods, there was a tree fort hidden on one side. I'd sneak in with my journal and a pen, sit in the half-grass half-dirt "living room" and write things—poems, songs, stories, and boys' names—whatever inspiration that happened to swing by in my concealed castle in the trees.
I knew even back then that I wanted to be a writer. I knew that chasing and choosing words was my passion and that I could do it all my life and never grow bored of it. Those hours I spent in my tree fort were some of my most memorable moments from childhood and I still have some of the poems I wrote, tucked into a pink folder that's now worn and stained. They're idealistic and full of teenage angst and crushes, and reading them now, I can see some of the early techniques I used that would later develop into a unique voice.
I like keeping these old poems, even though I'd be far too embarrassed to share them with anyone at this stage in life. I like to see what my 12-year-old mind was processing, what imagery I was experiencing, and what inspired me. I now watch my 12-year-old daughter writing feverishly in her journal and I hope it means the same thing to her that it meant to me—a moment to release whatever is inside through the catharsis of writing.
I continue to write and have succeeded in building a business based on what I enjoy most. I have always heard that the secret to a fulfilling career is to find something you love so much that it almost doesn't feel like work most days when you do your job. I have done exactly that and enjoy learning more about the craft of writing, while further developing my unique voice as a writer. It is this daily goal of getting consistently better at what I enjoy doing most that gets me out of bed each morning.