A personal essay is a short piece that demonstrates the author’s point through a story told from a first-person perspective and based on the author’s authentic experiences. It can be an uplifting tale of success or revelation designed to inspire. Yet it can also be an account of failure meant to warn others against repeating the same mistakes. The tone of the personal essay is semi-formal and conversational. The main objective is to establish a connection with the reader and leave them with some insight.
A personal essay is a flexible format that exists in various incarnations: from a formal autobiography to creative nonfiction. It can also cover different subject matters: a story of a triumph over adversity, a moral turning point, finding your way into a profession, or a formative relationship with a significant person. The particular focus is chosen based on the purpose.
In this post, we will examine the three most popular personal essay situations. You will learn:
- how to write a personal essay about yourself for a school admission
- how to write a personal essay for scholarships and grant applications
- how to write a good personal essay for publications, such as blogs, op-eds, etc.
How to Write a Personal Essay for College Application
Many students face the need to create a personal essay for the first time when preparing their college application. This adds anxiety and high-stakes pressure to the already awkward situation of writing about yourself for strangers. However, millions of students write their application essays every year, and there is absolutely no need to worry about it. Here is what admission officers and college admission advisors want you to remember when you are preparing to write a personal essay.
- Give it a thought, but don’t worry too much
A personal essay is an essential part of your application and a valuable tool to display some of your character traits that don’t make it into charts, scores, and reports. However, it’s not a “make it or break it” component of the application. Yes, it is the only piece of your application that is still in your control. Yet, on the other hand, the rest is already there: all the trophies, grades, and extracurriculars are done and recorded. All that is left is to add a personal touch to let the admission officer know the real you.
- Put yourself in the spotlight
Modesty is usually commendable, but don’t remove yourself from this text. Even if you choose a prompt asking you to tell about your role model or a person you admire, don’t spend the entire essay praising them or detailing their accomplishments. Focus on their influence on you. Tell what you learned from them and how their example influenced your decisions, your values, and your view of the world. The audience of this essay is genuinely interested in learning more about you, so don’t disappoint them.
- Don’t rely on “winning strategies”
Trying to emulate “essays that got me into an Ivy school” isn’t the best idea. If that particular essay worked for that specific application to that selective college doesn’t mean it will have the same effect in your unique situation. All students, schools, and admission officers are different and put value into different things. Don’t try to game the system and guess what your readers want to hear. Instead, focus on the things that are genuinely important to you.
- Fill the gaps in your application
The essay is your chance to add something new to your application. Don’t waste it recounting things that are already there: your academic achievements, athletic successes, extracurricular activities, etc. Focus on something admission officers cannot find in transcripts and test scores.
- Ask for advice
If you struggle to pinpoint your strongest traits or things that make you unique, ask people in your life for input: family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc. However, don’t go beyond sourcing ideas on writing or advice on improving your draft. Please don’t ask them to actually write for you. You wouldn’t ask your parents, “Do my coursework for me!” after being admitted, so why ask them to write your personal essay? Treat it like your first college assignment.
- Edit and proofread
One of the primary purposes of this essay, beyond letting the school representatives know what makes you tick, is to showcase your writing skills. Therefore, make some effort to ensure you put your best foot forward. Revise several times, spacing editing sessions out and letting your draft sit for several days or even weeks. Don’t forget to check out our free essays writer tools for planning, drafting, editing, proofreading, and making sure your text meets recommended word count.
However, don’t panic if you find an error after you submit your application. Most schools practice a holistic approach to student selection, so a single typo wouldn’t hurt your chances.
How to Write a Personal Essay for a Scholarship
A scholarship is a great way to fund college tuition, which young people tend to underestimate. They usually have their eyes on prestigious, highly competitive scholarships like Fulbright, Marshall, Rhodes, Goldwater, and Truman. This creates bias, and they think winning is unrealistic for someone who is not exceptionally gifted or already highly accomplished. However, what many students don’t realize is that you can cover tuition fees by consistently winning a number of smaller, more accessible scholarships.
Yes, it will take a lot of research and application. This means a lot (I do mean, A LOT) of writing since almost all legitimate scholarships require you to write a personal essay or answer specific questions to apply. The good news: practice makes perfect, and every subsequent essay will be easier for you than the previous one. Here are some things you should keep in mind.
- Don’t procrastinate
Sort all your prospective scholarships by the deadline date and start writing right now, giving yourself enough time for revision and editing. Create an application schedule and incorporate regular research, writing, and application submission into your calendar. Applying for scholarships can feel like a full-time job, and in a way, it is: you must show up regularly to keep the money coming.
- Highlight relevant accomplishments
This is the best, most objective way to answer the popular “Why do you deserve this scholarship?” type of prompt without bragging or overselling yourself. Lay out your professional or academic path to date using the most significant achievements as milestones. Keep it to the point, and don’t list all the trophies and diplomas – only the ones relevant to this scholarship. For example, if this is a scholarship for young leaders, concentrate on projects you’ve organized and roles you’ve filled that fit the description of “leadership.”
- State your need
You might be deserving, but that’s just one component of the winning combination. Another one is need. Describe your financial situation: do you work? receive financial aid? support a family as a provider? etc.
- Highlight the impact
Now, go beyond finances. Tell how this scholarship will help you achieve your educational objectives and career goals. What you, as a scholar and professional, will be able to contribute to the field, community, the world? How will this scholarship empower you to give back? Demonstrate to the granting institution that they are making a difference by investing in your education.
- Keep it short
Write in simple and clear language. Stay on point and within the limits of the recommended word count. Don’t overcomplicate your style to make an impression or “fill the page.” Concentrate on your message, values, and the things that drive you.
- End positively and politely
The best way to wrap your personal essay up is to tell how your education so far has been changing your life and thank the committee for their time and the opportunity to apply.
- Check readability
Make sure your essay is accessible to the reader: written in complete sentences, logically structured, and flowing naturally. Ask someone to read your text for clarity or use an automated readability checker.
- Proofread
When you are happy with the content, tone, and delivery, spellcheck and edit your essay for grammar and punctuation before the submission.
Despite the scholarship essay being more formal, with a rigid structure and several necessary points to hit, it still has a place for your personality: your hopes, dreams, struggles, and unique tone of voice. After reading your essay, decision-makers should feel they know you personally.
How to Write a Good Personal Essay for Other Occasions
A good personal essay has a profound impact on readers. It can inspire, comfort, affirm, move, unsettle, stir, make someone doubt their assumptions, and question their values. It can argue crucial moral and political things through a personal story. It brings a human dimension into the argument and convinces readers by leveraging empathy and relatable real-life examples. Personal essays can spark important discussions and start big cultural, social, and political changes, just as a small stream starts a roaring river.
To create something as compelling and poignant, you will have to devote a fair amount of time to the pre-writing phase and later to revision and editing. Here are some tips on how to write a personal experience essay for various occasions.
- Find a story and a slant
Tell about something that is very important to you: something you hold dear or something that infuriates you. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic story or extraordinary event, but it must illustrate your point and help your readers relate. It can be a current event or a personal situation from your past that triggered an emotional response. For example, you can tell how you struggled to find a perfect prom dress to demonstrate how fashion caters to a very limited size and body type, putting pressure on consumers to conform and shape themselves to fit – not the other way around.
- Find a tone
Different stories benefit from different tones of voice. Some messages come across better if they are very sincere. Others might need a bit of humor and light-heartedness. Then again, others require scathing sarcasm and scrutiny. Make sure that your story and the tone you choose to tell it match and don’t clash: don’t trivialize serious matters, but don’t over-dramatize something mundane.
- Find a focus
What differentiates a great personal essay from an aimless memoir-style rambling is the focus. Find a focal point for your story: an object, a phrase, a feeling, or a metaphor to tie it all together and serve as a tangible symbol to represent the main idea. It can be anything: a coveted designer item, a physical response of nausea to potent triggers, a hurtful comment that still rings in your ears, a smell of your grandmother’s cooking that feels like home, etc.
- Use structure creatively
The structure of a story is a rhetorical device too. Leverage it as expressive means to elicit the emotional response you need. Open your essay with an engaging scene, dropping your readers right in the thick of it. Alternatively, prepare them with an exposition. Ask a rhetorical question or kick things off with an inventive hook. Likewise, for the rest of the story, you can create suspense and keep the intrigue until last or show your hand at the very beginning to manage expectations. You don’t have to follow a linear plot, but you don’t have to innovatively break it, either. See what works best for your story and your message.
- Make your essay real with detail
Use sensory and physical detail to describe your characters, places, and objects to give them dimension. Use all five senses and follow the “show, don’t tell” rule for a more impactful and memorable essay. You don’t have to spend paragraph after paragraph describing someone to make them real for your reader. Choose a defining trait or a vivid detail. For example, an inappropriately loud voice or strong perfume can stand in to highlight someone’s obnoxious, inconsiderate personality. Soft hands or kind eyes can be singled out to describe someone caring and gentle, etc.
- Read your essay out loud
For a revision session, read your essay out loud to yourself or a friend. This way, it will be easier to identify confusing or unclear sentences, passages that are too long or monotonous, pick up on repetitive expressions, etc. Inconsistencies, abrupt theme changes, dragging pace, etc., also become more apparent when you read aloud.
This type of personal essay crosses over into a literary domain, and it might be tempting to embellish the truth. However, stick to reality if you want it to be an essay, not a short fiction feature. You can convey your side of the story and your personal perspective, but you must never manipulate or invent facts and twist someone else’s words so they would better fit your artistic vision.
For all types of personal essays, reading someone else’s work can be insightful. It will give you a better sense of the genre and any particular means a writer can use to introduce the subject, convey personal perspective, connect their experience to a universal idea, use humor, etc. Read personal essays in our free library and enrich your writer toolkit now!
