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- The first step in writing a personal essay is to identify your core
beliefs and values
- What are your core beliefs and values that guide you in your daily
life?
- How are those demonstrated?
- From these beliefs your should get a topic
- If you’re not sure where to start or about a topic for your essay, look
at the prompts on the following page
- They might provide some guidance and inspiration
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- Once you have a topic/focus belief that you can clearly articulate,
you’re ready to write a “hook”
- Your intro, lead, or hook is one of the most important parts of the
essay
- Review the different “hook” starts on the next slide.
- Write a hook for each of these different styles
- Choose the best one and develop it
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- Question:
- “When was the last time you went without a meal?”
- Quotation: (from someone famous or from someone significant in your
life)
- “Be careful were the last words my father said to me each time I left
the house.”
- Strong statement (that your essay will either support or dispute)
- “If you eat enough cabbage, you’ll never get cancer.”
- Metaphor:
- “The starlings in my back garden are the small boys in the playground,
impressing each other with their new-found swear words. The crows all
belong to the same biker gang.
You need to know their secret sign to join their club.”
- Description (of a person or setting):
- “Michael once mowed the lawns around Municipal Hall wearing a frilly
apron, high heels, and nylons, with a pillow stuffed under his sweater
so he looked pregnant. And it wasn’t even Halloween.”
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- Tell a story:
- Be specific.
- Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your
life.
- Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of
your own experience, work, and family, and tell of the things you know
that no one else does.
- Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching—it can even be
funny—but it should be real.
- Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy
and the shaping of your beliefs.
- Be brief:
- Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words.
- That's about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace.
- Name your belief:
- If you can't name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be
about belief.
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- Be positive:
- Please avoid preaching or editorializing.
- Tell us what you do believe, not what you don't believe.
- Avoid speaking in the editorial "we."
- Make your essay about you; speak in the first person.
- Be personal:
- Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak.
- We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and
each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone, and
story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.
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- Be sure your essay is about something you care strongly enough about to
elaborate and wax eloquent or passionate about it.
- Readers want to know what you know, feel what you feel, and understand
exactly where you’re coming from.
- While the idea for the essay must be personal, make the frame big enough
to allow your reader to find parallels between your experience and
theirs.
- Give readers the opportunity to say, “Ah! Yes, I’ve never been there or
done that, but I can relate to what the author is talking about.”
- Even if readers have not been on a mission trip to Africa, the
effective writer must draw in an audience to show a more universal
implication of a very personal experience or belief.
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- If you are writing about a small personal occurrence, put your idea in a
context that gives the reader insight to both the small moment and the
wider perspective.
- Think of your essay as a camera lens.
- You might start by describing a fine detail (a specific moment in the
narrative), then opens up the lens to take in the wide view (the
general/global backdrop), then close the piece by narrowing back to the
fine detail.
- Use details to draw the reader in.
- Be specific and avoid using abstract expressions and phrases such as
“the best day of my life” or “I’d never known greater grief” to
describe emotions of love or loss.
- Make the emotions real and immediate by noting specifics and details
that draw the reader into your experience.
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- Employ all the senses to convey your ideas to the reader:
- sight, sound, taste, touch, and hearing.
- Make sure that beyond all the idea development, your readers can
summarize the MAIN IDEA that you BELIEVE.
- You should not have to hit the readers over the head with a summary
statement such as “What I am trying to say…” or “What I really mean
is…”
- In fact, such a closing is almost insulting or an indication that you
fear you have danced around the belief without making it crystal clear.
- You must aim to leave the readers clear and satisfied—whether they
agree with what you believe or not. Sometimes a brief echo of the
opening is the most satisfying clincher to bring a personal essay full
circle.
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Notes
