Writing Personal Essays

Narration

Narration means the telling of an event in time or a sequence of events that exist in time. (Usually in chronological order)

Event- something that happens involving specific people, specific setting ; an event occurs only once

Narration may be fiction or nonfiction.

Physical Description

Description uses the five senses.

Description may be objective or subjective. The difference lies in the language (adjectives, adverbs, phrases, etc.) used to modify. Objective description provides information without emotion or bias.

Subjective description provides information with emotion or bias.

Description may also be figurative, meaning that you compare the object you’re describing to something. Most often figurative language consists of simile or metaphor. Example: The tree was like a green umbrella protecting me from the sun.

Other important terms

Personal experience- something that happened to you

Reflection- making meaning of past experience (something learned, a final assessment of past experience, etc.)

Thesis- In a personal essay, you may have a sentence that states the main idea or point.

Dominant impression- In a personal essay, you will always have a dominant impression. A dominant impression is similar to a thesis in being a main idea, but a dominant impression doesn’t have to appear word-for-word on the page.

Point of view- In the broadest sense, point of view may be first-person, second-person, or third-person; For personal essays, first-person is most often used.

Some minor terms

Flashback- A flashback is a shift backwards in time; a flashback occurs in scene, not in narrative summary

Scene- A scene involves specific place, a specific setting, a specific point in time and includes dialogue between/among characters

Narrative summary- Narrative summary may contain reflection, general commentary, or a synopsis of events; It lacks dialogue.

Verisimilitude- the appearance of reality or truth

The weight of a personal essay

By weight, I mean the importance or significance of your essay. You must establish this weight.

Provide some context. This context may be another aspect of your life/your personal experience or it may be from outside.

Provide a link to universal situations and struggles.

The structure of a personal essay

There are three approaches:

Bookending- You begin and end with reflection. The middle is all narration.

Chronological narration- You begin with narration and maintain narration in chronological order until the end where you include reflection.

Alternating- You alternate between narration and reflection, providing a bit of narration, then a bit of reflection, and so on.

As you move through your essay, make sure that your timeline is always clear. Establish how old you are and were, how long ago an event occurred, and if you’re including more than one event, let readers know how much time passes in between.

Structure: Introductions and Conclusions

Your introduction may be either reflective or narrative. Yes, you want it to “hook” your reader. If your introduction is reflective, clearly and specifically pinpoint the weight of your

personal story in the intro. Vagueness will NOT hook a reader. Also, establish basic information, such as how old you are, how long ago this event took place, etc.

If your intro. is narrative, make sure that the point at which you enter the story is an interesting one. Also, don’t make readers wait too long to get basic information.

Your conclusion should not repeat your introduction. Instead, your conclusion should Establish and emphasize how your personal experience links up with the universal

You may also choose to end on a more creative note, either going back to an as of yet untold part of the story OR to a bit of description that stands out.

Also…

Don’t forget to proofread for grammatical errors.

Also, proofread for dialogue formatting.

Check your use of MLA style.

Remember to submit a printed copy AND to submit to/upload to Turnitin.com.

Suggestions for a Portrait Essay

Don’t neglect to describe the central person! This may include basic description of his/her appearance, voice, smell, body language.

Try to include dialogue and interactions between you and the central person.

Don’t just focus on what is good or great about this person. Allow the humanity to shine through (and no human is perfect!). This applies to you, too.

If possible, it might be helpful to interview this person to make sure that you’ve got his/her story right. An interview might also give you more information and/or stories to work with.

*If you are writing about someone who died before you were born or who died when you were very young, you can and should get more information and stories from those who did know this central person.

Suggestions for a Travel Essay

Don’t neglect to zoom in and describe the new places and landscapes very well.

Don’t neglect to describe people in the new place or landscape.

You also want to try to attach emotion to each instance of physical description. Ultimately, you want to tell us how this new place or landscape changed you.

Be careful about including too much about this new place. Select the aspects that you want to stand out for the reader.

If you feel like you don’t have enough to say about the new place or landscape, compare it to another place or landscape

do some lightweight research into its history. There might be something very relevant that you could include.