Personal Essay (3-4 pages, or 650-800 words)   Use the terms “Knowledge, Experience, & Familiarity” that tells a story about you, or builds a worldview of something you know to be true. If there are 7.6 billion people on the earth, what is it that makes you, you? What does it mean to have had the experiences you’ve had, to have been raised and live the way you have?  This story can be anything: smart, funny, sad, ironic, beautiful, or normal/ everyday. The point is that it share something about you, and how you move in the world.  Structure: Three Parts  First Part: Set a Scene Place your readers in a situation going on. Describe the setting (remembering the 5 senses), show the characters interacting (dialogue, motion or action, description). Get us to some point of conflict - what’s at stake? (Self vs. nature, self vs. other, self vs. self)  Second Part: Develop the Situation Now that readers see what’s going on, explain some context. Why are things the way they are? How did they get this way? What do different people want? Why is this situation so important to you, or how will it affect you?   Third Part: Resolution and Reflection Bring the situation to a close. Let readers know what happened - how did this one memory end, and how did it affect you then? How does it affect you now? Do you see things differently? Do some naming of larger concepts, or themes, of issues here. How does this story relate to a larger audience?  Elements to use: 

- In the opening, have one item, image, or element in the environment. Come back to this at the end. 

- Use your own voice: let things sound how they would if you were talking about them - Delve deep. Be specific. Use detail. Think critically.l