Make Your Personal Essay Stand Out

One of the most irritating assignments an English teacher or other professor can give is to write a personal essay. The problem is that they never, ever define what they want and the student is left wondering what on earth to write about.

The truth is that once you learn how to write a personal essay, no assignment given is likely to be easier. After all, your writing about yourself. You can't get that wrong, can you? This is the chance to write what you think and why you think it. The key to doing it right is to use solid examples of why you think the way you do.

Choose a topic

The first step in writing a personal essay is to choose a topic. This may be something the teacher does for you in the instructions. She may want you to write about your abilities as a student or how much you love history. She may also simply let you pick a topic. These are both harder and easier. When the professor let's you pick a topic for your personal essay, the key to choosing a topic is to pick something you are interested in.

Like football? Glee? Lady Gaga? Then start with that as a topic. Almost all of our personal interests have some form of controversy about them. Football players can write about violence in the sport or how it can be used for team building. For a television show, write about whether the portrayals of character in Glee are similar to your own high school experience.

One of the easy ways to narrow your topic is to make a list of things that interest you and then net to them, write down what other people have said about that topic. Chances are, you now have a topic.

Find great examples

After you figure out the topic, pick a side to argue. Argue that football is too dangerous for high school students or that Glee unfairly depicts jocks in high school. Then, use examples from your own life to prove your point. This is where the fact that it is a personal essay makes the assignment easier. Instead of looking up statistics on how being part of the football team positively affects students, you can write about your own experience on the team Offer specific examples of how being part of the team made your life better.

Add an introduction and conclusion

After you've written your argument about the topic and provided specific examples about why your right, the final step to complete your personal essay is to add an introduction and conclusion. The introduction should tell your reader what the essay is about and make them want to keep reading it. The conclusion sums up the argument you've made and reminds the reader why you're right.

With these easy steps, writing a personal essay may suddenly become your favorite activity.