Lecture Essay writing & presentation skills - Lecture 17: Personal essay

Lecture
17

Personal Essay


Recap
•

What is Analysis Essay?

•

Purpose of Writing Analysis Essay

•

How to Write a Analysis Essay?

•

Well Written Analysis Essay

•

Steps for Writing a Analysis Essay

•

Topic Selection

•

Dos and Don’ts

•

Common Mistakes


“For more than four hundred years, the
personal essay has been one of the richest
and most vibrant of all literary forms.”
(The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip
Lopate.)


What is Personal Essay?
•

•

•

The personal essay is also one of the
most popular forms of creative non-fiction.
A personal essay can be based on a
personal experience that results in a
lesson that you learn.
A personal essay can also be a personal
opinion about a topic or issue that is

important to you. This article defines the
personal essay.


Definition of the Personal
Essay
•

A personal essay is either a personal
narrative in which the author writes about
a personal incident
or

•

experience that provided significant
personal meaning or a lesson learned, or it
is a personal opinion about some topic or
issue that is important to the writer.


Subjects for the Personal
Essay
•

Your subject can be about anything that
you are passionate about.
–

•

•

You can write about a “turning point” in your
life, or a milestone, or adversity, such as
death, illness, divorce.

The subject you choose must have
provided you with significant personal
meaning or a lesson that you have
learned.
But, keep in mind, you are not just


Subjects for the Personal
Essay
•

So, write about the following:
–

Personal experience

–

Incident

–

Anecdote

–

Topic

–

Issue

–

A memory


The Personal Essay as a Personal
Narrative
•

A personal narrative has the following
elements:
–

It is based on a personal experience in
which you have gained significant meaning,
insight, or learned a lesson. It can also be
based on a milestone or life-altering event.

–

It is personal narrative. The writer tells the

story by including dialogue, imagery,
characterization, conflict, plot, and setting.

–

It is written in the first person. (“I” point-of-


The Personal Essay as a Personal
Narrative
•

•

It is an autobiographical story in which
the writer describes an incident that
resulted in some personal growth or
development.
A personal essay is a glimpse of the
writer’s life. The writer describes the
personal experience using the scenebuilding technique, weaves a theme
throughout the narrative, and makes an
important point. There must be a lesson or


The Personal Essay as a Personal
Narrative
•

•

•

The writer uses self-disclosure and is
honest with his/her readers.
The writer writes about a real life
experience. The incident or experience
must have occurred. The writer must use
fact and truth.
The writer must dramatize the story by
using the scene building technique. A
scene includes setting/location, intimate
details, concrete and specific descriptions,


The Personal Essay as a
Personal Opinion
•

The author Bill Roorbach states that the
personal essay that is based on a
personal opinion has these
–

A personal essay is a conversation with your
readers.

–

The personal essay is an informed mixture

of storytelling, facts, wisdom, and
personality.

–

The personal essay examines a subject
outside of yourself, but through the lens of


The Personal Essay as a
Personal Opinion
•

•

The personal essay strives to say what is
evident, and to come to a conclusion that
the reader may agree or disagree.
A personal essay can wonder through its
subject, circle around it, get the long view
and
the
short,
always
providing
experience, knowledge, book learning,
and personal history.


How to Choose a Topic

Choose a topic you are interested in and
passionate about, and that resulted in a
lesson that you learned or personal
meaning. Here is how:
•

•

Your writing needs to be a process of
inquiry. So answer the 5-Ws: Who? What?
When? Where? Why?
Brainstorm your topic. Create a list of


How to Choose a Topic
•

•

•

Think of a milestone, or something
memorable, or a turning point in your life.
What were your impressions? What did
you learn? What meaning came from the
personal experience?
Be sure that your topic has a universal
theme—such as hard work, love, death,
bravery, wisdom.
Your goal is to make others laugh, learn,

hope, empathize, sympathize with what


Make the Most of Life
Experiences
•

•

•

Your goal is to make others laugh, learn,
hope, empathize, sympathize with what
you have written. Your readers must be
able to identify with what you have written.
If something happened to you that was
interesting, humorous, sad, and so forth,
you can write about it.
Write about personal experiences that
have taught you a lesson.


Resources for Writing
Personal Essays
•

There are some fantastic books available
to help you learn to write a personal essay.
Here are the books recommended:
–

Writing Life Stories: How to Make Memories
into Memoir, Ideas into Essays, and Life into
Literature by Bill Roorbach

–

Writing Creative Nonfiction, edited by Philip
Gerard

–

The Art of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind


Thinking about the Personal
Essay
•

As you read each essay, consider the
following (in your notebook):

•

Title/Author

•

The Essence –
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What’s the main story?

–

If you had to boil it down to a few sentences,
what would they be?

–

What aspects of life is the writer capturing?


Thinking about the Personal
Essay
•

Key Details –
–

How does the writer show as much as tell?

–

Which details and images stand out and make
the story vivid in your mind?

–

What helps make the piece “true” (in other

words, authentic and specific) to the writer
and his/her experiences?


Thinking about the Personal
Essay
•

•

Context –
–

What helps “place” the essential story in a
bigger picture?

–

What connections does the writer make
between related ideas and experiences?

Perspective –
–

What’s the value of “distance” for the piece?

–

Is there an acknowledgement of time having
passed?

Thinking about the Personal
Essay
•

Organization –
–
–

How does the writer develop his/her ideas?
What is the opening of the piece like?

–

Is there a central “story”?

–

How does the writer incorporate background
information?

–

Are there places where the writer diverges
from the central story?

–

How are shifts in place or time handled?

Thinking About the Personal
Essay
•

Language –
–

When is it used well to “showcase” ideas?

–

To establish the writer’s “voice”?

–

When is the writing powerful in its simplicity,
its complexity, or its unexpectedness?


Example

A Farewell to
Adolescence


Introduction Paragraph
One of the scariest things about being in
Leaving Cert is realizing that you are the

oldest pupils in the school. In the first couple
of days it gently hits you that the people who
once intimidated you so much are all gone.
Any intimidation that goes on now is probably
your esteemed self complaining (loudly) in the


1. Supporting Details
It is about now you realise that you’re beginning to grow up. Talking
about the ‘youth of today’ sets off alarm bells in your head because you’ve
started to distance yourself from this section of society. You no longer
include yourself in the category of ‘teenager’ or ‘adolescent’. Technically,
you’ll be a teenager until the end of your nineteenth year, but being as
mature and responsible as you are, you handily disregard this fact!
After the first couple of days in Leaving Cert, it not-so-gently whacks
you full-in-the-face that other people have also started to regard you as a
young adult. Teachers, parents, and adults in general expect you to think
and act more responsibly, as befits your new position in society. THAT’s
when you discover the role of young adult has as many drawbacks as


2. Supporting Details
The first problem encountered is that of choosing a career! Of course,
you’d always realised that EVENTUALLY you’d have to decide what to do with
the rest of your life. But never in your wildest dreams or worst nightmares did
you imagine just how difficult it would really be. The careers teacher bombards
you with information about points, open days, college prospectus’, CAO-CAS
forms, subject choices, apprentices and requirements. It vaguely registers
somewhere in the back of your mind that you’ve heard all this before (perhaps
in last years careers class???) but you weren’t really listening (at the time)

because it was just kind of boring and irrelevant. Right now it’s about as far
away from irrelevant as it can possibly be, and your head is in a whirl. Oh, to be
back in first year when everything was simple and all anyone seemed to talk
about was how wild and cheeky you were!