Helpful Tips for Creating an Excellent Personal Essay

Helpful Tips for Creating an Excellent Personal Essay

The first thing that can help you to create a pretty good personal essay is not to consider that essay as an assignment. You should find it as an opportunity to show your personal point of view on a particular question, describe your feelings and use your creativity.

Following that approach you won’t be pressed with obstacles. Now let’s take a look at some points that can show in which direction you should move.

1. Catch the moments of inspiration and fix your ideas. Writing a worthy text is not a mechanical work when you just sit and write. On the contrary, it requires some period of time, as the best ideas may appear suddenly or ripen gradually. You can go through the list of ideas you already have (of course, if it exists) or create if from scratch. Write down everything that comes to your mind during the day, even if it doesn’t sound good. In the evening you will have enough ideas to choose from, at least 2-3. There are no bad ideas for the essay, someone can even write about pizza, as Carolina Williams did, moreover, that essay helped her to be accepted to and after that be accepted to Yale University.

2. Build Your Essay Properly. Any amazing essay consists at least of three compulsory parts – an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Undoubtedly, you can complicate the structure, but remember about correlation between these parts. For example, one paragraph is a sufficient size for the introduction and the conclusion. In the introduction you should spark the interest of readers. The body is the biggest; it can include three, four or more paragraphs, in which you develop the topic. Traditionally the paragraph covers one idea and its structure is similar to the structure of the whole essay. Every paragraph should be logically connected with the previous and the next one. In the conclusion you summarize the points you shared previously and declare the final word.

3. Use Powerful Language. In the essay you share your own experience, and various means of language can support you in this. Don’t be afraid of saying I and showing your voice. For this you should use not only grammar (first of all, active voice), but also your vocabulary. Find words that sound the most naturally and can be used in the best possible way to express your emotions and feelings.

4. Work on Your Descriptions. The most important point for writing the personal essay is to be able to present and illustrate your opinion on some particular question. It may be done by means of detailed descriptions. Let readers be on your place and in your skin. Describe your senses in this or that situation, e.g. when you are happy, disappointed or frightened. If you are not sure how to do it, I recommend you to take a closer look at books of great writers. Reading you can both understand what descriptions you like and find out your own style.

5. Carefully Edit the Text. This step plays a crucial role and can’t avoid it in any case. After long hours of writing it’s better to wait a little bit and reread the essay with a fresh eye.  Leave the written essay at least for several hours and only after that start editing.