The trick to writing a successful personal essay about yourself is to offer something to the reader.
Writing an essay about yourself seems like it would be easy. After all, you know the subject. The hazard is that talking about yourself can be boring. The trick to writing a successful personal essay about yourself is to offer something to the reader--a lesson, a bit of information, even just the pleasure of understanding something about another person. This "take away" is what will help you structure and write your essay in a way that will make it engaging and valuable for your reader.
Instructions
Outline
1. Determine what you want a reader to take away from reading this essay, such as a serious life lesson or a funny anecdote. Write your goal at the top of the page. Keep it short and simple.
2. List the points you want to make, facts you want to include, quotations, short anecdotes, details and so on.
3. Arrange the points and supporting material in a logical order.
4. Examine your material. If something doesn't support the goal you wrote at the top of the page, delete it.
5. Write a thesis statement; explain in one sentence the point of your essay as you would tell the reader.
Write the Essay
6. Follow your outline and write the body of your essay. Start with the second paragraph if you are not sure how you want to introduce the essay.
7. Write an introduction. Some tried-and-true introductions include brief anecdotes, a description of a scene, a pithy statement or a general observation.
8. Write a conclusion. Your essay might lend itself naturally to "book-ending" (referring to the introduction in the conclusion), but you don't need to restate your case. If you end your essay in a much different place than where you started, an image or a summarizing sentence or two might work best.
Finishing Touches
9. Read over your essay and make sure it tells the story you set out to tell and accomplishes your goal. If anything seems out of place or meandering, delete or rewrite it.
10. Read your essay out loud to help with the flow of your language and identify any awkward spots.
11. Proofread for basic spelling, punctuation, missing words, capitalization and any other mechanics.
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