Whether you’re completing a college application or you’re already a university student yourself, odds are good you’ll have to write a paper about your own life experiences at some point. If you already don’t know how to write a college essay, a personal essay assignment can be especially daunting. It’s difficult to draft an effective and honest academic piece about your own life.
That’s why it’s important to keep certain essential tips in mind. Not everyone is comfortable expressing their thoughts in written language. Unfortunately, virtually all college students will have to submit some form of a personal statement during their schooling. This guide will help make the process easier.
Preparing for a Personal College Essay
Depending on your course of study, your personal essay assignment will have its own unique set of requirements. The expectations for kids submitting apps to their school of choice are different from the expectations for someone working on a dissertation. The following tips and techniques don’t apply to any one particular assignment, but rather apply in a more general sense to all students tasked with writing about their own lives and experience. Keep them in mind when you first prepare to write your essay.
To submit perfect work, remember these essential points:
Take some time to generate a list of different topics you feel comfortable writing about. Although there is no one template that works for all personal essays, you want to avoid being too generic and predictable. It’s highly likely that your professors have encountered a lot of the same ideas numerous times in student papers. Try to stray away from common topics that university instructors have probably read about several times in the past. The best personal statement, admissions letter, or personal essay is often the one that stands out from the crowd. Generate a long list of ideas and compare and contrast each one to determine which you feel confident writing on. However, if your instructor offers specific prompts to respond to, stick to one of those topics.
Outline Your Work
Even though you’re writing on a personal topic, it’s still necessary to organize your thoughts in a logical manner. Don’t start your essay until you’ve created an outline. Ask yourself questions about what major points you’re trying to make, decide which paragraph each point belongs in, and decide on the overall structure of your composition, including the introduction, body, and conclusion before you actually begin to write it. In order to remain focused on your topic, you may even want to decide on a title as well.
Composition instructors often encourage students to read examples of strong essays to help them get a better sense of what elements go into a strong paper. Ask your professor if they can share an example of a successful essay from a previous student. If not, do some online research to find a cheap writing service you can buy a custom sample from. Read reviews of the company to ensure you’re working with someone worth your money. Avoid those which offer free assistance, as the quality is likely very low. With help from these kinds of services, you’ll realize how simple writing an effective personal essay actually is. You just need to see what another writer did right, then model your work off of it.
Writing Your Personal Statements
Once you’ve thoroughly prepared, you can write your first draft. Use this as an opportunity to get your general thoughts down on the page. There’ll be an opportunity to revise later.
While you’re writing, remember these points:
Make It Relevant
When writing a personal essay or autobiography paper, you shouldn’t merely describe an event or person who had a major impact on you. The point with this type of assignment is often to explain how you’ve developed as an individual. Even a reasonably good paper won’t be great if it doesn’t give the reader a sense of why you felt this particular subject was worth writing about. Don’t simply say, “My task is to write about myself.” Draft a paper that explains “this is what this event or experience meant to me.” Whether you’re writing about an important period in your life, a time when you worked towards a goal or a significant relationship, you should always convey to your reader the reason it had such an effect on you. This is especially important when applying for a scholarship—you want to truly express who you are.
Honesty is key to a strong personal essay. This is as true for English and creative writing students as it is for business majors. While you may be tempted to make yourself look good, if you’re not being completely open, the paper won’t ring true. Although writing about yourself in an honest way can be difficult, there are simply no other ways to make the essay live up to its full potential.
Odds are good your paper will not be perfect the first time around. If you’re not confident in your writing skills, ask a friend or teacher to look it over. They’ll identify grammatical issues, formatting problems, and anything else you may need to address to improve it.
Check whether your paper have the most important points that every personal admission essay should have.
During your second draft of the app, don’t just focus on fixing practical issues regarding spelling and syntax errors. Although it is important to make these changes, you also need to make sure you’ve taken your potentially disorganized thoughts from the first draft and have changed them into something more coherent and precise. Better check your draft for five times to make sure it is perfect. Again, your teacher can help you with this step if necessary.
One last thing you should make sure to do: begin the work right away. If you don’t have strong writing skills, you don’t want to leave yourself with a short amount of time to complete what may be a somewhat difficult assignment. Again, these tips will absolutely help simplify the process, but that doesn’t mean they’re a substitute for hard work. Whether you’re writing a personal statement or an argumentative essay, there are numerous steps involved, including generating ideas, conducting initial research outlining the format, writing the first draft, and revising it. Give yourself enough time to get it all done. If you do end up struggling, you’ll be happier that you have the time to get help from a friend or online writing service, and you’ll be much more likely to earn a high grade on your work.