Personal Essay Tips
Compliments of
A personal essay done well will reverberate with truth and at least one life lesson. What will yours tell us about you or your subject, and the insight gained or question asked?
Personal essays are a very subjective form of writing, it’s true. However, one important ingredient in a personal essay is often obscured or completely overlooked. Your opinion. An essay is not synonymous with “story.” Regardless of whether it is a personal, literary, or academic essay, by definition an essay must contain an opinion.
Therefore, we offer the following guidelines to assist in your quest for top honors in the 2007 personal essay competition of Women Writers of the Desert:
v Introduction - Identify the subject and/or premise.
v Body – Tell your story using fact, imagination, wit, expression - whatever it takes to help the reader understand the angst, joy, or compassion of your incident, event, viewpoint, attitude that is indicative of the essay topic.
v Ending – Riddle: When does a story have an ending that is not the end? When it’s an essay! This is where your opinion comes into play. Don’t think the story’s “end” is the end of your essay. Wrap it up with your judgment, evaluation, interpretation, or other opinion of the situation.
By following these basic guidelines your dynamite essay could be a winner in a Women Writers Worldwide personal essay contest (or any other!)
Good luck!
LinDee Rochelle
Founder, Women Writers Worldwide
Copyright 2008, Penchant for Penning for
Women Writers Worldwide
info@womenwritersworldwide.com
Write first for yourself … only then can you writer for others
