By Dr. Maricon C.

Viduya
According to Barbara Lounsberry and Gay Talese
1. lives (diaries, memoirs, autobiographies,
biographies, profiles)
2. events (histories, journalism)
3. places (travel writing, nature writing, science
writing)
4. ideas (essays, including religious and
philosophical works)
 PERSONAL ESSAY MEMOIR

can be about almost anything tends to discuss past events

can be a relatively light reflection about tends to focus more on striking or life-
what’s going on in your life right now changing events
the personal essay explores, free from interprets, analyzes, and seeks the
any need to interpret deeper meaning beneath the surface
experience of particular events
What’s my idea or opinion about a life Why was this event of particular
experience e.g. why I believe in angels, significance?
why I fast What did it mean?
Shorter than a memoir Longer than a personal essay
Can be narrative or non narrative (it Usually but not necessarily narrative
can tell a story in a traditional way or in
an improvised way)
A personal narrative essay is about a personal experience,
so it is usually written in the first person.
To maximize its impact, the essay should:
 Be written to have an emotional impact on the reader
 Include a lot of references to sensory perceptions and
emotions
 Use vivid details and imagery
 STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY
 The opening of the essay needs to let the reader know the essence
of what you will be describing and your point of view.
 The body of the story needs to give the reader a very clear idea of
what happened and how you (the author) feel about that. The story
can be told chronologically or the facts may be grouped by
importance or type.
 The final paragraph needs to wrap up and state the point of the
story, whether it is a lesson, an idea, or just a learning experience.
Writing a good narrative essay requires you to include interesting
information in an engaging way.
 Record yourself telling the story. That will help your organize your
story and make the writing flow.
 Include anecdotes and dialogue in the essay.
 Use transitory words to connect sentences like: therefore, however, or
for example.
 Vary the structure of your sentences to make the writing more
interesting. Try adding some compound, complex, or interrogative
sentences.
 Make the words lively, descriptive, exciting, active, emotional, and
precise.
Here is an example of writing used in a personal narrative essay. Notice the tone and words that set the
mood. You can almost feel the heat and humidity.

 “It was the middle of springtime and across from my

house where the incident took place. There was a lake
there in which my brother and I loved to explore from
time to time. The humidity and water drops were
reminiscent of a fully functional sauna. The onslaught of
heat and burning glow of the sun was relentless.”
Read more at http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules-and-tips/tips-for-writing-a-personal-
narrative-essay.html#w2zzAj6GBhJFVtfi.99
Focus
 One specific topic, explored through one’s own personal experience
Organization
 The essay should have some kind of coherent organization
 No matter how you choose to organize, make sure that your paragraphs and ideas
flow from one to the next, connected by a common theme
Form
 There is no form, no formula, no tried and true method that you use to be effective.
 Choose a form and style that suits you and is fitting from the experience that you
are describing.
Diction/Language
 Use language to enhance what you are writing about and not just a means to say it
 Be creative
 Use appropriate linguistic play to explore your topic and your own relation to it in
new and complex ways

Choosing a topic
 Choose a significant event in your life
 This can be about almost anything, but something about it should matter to you.
Questions before writing
 What can writing about this experience teach others?
 What can you learn from revisiting the memory?

In writing a personal essay, the importance of the word “personal” is not to be

undervalued. Whatever you choose to write about must be important to you, hinge
around your experience, and have some impact on you.
Voice
 Sad? Happy? Serious?
 Is your voice consistent throughout the piece?
 Does it reflect the tone of the piece?

Showing vs. Telling

 A personal does not necessarily need scenes but it does need a well formed focus
or point and imagery can help establish that.
Character development
 If the personal essay has characters, make sure they are developed clearly and that
the relationship between characters are developed.
 Create dialogues between characters
 Describe the characters through details
 a type of personal essay that combines both prose and
poetry.
 often crafted like a prose poem.
 not organized as a narrative
 not organized in chronological order
 the writer creates a series of fragmented images using
poetic language, such as alliteration, assonance, internal
rhyme, and rhythm.
1. The writer crafts sentences that have rhythm, like a prose poem. Paces and stressed
syllables determine rhythm. Iambic pentameter is the most common type of rhythm. It is
based on a pattern of five iambic feet. Yet, writers often just count the number of stressed
syllables in a line to determine the rhythmic structure of their prose. A short sentence
speeds up the pace. A long sentence slows down the pace.

2. The writer creates lyrical prose that sound musical by using alliteration, assonance, and
internal rhyme.

3. The writer constructs the essay with fragments of detail. Each fragment is separated by
white space, asterisk, title, or number.

4. The essay is often inclusive. Instead the writer focuses on evoking emotion in the
reader, and the reader must draw his or her own conclusion.
 Poetic language. The writer relies on alliteration and
assonance and internal rhyme. Sometimes the writer will
create fragments of prose poetry.
 Figurative language. The writer make comparisons with
metaphor and simile.
 Imagery. The writer creates images of people, places,
things, objects, ideas with sensory details, prose that
appeal to the writer’s sense of sight, smell, taste, touch,
and hearing.
 Connotation. The writer expresses meaning through connotation, not explicit
expression of the details.
 Questions. The writer poses questions to the reader who must answer them.
 Juxtaposition. The writer often juxtaposes different fragments of detail, which
have implied meaning.
 Association. The writer expresses meaning through association of different
things by using simile and metaphor.
 Prose and poetry. The writer crafts sentences in prose using poetic language
and rhythm.
 Reference. The lyrical essay often mentions something without
elaborating.
 Rhythm. The writer creates emotion by using rhythmic prose.
 Fragmented. White space or an asterisk or subtitles or epigraph
are used by the writer to separate each sections of the essay.
 Intimate POV. The writer often write in the first person POV (I) and
shares intimate details, such as emotional truth. It answers the
question: Who does it feel?
 Inconclusive ending. The lyrical essay often ends without
answering the questions posed in the essay.
1. Tone. A friendly and conversational tone.
2. Word choice. Fresh and original, short rather than long,
familiar instead of unfamiliar words.
3. Lyrical language. Use of alliteration and assonance
and rhythm.
4. Sentence variety. Use of a variety of sentence patterns,
such as the balanced sentence, the cumulative sentence,
and the periodic sentence.
5. Intimate POV. Use of first person POV (I) and sharing of
personal thoughts and feelings and reflections.