Personal Experience Essay
  • Prewriting

    • Prewriting

    Understand the assignment

    What is a personal experience essasy? The purpose of this personal experience essay is to narrate and describe about an experience you had. You will also need to share your opinion about the topic as part of the conclusion.

    Prompts

    • Describe a difficult experience you had. Why was the experience difficult? What did you learn? Talk about two ways this experience shaped you.
    • What is an important childhood memory for you? Give two ways that it has influenced your life.
    • Talk about an interest you are passionate about. How did you become interested in it? What are two ways you continue to develop this interest?
    • Think about a time when an experience changed the way you think about something or someone. What happened? How has this impacted you today?
    • Who has had a strong influence on your life? Describe two ways your life has changed because of this person?
    • Write about a skill or personal characteristic that you have developed. Why did you want to change? How will you use this skill or trait in the future? 

    Brainstorm to find a topic

    Think the question and the different options of things you could write about. When you make your list, make sure that the options are not too general. Be as specific in identifying an experience as you can. You will write a 4-paragraph essay, so you need to have a topic that you can say a lot about in a specific way.

    Example brainstorm

    • Difficult experience: high school math class, being team captain for my soccer team, leaving to serve a mission, broke my arm
    • Childhood memory: learning to read, first bicycle ride, brother was born, a vacation with my family to the beach
    • Interest/passion: fixing cars, making traditional food from my country, traveling to new countries, make up tutorials
    • Changed thinking: serving a mission, moving to a new country, becoming friends with someone with a disability, learning a new language
    • Influential person: my mom, a teacher from high school, my basketball coach, a political leader
    • Skill/trait: playing the piano, patience, leadership, computer coding

    Choose a focus

    If your topic can be described with a lot of different details, you may need to focus it even more. Do not choose a topic that is too broad or complicated for a short essay. 

    Example focus

    In some cases, you need to focus the narration. For example, one skill or trait might have multiple stories that you could share. It is best to choose one and describe the situation with a lot of detail.

    • Patience: too much fighting with my younger sister
    • Patience: practicing Japanese with my American friend

    Sometimes the narration is easy, but you need to narrow down the main ideas you want to explain about that experience. For example:

    • Influential basketball coach: taught me discipline and leadership
    • Influential basketball coach: taught me not to give up and to work as a team

    After choosing a topic for your paper, start outlining by thinking about how you can divide the topic into your story and your two main points.

    Examle beginning outline

    • Thesis: Broke my arm, difficult experience
    • Narration: Very painful, couldn't play in an important game, long recovery, had to change my plans
    • Main Idea 3: Learned perseverence
    • Main Idea 4: Learned to be flexible
    • Conclusion: learn valuable things from difficult experiences

    Outline your personal experience essay

    A personal experience essay needs the same pieces as any good paragraph or essay: an introduction, supporting ideas, and a conclusion. 

    Introduction

    Your essay will start with a thesis statement which is the direct answer to the question in the prompt.

    Example thesis statements

    • One skill that has been important for me to develop is computer coding.
    • My greatest passion is making delicious Brazilian food to share with my friends.
    • When I moved to Korea, my view of the world changed.
    • The person who has had the biggest impact on my life is my mother.

    The rest of the introduction will include your narration of the experience. You will include lots of details so the reader can make a picture in their mind of your situation. Remember to keep the ideas about that experience focused on what is important to the prompt.

    Example brainstorm for introduction (narration)

    Thesis: My greatest passion is making delicious Brazilian food to share with my friends.

    Narration Prompt Question: How did you become interested in it?

    • my mom's cooking
    • learned as a teenager
    • YouTube videos
    • tried lots of different foods at restaurants

    Body

    Each body paragraph will focus on one of your main points to answer the prompt question. The topic sentences for your body paragraphs should introduce the topic that you will describe in that paragraph.

    Example brainstorm for body paragraphs

    Thesis: My greatest passion is making delicious Brazilian food to share with my friends.

    Prompt major details question: What are two ways you continue to develop this interest?

    • Learn more
      • practice recipes for dinner with friends
      • ask mom for advice
    • Make my own changes
      • look for ingredients here in the US
      • experiment with new flavors

    Conclusion

    The conclusion for this personal experience essay should include a restated main idea (thesis) and should include your opinion about the questions in the prompt.

    Example: Essay Outline

    Thesis: My greatest passion is making delicious Brazilian food to share with my friends.

    Topic Sentence 1: Learn more

    • practice recipes for dinner with friends
    • ask mom for advice

    Topic Sentence 2: Make my own changes

    • look for ingredients here in the US
    • experiment with new flavors

    Restated Thesis: Cooking Brazilian food is a fun way to share my passion with my friends and family.

    Exercises

    Exercise 1: Think about some topics that interest you

    Choose one of the prompts.Take a few minutes to make a brainstorm list. Once you have your topic chosen, think about what story you can tell and what your two main points can be. 

    Exercise 2: Brainstorm to find a topic

    Spend about three minutes completing a brainstorm activity for each topic that you wrote.

    Make sure you support the answer to your prompt with two main points. This will help organize your thoughts and to find the topic that is easiest for you to develop

    Exercise 3: Make an outline

    Start your outline with your thesis sentence and your topic sentences. You can add the other details after your outline is approved by your teacher.

    Thesis:

    Story:

    Topic Sentence 1:

    Topic Sentence 2:

    Restated Thesis:

    This content is provided to you freely by BYU-I Books.

    Access it online or download it at https://books.byui.edu/foundations_c_writing/prewriting_personal_essay.