teaching personal essay writing

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Four Strategies for Effective Writing Instruction

(This is the first post in a two-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach writing?

Teaching and learning good writing can be a challenge to educators and students alike.

The topic is no stranger to this column—you can see many previous related posts at Writing Instruction .

But I don’t think any of us can get too much good instructional advice in this area.

Today, Jenny Vo, Michele Morgan, and Joy Hamm share wisdom gained from their teaching experience.

Before I turn over the column to them, though, I’d like to share my favorite tool(s).

Graphic organizers, including writing frames (which are basically more expansive sentence starters) and writing structures (which function more as guides and less as “fill-in-the-blanks”) are critical elements of my writing instruction.

You can see an example of how I incorporate them in my seven-week story-writing unit and in the adaptations I made in it for concurrent teaching.

You might also be interested in The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames For Students .

Now, to today’s guests:

‘Shared Writing’

Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has worked with English-learners during all of her 24 years in education and is currently an ESL ISST in Katy ISD in Katy, Texas. Jenny is the president-elect of TexTESOL IV and works to advocate for all ELs:

The single most effective instructional strategy that I have used to teach writing is shared writing. Shared writing is when the teacher and students write collaboratively. In shared writing, the teacher is the primary holder of the pen, even though the process is a collaborative one. The teacher serves as the scribe, while also questioning and prompting the students.

The students engage in discussions with the teacher and their peers on what should be included in the text. Shared writing can be done with the whole class or as a small-group activity.

There are two reasons why I love using shared writing. One, it is a great opportunity for the teacher to model the structures and functions of different types of writing while also weaving in lessons on spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

It is a perfect activity to do at the beginning of the unit for a new genre. Use shared writing to introduce the students to the purpose of the genre. Model the writing process from beginning to end, taking the students from idea generation to planning to drafting to revising to publishing. As you are writing, make sure you refrain from making errors, as you want your finished product to serve as a high-quality model for the students to refer back to as they write independently.

Another reason why I love using shared writing is that it connects the writing process with oral language. As the students co-construct the writing piece with the teacher, they are orally expressing their ideas and listening to the ideas of their classmates. It gives them the opportunity to practice rehearsing what they are going to say before it is written down on paper. Shared writing gives the teacher many opportunities to encourage their quieter or more reluctant students to engage in the discussion with the types of questions the teacher asks.

Writing well is a skill that is developed over time with much practice. Shared writing allows students to engage in the writing process while observing the construction of a high-quality sample. It is a very effective instructional strategy used to teach writing.

‘Four Square’

Michele Morgan has been writing IEPs and behavior plans to help students be more successful for 17 years. She is a national-board-certified teacher, Utah Teacher Fellow with Hope Street Group, and a special education elementary new-teacher specialist with the Granite school district. Follow her @MicheleTMorgan1:

For many students, writing is the most dreaded part of the school day. Writing involves many complex processes that students have to engage in before they produce a product—they must determine what they will write about, they must organize their thoughts into a logical sequence, and they must do the actual writing, whether on a computer or by hand. Still they are not done—they must edit their writing and revise mistakes. With all of that, it’s no wonder that students struggle with writing assignments.

In my years working with elementary special education students, I have found that writing is the most difficult subject to teach. Not only do my students struggle with the writing process, but they often have the added difficulties of not knowing how to spell words and not understanding how to use punctuation correctly. That is why the single most effective strategy I use when teaching writing is the Four Square graphic organizer.

The Four Square instructional strategy was developed in 1999 by Judith S. Gould and Evan Jay Gould. When I first started teaching, a colleague allowed me to borrow the Goulds’ book about using the Four Square method, and I have used it ever since. The Four Square is a graphic organizer that students can make themselves when given a blank sheet of paper. They fold it into four squares and draw a box in the middle of the page. The genius of this instructional strategy is that it can be used by any student, in any grade level, for any writing assignment. These are some of the ways I have used this strategy successfully with my students:

* Writing sentences: Students can write the topic for the sentence in the middle box, and in each square, they can draw pictures of details they want to add to their writing.

* Writing paragraphs: Students write the topic sentence in the middle box. They write a sentence containing a supporting detail in three of the squares and they write a concluding sentence in the last square.

* Writing short essays: Students write what information goes in the topic paragraph in the middle box, then list details to include in supporting paragraphs in the squares.

When I gave students writing assignments, the first thing I had them do was create a Four Square. We did this so often that it became automatic. After filling in the Four Square, they wrote rough drafts by copying their work off of the graphic organizer and into the correct format, either on lined paper or in a Word document. This worked for all of my special education students!

I was able to modify tasks using the Four Square so that all of my students could participate, regardless of their disabilities. Even if they did not know what to write about, they knew how to start the assignment (which is often the hardest part of getting it done!) and they grew to be more confident in their writing abilities.

In addition, when it was time to take the high-stakes state writing tests at the end of the year, this was a strategy my students could use to help them do well on the tests. I was able to give them a sheet of blank paper, and they knew what to do with it. I have used many different curriculum materials and programs to teach writing in the last 16 years, but the Four Square is the one strategy that I have used with every writing assignment, no matter the grade level, because it is so effective.

‘Swift Structures’

Joy Hamm has taught 11 years in a variety of English-language settings, ranging from kindergarten to adult learners. The last few years working with middle and high school Newcomers and completing her M.Ed in TESOL have fostered stronger advocacy in her district and beyond:

A majority of secondary content assessments include open-ended essay questions. Many students falter (not just ELs) because they are unaware of how to quickly organize their thoughts into a cohesive argument. In fact, the WIDA CAN DO Descriptors list level 5 writing proficiency as “organizing details logically and cohesively.” Thus, the most effective cross-curricular secondary writing strategy I use with my intermediate LTELs (long-term English-learners) is what I call “Swift Structures.” This term simply means reading a prompt across any content area and quickly jotting down an outline to organize a strong response.

To implement Swift Structures, begin by displaying a prompt and modeling how to swiftly create a bubble map or outline beginning with a thesis/opinion, then connecting the three main topics, which are each supported by at least three details. Emphasize this is NOT the time for complete sentences, just bulleted words or phrases.

Once the outline is completed, show your ELs how easy it is to plug in transitions, expand the bullets into detailed sentences, and add a brief introduction and conclusion. After modeling and guided practice, set a 5-10 minute timer and have students practice independently. Swift Structures is one of my weekly bell ringers, so students build confidence and skill over time. It is best to start with easy prompts where students have preformed opinions and knowledge in order to focus their attention on the thesis-topics-supporting-details outline, not struggling with the rigor of a content prompt.

Here is one easy prompt example: “Should students be allowed to use their cellphones in class?”

Swift Structure outline:

Thesis - Students should be allowed to use cellphones because (1) higher engagement (2) learning tools/apps (3) gain 21st-century skills

Topic 1. Cellphones create higher engagement in students...

Details A. interactive (Flipgrid, Kahoot)

B. less tempted by distractions

C. teaches responsibility

Topic 2. Furthermore,...access to learning tools...

A. Google Translate description

B. language practice (Duolingo)

C. content tutorials (Kahn Academy)

Topic 3. In addition,...practice 21st-century skills…

Details A. prep for workforce

B. access to information

C. time-management support

This bare-bones outline is like the frame of a house. Get the structure right, and it’s easier to fill in the interior decorating (style, grammar), roof (introduction) and driveway (conclusion). Without the frame, the roof and walls will fall apart, and the reader is left confused by circuitous rubble.

Once LTELs have mastered creating simple Swift Structures in less than 10 minutes, it is time to introduce complex questions similar to prompts found on content assessments or essays. Students need to gain assurance that they can quickly and logically explain and justify their opinions on multiple content essays without freezing under pressure.

Thanks to Jenny, Michele, and Joy for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

(14 reviews)

Melissa Tombro, The Fashion Institute of Technology

ISBN 13: 9781942341284

Publisher: Open SUNY

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Eleanor Binnings, Adjunct faculty, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 3/23/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

I find the book comprehensive for as Tombro points out in the Introduction: "We can combine writing intensive assignments with community engagement and analysis of positionality to create a holistic education model." Holistic education gives the student responsibility for their own learning, which is essential for strong writing skills. She notes that autoethnographic writing helps build community as students have the opportunity to read each other's points of view and build the concept of audience. Peer review is a major part of the process -- with always the question: "Who cares?" that gets students thinking more deeply about their stories. She offers prompts for assignments, discussions, and classroom activities. She provides several dozen student works that 1) let us see what's possible, and 2) provide examples for our students. Teaching Autoethnography is for instructors, not a textbook for students, and she provides the pedagogy of qualitative research and how autoethnography relates to phenomenological studies in addition to composition studies.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Tombro shows her own thorough research into autoethnography in the classroom and provides numerous sources and resources that we can further investigate. If any bias, that would be her own classroom experience.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

More relevant today than ever with the advance of AI writing! Autoethnographic writing eliminates plagiarism as well. Students must write from their own experiences and observations. This helps students develop their own voices. She provides her own experiences in the classroom and in her past, such as when she learned to interview effectively, an important feature for qualitative research.

Clarity rating: 5

As various sources are discussed, any jargon is clarified. Prose is lucid and accessible. She clearly explains her rules for peer review, provides methods, and explains how students benefit, not just as the receiver of peer review but as the reviewer. It would be quite easy to utilize her prompts.

Consistency rating: 5

Tombo remains consistent throughout the book. She discusses her sources and lays out the book so that instructors can easily follow her model.

Modularity rating: 5

Assignments and other prompts can easily be accessed and excerpted for class in any order and can be modified. Or we can utilize her format laid out for a 15-week course. Where self-reflection is involved, she furthers our understanding of the benefits of autoethnography.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Quite logical. We begin with a discussion of the topic complete with sources and moves toward incorporation in the classroom. We can utilize her week-by-week layout for a 15-week course with clear understanding of the process and goals.

Interface rating: 5

Easy to read. The prompts and peer review guidelines use a colored background to make them stand out. No charts or images included.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No errors detected.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is never culturally insensitive or offensive. Rather, the effort with autoethnography helps build cultural awareness. The student essays enhance student backgrounds and build community in the classroom.

The many student essay examples show the success of autoethnographic writing. I like how she points out how students may feel unconfident and hesitant yet move on to finding personal meaning, not only in their own writing but in their classmates' writing. From the "character" and point of view to the environment and developing detail, students find their own subcultures and awareness that everyday life is actually more than something to take for granted. The writing can take the author from subjective experience to objective awareness. Students become prepared for ethnographic research.

Reviewed by Miriam Gershow, Senior Instructor II, University of Oregon on 9/2/23

The comprehensiveness of this text is its strength. It offers an abundance of resources for teachers and students, including a background of autoethnography in composition studies, a clear and comprehensive explanation/rationale of how Tombro teaches autoethnography in the classroom over a semester, and then over 200 pages of student examples of each writing assignment. As a creative writer who has been teaching composition for 20 years, the resources in this book make me want to integrate autoethnography into my classroom even without a specific ethnography background myself. Tombro has made a strong case for the value of autoethnography and also has made the resources accessible. It's been a long time (ever?) since reading a textbook has made me want to rethink my classroom approach so thoroughly.

Tombro takes pains to locate autoethnography accurately in composition studies, including the naysayers. The remainder of the book focuses on her specific experience in an in-person semester-long classroom in New York City.

I'm reading the book seven years after it was published and none of the information seems dated. Smartly, Tombro references the readings she assigned students, but did not include them here. She leaves it up to teachers to find the most relevant readings for their community.

Again, as someone outside of the field of autoethnography, the whole concept was explained well and thoroughly to me. I have taught a lot of descriptive writing and personal argument, and I can see how those could fit within autoethnography, something I hadn't previously considered.

Terminology, framework, and design are all consistent.

Assignments can be lifted out, as can student examples of each assignment. What remains is essentially a teacher's guide, and a helpful one at that.

Well organized between the introduction that situates autoethnography in composition, then a move through the fifteen weeks' of Tombro's pedagogy, then 200+ pages of student work within that pedagogy.

No interface problems.

Text is error free.

The very idea of autoethnography is broadly inclusive of classroom diversity. The student examples offer a broad swatch of race, culture, and class experience.

I cannot overstate the strength of this book. Tombro makes such a convincing case for students considering themselves within their communities via writing autoethnography. The program I teach in has long embraced personal argument and is moving toward literacy narratives. Autoethnography seems to take the goals of each of those assignments - personal investment in a topic, self-reflection, critical analysis of self in the world - and elevate those. I'm excited to think about how to adapt Tombro's ideas to my teaching: remote classes in a quarter system on a campus that has more constraints around "field sites" than New York City.

Reviewed by Matthew Chelf, Adjunct Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/12/21

I found this text comprehensive in its treatment of autoethnography, writing about the ‘self’ through diverse narrative techniques, research, and a cultural lens. The text provides readings, prompts, and assignments designed to get students to reflect on their lives in a cultural context. Group work, such as peer review, helps students understand their own lives and the lives of others through this broader cultural lens and facilitates cultural awareness and conversation. The latter sections in the book provide numerous student writing samples followed by discussion questions, which is great for modeling and conversation.

The text is well situated and researched. In the introduction, Tombro takes care to situate us in a broader context of where autoethnography stands in the current academic environment. Peppered throughout the text are excellent quotes that illuminate the text’s core goal. For example, “We need to imagine ways of using experience critically: experience should motivate us to care about another’s differences and should disrupt the material conditions that have given rise to it” (Min-Zhan Lu “Reading and Writing Differences: The Problematic of Experience”). Tombro also pulls from a rich well of personal experience in the classroom as well as student writing. I also really appreciated the Phillip Lopate discussion of turning oneself into a character, a hallmark of creative nonfiction.

This is one way to teach critical theory and cultural awareness in the composition classroom. By prioritizing student writing and student experience, students should feel more connected to their work and to classmates. Tombro’s work participates in a history of personal writing pedagogy and makes a worthy contribution to it.

I found Tombro’s writing and organization lucid and clear.

Tombro builds upon the main ideas stated in the introduction through research, example, exercise, and elaboration. The text is cohesive. The larger sections do a great job of delineating topics. The student writing samples connect back to the pedagogical discussions.

The text is composed of seven different sections. The first of which is directed to teachers and how to teach autoethnography. The rest are student writings on particular topics and subjects. These latter six sections include discussion questions. They provide great examples to model student writing. It would be easy and fun to assign discrete readings from these sections for students.

Very good! (Related to the text’s modularity).

You can download the text as PDF or Ebook. You can read it online as HTML, which is what I did. The text flows in a top-down fashion. White background, black text. Sections will appear in friendly, disrupting colors.

I did not find any.

This writing project is designed to get students to think about themselves and their cultural position in a creative, inviting way. It does so in a sensitive, safe fashion that makes difficult topics accessible.

If you’re wondering what ethnography is, the author provides this definition in the introduction: “autoethnography is treated as personal writing in which the subjectivity of the writer is highlighted and experiences are understood through narrative exploration and storytelling, incorporating other voices, observation, participation, and larger cultural ideas.”

I will certainly try this approach in a first-year writing course!

Reviewed by Tommy Ender, Assistant Professor, Rhode Island College on 12/3/20

Excellent! read more

This book is an excellent introduction to the world of autoethnography. The book allows the reader to consider the self, space, and memory as integral parts in developing and writing an autoethnography. The book would serve well students in Education, English, Social Work, Anthropology, Sociology, and Cultural Studies courses at the higher education level. It would also serve students at the secondary education level.

Reviewed by David Stringham, Associate Professor, James Madison University on 7/31/20

In context of its purpose (“to present a unified approach to using personal writing and qualitative inquiry, specifically autoethnography, in the first-year writing classroom”), this text seems comprehensive. (I offer that assessment with the caveat that I don’t teach first-year writing.) Readers who wish to explore a particular topic in greater detail could certainly do so through sources listed in the works cited list, or the “Additional Readings on Autoethnography” on p. 67. I particularly appreciated the range of material in this text (e.g., assignment prompts, peer review materials, discussion prompts, classroom workshop activities) and varied examples of student work. The text included a works cited list, but not an index or glossary; I felt that terms that might be unfamiliar to some readers were sufficiently contextualized in the text. I didn’t find myself missing a glossary or index.

I am not a subject matter expert, but the text seems grounded in existing scholarly literature, other authors’ works, and this author’s practice as a college writing instructor. I did not sense biases other than those that might naturally occur from sharing from one’s own experiences.

The content of this text felt up-to-date, with a number of sources from recent years. These newer sources seemed nicely balanced with work from established sources and well-known authors. The text seems to be constructed in a way that would allow updates to specific sections (e.g., “Brief History of Personal Writing in Composition Studies,” “Defining Autoethnography”) should elements become out of date.

I found the writing clear and approachable throughout. I have some training in qualitative research, but limited experience in teaching writing; I did not find any jargon or technical terminology that felt inadequately contextualized.

I found the text internally consistent in terms of both its terminology and framework. Additionally, I found the consistency of assignment presentation and discussion (e.g., green-shaded text boxes) throughout the text helpful.

This text is particularly well constructed in this regard. The various assignments could certainly be used for a complete course in the “Sample Class Schedule”; they could also be used individually (with or without student writing examples) in a more piecemeal fashion within any course.

I found the organization clear and the sequential presentation of assignments that might unfold over a semester to be useful. I could see many of these assignments and other activities (e.g., class workshops) to be useful independently as well as in the sequence prescribed in the text.

I read the book as a PDF on an iPad and experienced no interface issues.

I did not notice any grammatical errors while reading this text.

I did not find this text to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. To the extent I was able to tell as a reader, the book used a variety of examples from published authors, scholars, and students; these seemed to reflect diverse backgrounds (that may or may not include diversity of races and ethnicities).

I enjoyed the opportunity to review this book, and anticipate using several of these assignments/activities in my work with pre-service teachers. I appreciated that the author both provides readings that have worked in her classes, AND encourages the reader to choose readings appropriate to their student populations. Additionally, the author helpfully addressed the range of thorny issues that might arise in personal writing projects (e.g., abuse, sexual violence, survivor groups, illegal drug use) and shared her experiences of talking students through these issues—including professional support resources—while leaving final decisions to the student.

Reviewed by Debra Hagan, Visiting Lecturer, Massachusetts College of Art and Design on 6/25/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook is aimed at the liberal arts/English professor who is developing a writing course for students who will be analyzing and researching “the self” through a cultural lens. Tombro explains how lifestyle, culture, and belief systems impact an individual’s attitudes and behaviors. Through various prompts and lessons, students learn to write personal stories that reveal individual views and concerns. As students read each other’s work, they see how beliefs and behaviors can be traced back to cultural roots. As students become more familiar with one another, they grow in cultural understanding and empathy. The text contains step-by-step instructions in developing such a course, which includes introductory writing prompts, activities, discussion questions, writing exercises, workshops, and ultimately a final project. The text thoroughly covers this subject and includes reading suggestions and detailed assignments. It would have been nice if the textbook included some, if not all, of the readings, so instructors could easily copy and distribute them to students. However, there is a handy bibliography at the end of the textbook.

Throughout the textbook, Tombro’s advice and direction consistency feels accurate and based on solid teaching experience. She addresses how to handle some of the more difficult complications that arise in first-person writing, particularly students over-sharing or presenting material that might be sensitive or embarrassing. Also, she discusses how to handle critiques and grading of personal writing so that qualitative feedback can be given without making students feel that their personal experiences are being judged and/or criticized.

As classrooms become more culturally mixed and educators strive harder to create more inclusive and diverse learning environments, the relevancy and importance of this course and its textbook only increases.

The tone throughout is clear and conversational--no jargon or dense passages.

The author uses the term “autoethnography” to discuss how students explore and write about themselves and the ways culture has shaped and impacted them. This term is used consistency throughout the text.

This textbook is easy-to-use and adaptable. Chapters are short. Most of the writing prompts and assignments can be excerpted and modified for various purposes.

It is well-organized and easy to use. After the introduction and overview, the text is set up like a week-by-week planning manual with assignments, prompts, workshops, and a final project.

The text is easy to navigate. Each section is clearly marked.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

While the text is professionally written and the author adheres to grammar rules, I did find a number of typographical errors in the main text (not the student writing).

The goal of the course, for which this textbook is written, is to broaden students’ awareness of varying cultural differences in traditions, views, and belief systems. Therefore, the text is sensitive to students of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

I’m inspired by this textbook, particularly Tombro's practical advice and sensitivity. She presents a number of ideas I'd like to try in my own classroom.

Reviewed by Roxanne Bourque, Senior Instructor, ULL on 11/9/19

In this textbook, M. Tombro presents the practice of teaching personal writing in the classroom as one way to motivate students to explore qualitative inquiry. This book can be used as a comprehensive guide to practice ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that is student immersive. Each chapter covers relevant English Language Arts content, methods of teaching, and strategies designed to engage college students in writing through the lens of qualitative study. There is an authenticity to note within documentation of experience and the art of culturally responsive understanding to make relevant human connections with course content for students. An index and/or glossary may be an added component for clarity of content for those who intend to use the book outside of the English Language Arts content areas.

Authenticity of expertise defines accuracy as the author takes the audience through her professional and personal accounts of practice as a writing professor. Tombro takes the “anecdote is not evidence factor’ to a shift of mindful understanding and support that one cannot quantify learning within human interaction. She addresses bias towards qualitative study, or areas of negativity towards first person writing as outdated and judgmental. There is a need to see the importance of documenting oral histories and personal narratives for the simple reason that living content makes human connections. Although it may not be widely accepted in academia and easy to measure, there is much to gain and learn from collecting qualitative data.

Content relevance of this text is not questionable, nor will it ever become obsolete within time. There is much relevance to writing personal narratives in college coursework. There is also a need for college students to break into a comfort level of writing for future synthesis and response to academia and research in designated career pathways. This textbook offers exercises that may be used partially or in full within many content areas as enrichment writing exercises for college classes. The exercises are straightforward enough to be adapted through a method of qualitative study. One way to utilize this text is through the discovery of self-knowledge. Writing narratives leads to practice, exercises designed to work on writing “chops”, or discovery of voice, point of view, perception of events, and decision making. Interviews bring oral history to life to engage and invest learners in deeper understanding of purpose, life, and being.

This textbook may be adapted or modified within any higher education content area where undergraduate research inquiry is supported. Qualitative studies are one way to provide students an opportunity to respond to context while finding a voice in specific professional arenas. M. Tombro provides a wide range of collaboration of ideas and thought process through writing strategies, personal experience, and approaches designed to unify an easy to follow text for a first-year writing classroom. Her approach integrates a multiple translation to qualitative inquiry with ethnographic pedagogical practice in a scholarly way. She refers this textbook as one way to introduce translations or use as a “field guide and blueprint” to reframe the conversation that points one to decision making issues of life experience. Her point is that personal life has real connection to scholarly life, to introduce multiple methods of producing knowledge as students learn to document experience as participant-observers in community life. Therefore, the text is written through experiential knowledge to offer a lucid, accessible prose, to provide adequate context for adaptation in many college courses.

When reading this textbook, it is obvious that M. Tombro shares and guides the reader through her personal/professional experience as a writing professor. From the first day of class to choosing topics for auto-ethnography, she provides guidelines for exercises, readings for support, and possible results for review. Textbook chapters are laid out to be easy to follow, through a step-by-step process to unpack critical inquiry and the thinking process. Terminology flows from understanding of self, how self fits into the “big picture” to how to write and respond to essays and peer reviews. Author recommendations for exercises follow a semester syllabus lead within a university course. A sample class schedule is provided within the text and additional resources. An appendix of class examples and student work with specific inquiry are offered to follow the chapters to support ideas and pedagogical practice.

Tombro offers a self-referential application within multiple models of writing exercises to support personal engagement of learners within the writing process. There is a great need to fill the gap of how to facilitate students into a deeper understanding of how personal writing might serve as the foundation for scholarly application, composition scholarship, and teacher training. This multi-use text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections. Tombro provides content within subheadings of the text that can be used in a university classroom in its entirety or sections/chapters may be selected to suit needs of individual course use.

This textbook is presented in a logical and clear fashion as an informative and user-friendly way to approach first-person research. There is a need to explore student’s interests in this first-person approach to research in order to analyze the “why” of our very human existence with decision-making and interests. What a refreshing way to offer a uniquely designed college textbook to share professional experience and support for research possibilities? Tombro’s offering is not only interesting, it is quite engaging as her writing motivates the reader with a self-actualized approach to research design through autoethnographic study. She provides clear examples of student work to support her ideas and methodology. There is a need to motivate, engage, and invest in personal experiences in order to support interests, talents, and discovery in multiple research pathways.

The text appears free of significant interface issues; it’s easy to navigate as a whole or in parts. There are no images or charts that may distract or confuse the reader. It is easy to follow for content and application in whole or divided into subparts.

Within a through review, the book appears well written, edited, and free of grammatical error.

When one utilizes a methodology for theorizing personal experience, it is difficult to find that a personal accounting of existence is offensive, for this is how one perceives life as it is lived. It is important and culturally responsive to find ways to allow students to relate and measure (assess) personal experience and ownership of learning and growth in college courses. Documentation of social events, life as it is perceived and lived in communities is as important as existing—within race, ethnicity, and cultural events. There is a need to be authentic in voice, to use personal writing, narratives to inspire creative expression, voice, language/lexicon, within a specific culture. Authenticity of content and self-identity are critical and necessary to preserve the authenticity of life as one lives—through qualitative inquiry methods, creative writing, performance studies, interpretive self-reflection of cultural influences, and narrative composition. This is how one documents living, through writing, storytelling, and experiencing life.

M. Tombro offers a refreshing approach to open the possibilities of incorporating autoethnographic studies into a cross-curricular approach to viewing the content and requirements of college courses. Benefits gained from this textbook out speak the discourse or bias towards qualitative studies.

Reviewed by Jocelyn Wenona Armes, Graduate Part-time Instructor, CU Boulder on 7/1/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

This text is intended as a teaching aid for instructors of college students to learn how to use autoethnographic composition in writing and research. To the extent that it is not a textbook for teaching qualitative methodology, or directed toward a student audience, it is moderately successful in conveying approaches to teaching ethnographic writing. Given that the audience is intended to be the instructors of such courses, more time could be spent addressing the epistemological/ontological positions inherent in this form of inquiry.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Content is appropriate for the aims of this text. The assignments at the end of each chapter/topic are helpful, practical exercises for instructors to implement. The examples of student writing provided at the end of the book are very helpful.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This topic is -- like many humanities texts -- not likely to become outdated in content.

The text is written in accessible prose; the author seemingly intends to present material conversationally. This tone advances the purpose of the text: to utilize personal experiences in improving writing and communication skills.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is not specifically about conducting ethnographic/autoethnographic research. It is about instruction using these methodologies as vehicles for improving composition. The text is consistently situated in this framework.

Modularity rating: 4

The chapters are small and divided into consistent subheadings. The student examples are grouped separately from the main text, and in their own units.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The topics are presented in a a logical order; beginning with the internal structures of a course that might incorporate these techniques, then moving toward specific/practical exercises.

Interface rating: 4

N/A -- purely text.

Grammatical errors were not observed.

The student work examples feature a diverse array of perspectives, identities, and experiences. These thoughtfully curated exemplars render the text a culturally sensitive and inoffensive resource.

Reviewed by Abram Himelstein, Professor of Practice, University of New Orleans on 5/21/18

This book feels like a manual on how to run this kind of workshop for students- and it feels complete in this effort. I would say that it is comprehensive, anticipating the questions that will arise as teachers and students wrestle with the concept of autoethnography. The greatest strength of this text is the inclusion of many student-written exemplars. These bring the work into focus for the teachers and for students moving through the material.

This book is an act of advocacy- that autoethnography deserves time and focus in college writing courses. As a manual, it is well-thought through. As an act of advocacy, it is persuasive.

This book feels like it will be relevant for years to come.

This book builds out a language for using autoethnography, and, as such, is very accessible and welcoming. The use of students' writing brings home the concepts laid out in the chapters.

This work is internally consistent, and builds a language and a practice that is useful and accessible.

The author has sequenced the work to build on past assignments, so excerpting parts could be problematic. The presentation of exemplar work from students, however, makes it possible to adopt particular assignments, and this increases the modularity of the text.

The topics of this book build upon each other, and seem to be well-organized. Whether this works with my students remains to be seen, but the author has made a persuasive case by including the work of her students in this.

The book is easy to use, and easy to navigate. I was accessing it on a Mac computer, and many of my students use tablet devices, but the PDF version was clean and very clear.

Grammar was standard, not distracting.

The greatest strength of this book is that is very very culturally relevant. The focus on autoethnography allows students to make this course multicultural, and almost assures that there will be more points of view represented than most of the courses taught at the university level (this might not be true if your university is very homogenous). The main idea of this methodology is to put students at the center of the curriculum, and in this process, begin to undo the colonial aspects of many university educations.

This is a valuable manual for professors to use as they begin to approach asking students to produce autoethnographies.

Reviewed by Joni Schwartz, Associate Professor, City University of New York - LaGuardia on 2/1/18

Very comprehensive - beginning with ideas and suggestions for the first day of meeting with writing students to a well-thought out progression of instruction. Defining of terms and placing personal narrative and the "I" squarely in the context of qualitative research - ethnography and specifically autoethnography is smart and effective. A well laid out case for personal writing as an academic pursuit.

Cited the best in the field of autoethnography and the author clearly draws on her own experience in the writing classroom. The reader gets a sense that this author knows her students, has practiced her craft and that this book is a "lived experience."

I would think that updating would be quite easy for this text as new samples, updated assignments and new research in the field could be easily included without losing the theme and structure of the text. For anyone who has worked with marginalized populations the relevance "rings true." I will consider using this text with a prison writing group in the months to come. Only wondering about its relevance for racially diverse populations - not sure as yet.

Very clear -- concepts defined, assignments and suggestions for teachers laid out in a clear step by step progression. The context of the field of autoethnography is helpful.

Yes, internal consistent with a authoethnographic approach and framework - terminology consistent with that perspective and positionality on writing and research.

This is what I particularly like about this text-- easy to pull out assignments, sections, chapters that are relevant at a particular time or for a particular set of students. Chapters and sub-headings make sense and can be used in isolation as needed.

Yes, this was highlighted in Question 4

No major interface issues are apparent.

Grammatical errors not apparent

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Not certain that the examples are diverse in terms of race.

I intend to use it for a prison writing group -- will use parts of it this winter and depending on how it goes, may use it this summer as a full text for the prison writers.

Reviewed by Priya Kapoor, Associate Professor, Portland State University on 2/15/17

Teaching Autoethnography is a comprehensive book. The author is very familiar with extant and historical debates in the field of pedagogy (of writing) and qualitative research (ethnography and auto-ethnography in particular). Melissa Tombro is able to guide the reader in a way that the reader (most likely a college based instructor) can then design a writing class, or a course with a significant writing component, quite easily. She includes a sample syllabus. Given that writing is a requirement across curricula in all disciplines, this book provides the impetus to discrete disciplines to start examining their reasons for requiring certain forms of non-personal writing. Not all disciplines require self-examination in the process of writing but this work seems to ask the question—why not?

The student samples of individual autoethnography included in the text demonstrate that the task is indeed possible. These examples are well arranged and useful for designing one’s own assignments.

I believe the work is accurate. It forwards clear arguments and presents evidence to support those arguments. This book on auto-ethnography provides important insight and instruction to university instructors on how to value the pedagogy of inserting the “self” or “I” in student writing such that it does not become narcissistic, or a way to consume “the other,” in the highly materialistic society we live in.

The myriad examples of assignments and student writing that touch upon several different scenarios make the book relevant and current for a long time to come. This work examines the assumptions of research writing in academia and therefore it will remain cutting edge.

A strength of this work is that there is very little technical terminology or jargon. Students and faculty would be able to decipher the concepts that the book introduces as those are clearly explained.If there are unfamiliar terms, those are prefaced and explained in detail by the author. This book is written for the practitioner.

The format of the book and the consistency of the terms provides a familiarity to the reader which makes the book easy to read.

All chapters are marked and all student work clearly lists the name of the student-author. If I were to use just the introduction or another section of the book, I would be able to do that without the section seeming out of place or incomplete.

The book is arranged well into discrete sections. Each of the student examples are marked and the list of questions it answers is included so the reader does not lose their chain of thought. The assignments are arranged according to separate chapters. I find the flow to be smooth and each bit of information is properly placed in its order. The historical and academic context for the book is set in the introductory chapter that underscores the value of autoethnography in a student’s learning, especially research writing. The chapters that follow are clearly organized and explained.

This book is easy to navigate. The typeface is pleasing and the pages scroll easily from top to bottom. There are reasonable gaps within chapters and between chapters that give the eye relief if you are reading on-screen. I think the book will benefit from an index.

This book is about writing. The author is a faculty member and writing expert in an English program. There are no grammatical problems in this book.

Teaching Autoethnography is about recovering the “I” in writing for academia, and in culture. The book focuses on how to be self-reflexive, and through writing, become a member of the larger global community. Writing autoethnography is about the art of recouping our sense of connectedness with diverse human realities. I believe that the skills and philosophies that Teaching Autoethnography articulates, establishes it as a culturally relevant text. College students in universities around the world are a diverse body. When a college classroom is able to teach students how to articulate the “I” which is a powerful and unique position that questions diversity and marginality as we know it, and insert it in their research, it brings the students’ cultural world into the academy. That is a powerful position to hold for students who generally feel excluded or treated as clients rather than as active participants.

I recommend Teaching Ethnography to all instructors in the Humanities and Social Sciences who value qualitative methods and research writing in the classroom; and want to make it accessible and relevant to their students’ lives.

Reviewed by Molly Gray, Instructor, Portland State University on 2/8/17

Overall, this textbook offers much utility in its approach to teaching thoughtful autoethnography in college-level writing. The author's approach is rooted and can be applied to many intersectional social identities, which is helpful in using this information to be aware of numerous issues of oppression in writing. The author also provides thorough outlines for a number of in-class writing and other class assignments, and helpful examples of those assignments from multiple perspectives. The questions for consideration under each of the writing samples offer clear examples of drawing forth more thoughtful pedagogical approaches. Overall, there are areas that would have been helpful to draw upon at greater length, such as a deeper exploration of individualized feedback for at least some of the writing samples (rather than the same set of unanswered questions for each sample). However, overall this is a solidly useful guide with much practical course application for first-year writing courses and beyond.

The author presents well-grounded information that represents her rich experience in instructing college-level writing courses and offers best practices for teaching autoethnographic writing. She discusses relevant ethnographic scholars and researchers to provide a framework for his approaches that culminate in an informed and critical teaching practice.

The content of this book offers content that is a best practices manual for introductory autoenthnographic writing. It is general enough to provide both applicability for numerous instructional approaches as well as lasting relevance for writing assignments across disciplines and levels. It also aims to encourage greater cultural-reflexivity and competency in writing so as not to rely on racialzed (or other) stereotypes and offers the tools to broach this within the classroom by deeper examination of subjectivity in writing. This goal is both timely within academia and the larger national climate, and is not likely to wane in importance or necessity for this critical intervention.

The author utilizes language that is accessible and clear in its communication. The introductory chapters offer a useful background discussion of contemporary approaches to autoethnographic writing that provide a context for her instruction approaches and theoretical framework seen within the assignments presented in the rest of the book. The writing and layout of the book is both straightforward and coherent.

The book is consistent in the presentation and layout of its information. It replicates a pattern of assignments and corresponding writing samples from the same batch of student writers, offering the reader a uniform and helpful example of the applicability and utility of the author's teaching methods.

The book offers concise and helpful modularity that can be easily applied throughout the course. It offers a direct path to apply within a course and offers examples of stage-appropriate assignments that build upon one another and increase in difficulty and depth of writing assignment. Conversely, individual sections could also be extracted from the larger set of examples and still have great utility as stand-alone writing assignments.

The book presents a logical flow that is both uniform and clear in its organization.

The book's interface is easily-navigabable and offers a straight-forward and consistently-designed format.

The book's text did not present either structural or grammatical errors. It is solidly-written and edited.

This book's content focuses on approaches to autoethnographic writing that encourages greater awareness for subjectivity within personal writing, and actively works towards the eradication of cultural insensitivity. It is an important topic that is timely and will continue to be a relevant and culturally-necessary intervention in college-level writing.

Reviewed by Jill Zarestky, Assistant Professor, Colorado State University on 12/5/16

This text is comprehensive in the sense that it includes everything an instructor would need to know to implement student autoethnographic writing in the classroom, but it is also very narrow and would not appeal to instructors who teach other... read more

Content Accuracy rating: 3

Content is accurate. It largely derives from the author's teaching practice, so as an original work, it is biased in favor of the author's work.

This book is very specific to one type of academic writing. It is relevant in that regard, and not likely to become obsolete.

The text is written very clearly, with straightforward descriptions of activities and tasks.

The text is internally consistent.

Modularity rating: 1

This text is not modular. While an experienced instructor could adapt sections for her or his own use, there is a clear scaffolding and interconnection in the content.

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion that aligns with a usual course planning process and progression of complexity through a semester.

The text is free of interface issues.

This book is grammatically correct and free from errors.

The tasks and assignments described are adaptable to a variety of student backgrounds and cultural environments. The author has included student work samples that appear to reflect a diverse student population.

This book would best be used as an instructor resource or reference book rather than a course text. Reading the book is worth it for the beautiful examples of student work!

Reviewed by Deborah Thompson, Associate Professor, Colorado State University on 12/5/16

The text's primary aim is to serve as a guide for instructors teaching "autoethnography" or "personal writing" in the (composition) classroom. In a somewhat dry but thorough introductory literature review, Tombro surveys current conversations concerning personal writing as a valid classroom practice for teaching critical writing and thinking skills. The strength of the book is in its outline of how such a course might be put together, including week-by-week topics and assignments. After each assignment is a discussion of "Results," which gives prospective instructors a preview of what to expect from the class's responses. Finally, the sample papers for each assignment give a range of representations of the possibilities for these assignments. Since the text is meant as an introduction and hands-on guide for instructors, it appropriately covers its subject and gives a useful bibliography for further readings.

The text gives an accurate portrayal of the field. It shows a fair representation of the benefits and problems of using personal writing in the classroom.

Since autoethnography and personal writing are increasingly used in composition classes, the book should only gain in relevancy. The assignments have been developed from longer traditions of both ethnographic practice and creative writing instruction, so the text is timely but should wear well.

Clarity rating: 4

Clarity is a particular strength of the main body of the book, but less so for the introduction, which reads more like a literature review than an overview of the key controversies and cornerstones of teaching personal writing. In the main body of the book, the voice is clear and examples are useful. Sample student essays are also vey elucidating.

Very consistent. The only inconsistency in terminology--"autoethnography" and "personal writing" are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes not--is an inconsistency in the field itself, and one Tombro takes pains to explain in the introduction.

This is perhaps the text's greatest strength. It can be used in its entirety, but it also offers individual assignments and modules that can be used separately.

Going hand-in-hand with modularity, its organizational structure is a great strength. Assignments are very nicely designed to build on each other into a final project, even as they have merit if used individually.

No interface issues.

The text contains no grammatical errors (except the "errors" found in the creative portions that serve the text).

The text offers personal writing as a key way to empower students to explore the richness of their own ethnicities and subcultures, as well as a way to appreciate others. Such inclusion is increasingly a goal in universities, making this project very culturally relevant.

This book itself offers a useful and welcome auto-ethnographic engagement with classroom practice. It's refreshingly honest in its discussion of classroom misfires as well as successes.

1. Understanding our Students' Relationship to “I”
2. Getting Started in the Classroom
3. Writing Essays for Class: The First Steps
4. Workshop and Peer Review Process
5. Memory/Character Essays
6. Writing about Spaces and Events
7. The Autoethnography Project
8. Choosing Topics for the Autoethnography
9. The Interview Process
10. Conducting Observations
11. Putting It All Together
12. Challenges of Personal Writing
13. Concluding Thoughts
14. Sample Class Schedule
15. Additional Readings on Autoethnography

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author's position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing.

About the Contributors

Melissa Tombro is an Associate Professor of English at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work on a wide range of courses from Creative Nonfiction to Theatre Arts. Her research interests include autoethnography, ethnography, personal writing, creative writing and performance studies. Outside of FIT she runs volunteer writing workshops for at-risk and underserved populations through the New York Writers Coalition. In her writing, teaching and volunteer work, she encourages other writers to use self-reflection and community engagement as a way to create meaningful, informed, and inspiring prose.

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Getting Personal

Teaching personal writing in the digital age, alternative formats available from:.

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Introduction Laura Gray-Rosendale Part I. Personal Essays, Digital Compositions, and Literacy Narratives 1. Teaching the Personal Essay in the Digital Age Ned Stuckey-French 2. Writing the Way Home: Creative Nonfiction and Digital Circulation in a Veterans' Writing Group Eileen E. Schell 3. Essaying to Understand Violence Amy E. Robillard 4. Digital Portraits: Engaging Students in Personal Essay Writing through Video Composition Michael Neal

5. Stories within Stories: Three Reflections on Working with the DALN Ben McCorkle, Paige Arrington, and Michael Harker Part II. Blogging, Tweeting, Texting, and Online Classes 6. Living the Expressivists' Dream: Writing Meets Blogging as Theory Meets Practice Bonnie Sunstein 7. Rapid Organicness: Using Twitter to Expand Young Writers' Creativity and Their Sense of Community Brian Oliu 8. Old Pond: 127 Ways to Look at Texts with Tweets Michael Martone 9. #Because Social Media: Personal Writing and the Brave New World of Digital Style Paul Butler 10. Teaching the History of Life Writing and Memoir Online Laura Gray-Rosendale 11. Students Tell Me Things: Personal Writing in New Media Studies Aimée Morrison Part III. Voice Lessons, Multimodal Genres, and Digital Stylings 12. Voice Lessons: Hearing and Constructing Personal Voices in a Digital Age Lynn Z. Bloom 13. When Research Goes Personal: Incorporating the Digital Multimodal Research Project in a First-Year Writing Course Christine Martorana 14. A Queer Challenge to Repronormativity in the Digital Classroom Zarah C. Moeggenberg 15. The Pleasure of the Voice: Speakerly Writing in the Digital Age Jeff Porter List of Contributors Index

Addresses how digital forms of personal writing can be most effectively used by teachers, students, and other community members.

Description

Silver Medalist, 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Education (Commentary/Theory) Category

At a time when Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Instagram, and other social media dominate our interactions with one another and with our world, the teaching of writing also necessarily involves the employment of multimodal approaches, visual literacies, and online learning. Given this new digital landscape, how do we most effectively teach and create various forms of "personal writing" within our rhetoric and composition classes, our creative writing classes, and our community groups? Contributors to Getting Personal offer their thoughts about some of the positives and negatives of teaching and using personal writing within digital contexts. They also reveal intriguing teaching activities that they have designed to engage their students and other writers. In addition, they share some of the innovative responses they have received to these assignments. Getting Personal is about finding ways to teach and use personal writing in the digital age that can truly empower writing teachers, writing students, as well as other community members.

Laura Gray-Rosendale is President's Distinguished Teaching Fellow, Director of S.T.A.R. English, and Professor of English at Northern Arizona University. She is the author of seven books, including College Girl: A Memoir and Fractured Feminisms: Rhetoric, Context, and Contestation (coedited with Gil Harootunian), both also published by SUNY Press, and Rethinking Basic Writing: Exploring Identity, Politics, and Community in Interaction .

"…a robust and timely collection on the state of personal writing in our highly digital contemporary culture. This is a helpful volume for teachers seeking to understand and implement personal writing in new ways in their classes. Getting Personal is also helpful for thinking about what comes next in personal writing, a notoriously flexible and inclusive genre." — Biography " Getting Personal offers an engaging, comprehensive view of how and why instructors, in both creative and academic writing, can integrate contemporary writing and communication practices into their classrooms, assignments, and curricula." — Jill Talbot, editor of Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction "I am right now rethinking some of my assumptions about what it means to do and to teach personal writing—especially in digital environments. I'm also taken with the fact that while the chapters are clearly academic, they are also personal, and while several of them explicitly call the 'false binary between the personal and the academic' into question, my sense is that they themselves do so implicitly as well." — Barry M. Maid, coauthor of The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, Fourth Edition

How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing.

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write.

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing.

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles.

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism.

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does.

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style.

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism.

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work.

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process.

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed.

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels.

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from A Christmas Carol to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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Writing a strong essay can make a huge difference in job and college applications. Here are 15 online classes and books to learn how to do it.

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Communicating ideas in a clear way is a crucial life skill no matter which field you work in.
Writing personal essays can help perfect your storytelling and presentation skills.
Below are 15 online classes, books, podcasts, and resources to start with.

Everyone has a story, but not everyone knows how to tell their story. One place to start is finding the perfect container for your experiences and insights. Enter: the personal essay.

Well-crafted essays mark the difference between a meandering group of paragraphs and a clear, resonant idea. Almost every occupation can benefit from stronger communication, research, and persuasion skills — all of which can be sharpened from essay writing classes.

Think about the application prompts you've muddled through or the chances for publication you've felt too intimidated to attempt. The confidence to explore a topic, land on a perspective, and express it effectively is universally valuable, whether you're writing a personal statement for college, crafting a cover letter for a new job, or giving a presentation at work.

The essay writing resources below range from 200-page books to eight-week online courses. Some require submitting original work to receive feedback, while others are prompts meant to inspire new ideas.

15 essay writing online courses, workshops, and books to strengthen your storytelling skills:

For the basics.

How to Write a Personal Essay (CreativeLive)

Joyce Maynard is a celebrated memoirist and personal essayist who knows what it takes to get an essay noticed for publication. In five hours of video instruction, students will learn how to identify ideas that could become pieces, how to build an outline, create an interesting character, and even end an essay to emphasize the final discovery. With a review rating of 100% from former students, this course is the perfect place to start your next essay.

How to Write an Essay (edX)

This UC Berkeley class hones in on the hidden mechanisms of essays. The five-week course is more academic than creative, but ideal for those hoping to write with immaculate grammar and rigorous self-editing habits. The course (which is free to audit) provides both instructional videos and readings, and students will produce one essay as a takeaway from the class.

Memoir and Personal Essay: Write About Yourself Specialization (Coursera)

Presented by Wesleyan University, this four-month specialization is instructed by four published essayists and memoirists. Through 16 writing assignments across four courses, students develop an approach to their own storytelling skills. And for those looking to take their writing out of the classroom, this course leaves you with a portfolio of work upon completion.

"The Situation and The Story" by Vivian Gornick

Drawing on her experience from teaching MFA programs, Vivian Gornick challenges the writer to step back and evaluate their role in relation to the work. Are they the same person as the narrator? What details matter to the story? It's an invitation to look below the surface of life as it unfolds and ask questions of larger significance. The book is short, but explores diverse greats of the genre, from Joan Didion to Oscar Wilde.

For coming up with ideas

Creative Writing for All: A 10-Day Journaling Challenge (Skillshare)

Seasoned journalist, novelist, and publisher Emily Gould only wants ten minutes of your time a day. In a 10-day course described as "perfect for writers and enthusiasts eager to rekindle creativity in a personal and artful way," she packs in countless creative prompts and revision tricks. It's great for writers who are crunched for time and looking to discover a new topic right under their nose.

The New York Times' Writing Prompts

This archive of questions inspired by the NYT's own stories is a perfect place to start, since jumping in can often feel like the hardest part. The Learning Network is targeted towards students, but the conversations following each prompt can be helpful for writers of all ages. After all, many essays begin as questions. Why not borrow some from the Times?

Personal Essay Independent Study: Generating Fresh Ideas for the Personal Essay (Catapult)

Writing from life can make it difficult to be objective. What's interesting? What could become a full length essay? Led by essayist and editor Lilly Dancyger , this independent study is the perfect place to start coming up with fresh ideas. Self-guided, with three separate lessons ranging in topics from perspective to conversation, is an ideal fit for new writers looking to demystify the craft of storytelling via essays.

"Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg

The best writers are always avid readers and this book is a great start. With over one million copies sold and translations in 12 languages, it's hard to deny the creative jumpstart writers find from "Writing Down the Bones." The tone of the book is conversational and approachable, and it's full of compelling personal narratives and prompts. Goldberg integrates tenets of Zen meditation with writing in order to create what she coins a "Writing Practice." The practice includes self-interrogation, creating a specific space, and carving out time to read.

For developing style

Creative Writing: Crafting Personal Essays with Impact (Skillshare)

Let The New York Times bestselling author and revered professor Roxane Gay inspire your writing to ask questions of deep resonance. Her one-hour masterclass is an insightful lesson on transforming your personal essay with cultural context. Learn how to take yourself (and your essay) seriously by expanding your story and connecting with the audience you want to reach. The class comes with a downloadable worksheet and links to additional resources.

David Sedaris Teaches Humor and Storytelling (MasterClass)

No one writes humor like David Sedaris . With 10 bestselling essay collections under his belt, there's hardly a more qualified teacher. In his MasterClass, he explores how to pull meaning out of the mundane, how humor helps us move through the dark subjects of our stories, and how everything depends on an attention-grabbing opening. Prepare to learn, laugh, and be charmed for over three hours of his beautifully shot video lessons.

Begin with the Body (Skillshare)

Chelsea Hodson's essays have been described as, " anchors for the themes — identity, sexuality, loss — we so often see reflected back at us ." In under 45 minutes, you'll be inspired to examine a strong starting point for any essay — your own body. Plus, Hodson's demonstration of her editing process in real time and analysis of other creative works leaves you with no excuse but to, as she says, "write without expectation." She also occasionally offers feedback on essays submitted through the class.

For practice and feedback

8-Week Personal Essay & Memoir Writing (Sackett Street Writers)

For writers with some experience or an essay ready to be workshopped, writing workshops like Sackett Street 's are an excellent option. This particular class is taught by published author Anna Qu , exploring the responsibility of nonfiction writing while learning literary techniques to create a compelling story. On top of Qu's guidance, the comradery with fellow students, even online, can lead to new perspectives and creative inspiration through in-class writing prompts.

"Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott

Few books reign supreme when it comes to authors' favorites "books on books" like "Bird by Bird." Lamott's down-to-earth, homespun advice on life and writing has sold over a million copies. Simultaneously practical and profound, the book leans on the basic tenet that the most important practice is sitting down every day and simply writing. As Lamott writes: "One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."

Memoir Monday (Substack)

Every Monday, a collection of the best essays published the previous week on sites like Granta, Longreads, and Literary Hub are mailed directly to your inbox. A monthly reading series, plus interviews with notable authors provide a dose of inspiration and a curated look at up and coming work.

WMFA Podcast hosted by Courtney Balestier

" Writing can be lonely work ," and this podcast sees conversation as a combatant to that problem. Writers across all genres and walks of life are interviewed by writer Courtney Balestier , and talks range from craft practices to book recommendations. There's also a minisode (around five minutes) on a single topic, like paying attention or restraint, released every other week. The conversation continues in a monthly newsletter featuring links, news, and recommendations.

Main content

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

July 29, 2018

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“Those who tell the stories rule the world.” This proverb, attributed to the Hopi Indians, is one I wish I’d known a long time ago, because I would have used it when teaching my students the craft of storytelling. With a well-told story we can help a person see things in an entirely new way. We can forge new relationships and strengthen the ones we already have. We can change a law, inspire a movement, make people care fiercely about things they’d never given a passing thought.

But when we study storytelling with our students, we forget all that. Or at least I did. When my students asked why we read novels and stories, and why we wrote personal narratives and fiction, my defense was pretty lame: I probably said something about the importance of having a shared body of knowledge, or about the enjoyment of losing yourself in a book, or about the benefits of having writing skills in general.

I forgot to talk about the power of story. I didn’t bother to tell them that the ability to tell a captivating story is one of the things that makes human beings extraordinary. It’s how we connect to each other. It’s something to celebrate, to study, to perfect. If we’re going to talk about how to teach students to write stories, we should start by thinking about why we tell stories at all . If we can pass that on to our students, then we will be going beyond a school assignment; we will be doing something transcendent.

Now. How do we get them to write those stories? I’m going to share the process I used for teaching narrative writing. I used this process with middle school students, but it would work with most age groups.

A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?

When teaching narrative writing, many teachers separate personal narratives from short stories. In my own classroom, I tended to avoid having my students write short stories because personal narratives were more accessible. I could usually get students to write about something that really happened, while it was more challenging to get them to make something up from scratch.

In the “real” world of writers, though, the main thing that separates memoir from fiction is labeling: A writer might base a novel heavily on personal experiences, but write it all in third person and change the names of characters to protect the identities of people in real life. Another writer might create a short story in first person that reads like a personal narrative, but is entirely fictional. Just last weekend my husband and I watched the movie Lion and were glued to the screen the whole time, knowing it was based on a true story. James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces sold millions of copies as a memoir but was later found to contain more than a little bit of fiction. Then there are unique books like Curtis Sittenfeld’s brilliant novel American Wife , based heavily on the early life of Laura Bush but written in first person, with fictional names and settings, and labeled as a work of fiction. The line between fact and fiction has always been really, really blurry, but the common thread running through all of it is good storytelling.

With that in mind, the process for teaching narrative writing can be exactly the same for writing personal narratives or short stories; it’s the same skill set. So if you think your students can handle the freedom, you might decide to let them choose personal narrative or fiction for a narrative writing assignment, or simply tell them that whether the story is true doesn’t matter, as long as they are telling a good story and they are not trying to pass off a fictional story as fact.

Here are some examples of what that kind of flexibility could allow:

A student might tell a true story from their own experience, but write it as if it were a fiction piece, with fictional characters, in third person.
A student might create a completely fictional story, but tell it in first person, which would give it the same feel as a personal narrative.
A student might tell a true story that happened to someone else, but write it in first person, as if they were that person. For example, I could write about my grandmother’s experience of getting lost as a child, but I might write it in her voice.

If we aren’t too restrictive about what we call these pieces, and we talk about different possibilities with our students, we can end up with lots of interesting outcomes. Meanwhile, we’re still teaching students the craft of narrative writing.

A Note About Process: Write With Your Students

One of the most powerful techniques I used as a writing teacher was to do my students’ writing assignments with them. I would start my own draft at the same time as they did, composing “live” on the classroom projector, and doing a lot of thinking out loud so they could see all the decisions a writer has to make.

The most helpful parts for them to observe were the early drafting stage, where I just scratched out whatever came to me in messy, run-on sentences, and the revision stage, where I crossed things out, rearranged, and made tons of notes on my writing. I have seen over and over again how witnessing that process can really help to unlock a student’s understanding of how writing actually gets made.

A Narrative Writing Unit Plan

Before I get into these steps, I should note that there is no one right way to teach narrative writing, and plenty of accomplished teachers are doing it differently and getting great results. This just happens to be a process that has worked for me.

Step 1: Show Students That Stories Are Everywhere

Getting our students to tell stories should be easy. They hear and tell stories all the time. But when they actually have to put words on paper, they forget their storytelling abilities: They can’t think of a topic. They omit relevant details, but go on and on about irrelevant ones. Their dialogue is bland. They can’t figure out how to start. They can’t figure out how to end.

So the first step in getting good narrative writing from students is to help them see that they are already telling stories every day . They gather at lockers to talk about that thing that happened over the weekend. They sit at lunch and describe an argument they had with a sibling. Without even thinking about it, they begin sentences with “This one time…” and launch into stories about their earlier childhood experiences. Students are natural storytellers; learning how to do it well on paper is simply a matter of studying good models, then imitating what those writers do.

So start off the unit by getting students to tell their stories. In journal quick-writes, think-pair-shares, or by playing a game like Concentric Circles , prompt them to tell some of their own brief stories: A time they were embarrassed. A time they lost something. A time they didn’t get to do something they really wanted to do. By telling their own short anecdotes, they will grow more comfortable and confident in their storytelling abilities. They will also be generating a list of topic ideas. And by listening to the stories of their classmates, they will be adding onto that list and remembering more of their own stories.

And remember to tell some of your own. Besides being a good way to bond with students, sharing your stories will help them see more possibilities for the ones they can tell.

Step 2: Study the Structure of a Story

Now that students have a good library of their own personal stories pulled into short-term memory, shift your focus to a more formal study of what a story looks like.

Use a diagram to show students a typical story arc like the one below. Then, using a simple story (try a video like The Present or Room ), fill out the story arc with the components from that story. Once students have seen this story mapped out, have them try it with another one, like a story you’ve read in class, a whole novel, or another short video.

Step 3: Introduce the Assignment

Up to this point, students have been immersed in storytelling. Now give them specific instructions for what they are going to do. Share your assignment rubric so they understand the criteria that will be used to evaluate them; it should be ready and transparent right from the beginning of the unit. As always, I recommend using a single point rubric for this.

Step 4: Read Models

Once the parameters of the assignment have been explained, have students read at least one model story, a mentor text that exemplifies the qualities you’re looking for. This should be a story on a topic your students can kind of relate to, something they could see themselves writing. For my narrative writing unit (see the end of this post), I wrote a story called “Frog” about a 13-year-old girl who finally gets to stay home alone, then finds a frog in her house and gets completely freaked out, which basically ruins the fun she was planning for the night.

They will be reading this model as writers, looking at how the author shaped the text for a purpose, so that they can use those same strategies in their own writing. Have them look at your rubric and find places in the model that illustrate the qualities listed in the rubric. Then have them complete a story arc for the model so they can see the underlying structure.

Ideally, your students will have already read lots of different stories to look to as models. If that isn’t the case, this list of narrative texts recommended by Cult of Pedagogy followers on Twitter would be a good place to browse for titles that might be right for your students. Keep in mind that we have not read most of these stories, so be sure to read them first before adopting them for classroom use.

Step 5: Story Mapping

At this point, students will need to decide what they are going to write about. If they are stuck for a topic, have them just pick something they can write about, even if it’s not the most captivating story in the world. A skilled writer could tell a great story about deciding what to have for lunch. If they are using the skills of narrative writing, the topic isn’t as important as the execution.

Have students complete a basic story arc for their chosen topic using a diagram like the one below. This will help them make sure that they actually have a story to tell, with an identifiable problem, a sequence of events that build to a climax, and some kind of resolution, where something is different by the end. Again, if you are writing with your students, this would be an important step to model for them with your own story-in-progress.

Step 6: Quick Drafts

Now, have students get their chosen story down on paper as quickly as possible: This could be basically a long paragraph that would read almost like a summary, but it would contain all the major parts of the story. Model this step with your own story, so they can see that you are not shooting for perfection in any way. What you want is a working draft, a starting point, something to build on for later, rather than a blank page (or screen) to stare at.

Step 7: Plan the Pacing

Now that the story has been born in raw form, students can begin to shape it. This would be a good time for a lesson on pacing, where students look at how writers expand some moments to create drama and shrink other moments so that the story doesn’t drag. Creating a diagram like the one below forces a writer to decide how much space to devote to all of the events in the story.

Step 8: Long Drafts

With a good plan in hand, students can now slow down and write a proper draft, expanding the sections of their story that they plan to really draw out and adding in more of the details that they left out in the quick draft.

Step 9: Workshop

Once students have a decent rough draft—something that has a basic beginning, middle, and end, with some discernible rising action, a climax of some kind, and a resolution, you’re ready to shift into full-on workshop mode. I would do this for at least a week: Start class with a short mini-lesson on some aspect of narrative writing craft, then give students the rest of the period to write, conference with you, and collaborate with their peers. During that time, they should focus some of their attention on applying the skill they learned in the mini-lesson to their drafts, so they will improve a little bit every day.

Topics for mini-lessons can include:

How to weave exposition into your story so you don’t give readers an “information dump”
How to carefully select dialogue to create good scenes, rather than quoting everything in a conversation
How to punctuate and format dialogue so that it imitates the natural flow of a conversation
How to describe things using sensory details and figurative language; also, what to describe…students too often give lots of irrelevant detail
How to choose precise nouns and vivid verbs, use a variety of sentence lengths and structures, and add transitional words, phrases, and features to help the reader follow along
How to start, end, and title a story

Step 10: Final Revisions and Edits

As the unit nears its end, students should be shifting away from revision , in which they alter the content of a piece, toward editing , where they make smaller changes to the mechanics of the writing. Make sure students understand the difference between the two: They should not be correcting each other’s spelling and punctuation in the early stages of this process, when the focus should be on shaping a better story.

One of the most effective strategies for revision and editing is to have students read their stories out loud. In the early stages, this will reveal places where information is missing or things get confusing. Later, more read-alouds will help them immediately find missing words, unintentional repetitions, and sentences that just “sound weird.” So get your students to read their work out loud frequently. It also helps to print stories on paper: For some reason, seeing the words in print helps us notice things we didn’t see on the screen.

To get the most from peer review, where students read and comment on each other’s work, more modeling from you is essential: Pull up a sample piece of writing and show students how to give specific feedback that helps, rather than simply writing “good detail” or “needs more detail,” the two comments I saw exchanged most often on students’ peer-reviewed papers.

Step 11: Final Copies and Publication

Once revision and peer review are done, students will hand in their final copies. If you don’t want to get stuck with 100-plus papers to grade, consider using Catlin Tucker’s station rotation model , which keeps all the grading in class. And when you do return stories with your own feedback, try using Kristy Louden’s delayed grade strategy , where students don’t see their final grade until they have read your written feedback.

Beyond the standard hand-in-for-a-grade, consider other ways to have students publish their stories. Here are some options:

Stories could be published as individual pages on a collaborative website or blog.
Students could create illustrated e-books out of their stories.
Students could create a slideshow to accompany their stories and record them as digital storytelling videos. This could be done with a tool like Screencastify or Screencast-O-Matic .

So this is what worked for me. If you’ve struggled to get good stories from your students, try some or all of these techniques next time. I think you’ll find that all of your students have some pretty interesting stories to tell. Helping them tell their stories well is a gift that will serve them for many years after they leave your classroom. ♦

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including slideshow mini-lessons on 14 areas of narrative craft, a sample narrative piece, editable rubrics, and other supplemental materials to guide students through every stage of the process, take a look at my Narrative Writing unit . Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

What to Read Next

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

52 Comments

Wow, this is a wonderful guide! If my English teachers had taught this way, I’m sure I would have enjoyed narrative writing instead of dreading it. I’ll be able to use many of these suggestions when writing my blog! BrP

Lst year I was so discouraged because the short stories looked like the quick drafts described in this article. I thought I had totally failed until I read this and realized I did not fai,l I just needed to complete the process. Thank you!

I feel like you jumped in my head and connected my thoughts. I appreciate the time you took to stop and look closely at form. I really believe that student-writers should see all dimensions of narrative writing and be able to live in whichever style and voice they want for their work.

Can’t thank you enough for this. So well curated that one can just follow it blindly and ace at teaching it. Thanks again!

Great post! I especially liked your comments about reminding kids about the power of storytelling. My favourite podcasts and posts from you are always about how to do things in the classroom and I appreciate the research you do.

On a side note, the ice breakers are really handy. My kids know each other really well (rural community), and can tune out pretty quickly if there is nothing new to learn about their peers, but they like the games (and can remember where we stopped last time weeks later). I’ve started changing them up with ‘life questions’, so the editable version is great!

I love writing with my students and loved this podcast! A fun extension to this narrative is to challenge students to write another story about the same event, but use the perspective of another “character” from the story. Books like Wonder (R.J. Palacio) and Wanderer (Sharon Creech) can model the concept for students.

Thank you for your great efforts to reveal the practical writing strategies in layered details. As English is not my first language, I need listen to your podcast and read the text repeatedly so to fully understand. It’s worthy of the time for some great post like yours. I love sharing so I send the link to my English practice group that it can benefit more. I hope I could be able to give you some feedback later on.

Thank you for helping me get to know better especially the techniques in writing narrative text. Im an English teacher for 5years but have little knowledge on writing. I hope you could feature techniques in writing news and fearute story. God bless and more power!

Thank you for this! I am very interested in teaching a unit on personal narrative and this was an extremely helpful breakdown. As a current student teacher I am still unsure how to approach breaking down the structures of different genres of writing in a way that is helpful for me students but not too restrictive. The story mapping tools you provided really allowed me to think about this in a new way. Writing is such a powerful way to experience the world and more than anything I want my students to realize its power. Stories are how we make sense of the world and as an English teacher I feel obligated to give my students access to this particular skill.

The power of story is unfathomable. There’s this NGO in India doing some great work in harnessing the power of storytelling and plots to brighten children’s lives and enlighten them with true knowledge. Check out Katha India here: http://bit.ly/KathaIndia

Thank you so much for this. I did not go to college to become a writing professor, but due to restructuring in my department, I indeed am! This is a wonderful guide that I will use when teaching the narrative essay. I wonder if you have a similar guide for other modes such as descriptive, process, argument, etc.?

Hey Melanie, Jenn does have another guide on writing! Check out A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing .

Hi, I am also wondering if there is a similar guide for descriptive writing in particular?

Hey Melanie, unfortunately Jenn doesn’t currently have a guide for descriptive writing. She’s always working on projects though, so she may get around to writing a unit like this in the future. You can always check her Teachers Pay Teachers page for an up-to-date list of materials she has available. Thanks!

I want to write about the new character in my area

That’s great! Let us know if you need any supports during your writing process!

I absolutely adore this unit plan. I teach freshmen English at a low-income high school and wanted to find something to help my students find their voice. It is not often that I borrow material, but I borrowed and adapted all of it in the order that it is presented! It is cohesive, understandable, and fun. Thank you!!

So glad to hear this, Nicole!

Thanks sharing this post. My students often get confused between personal narratives and short stories. Whenever I ask them to write a short story, she share their own experiences and add a bit of fiction in it to make it interesting.

Thank you! My students have loved this so far. I do have a question as to where the “Frog” story mentioned in Step 4 is. I could really use it! Thanks again.

This is great to hear, Emily! In Step 4, Jenn mentions that she wrote the “Frog” story for her narrative writing unit . Just scroll down the bottom of the post and you’ll see a link to the unit.

I also cannot find the link to the short story “Frog”– any chance someone can send it or we can repost it?

This story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. You can find a link to this unit in Step 4 or at the bottom of the article. Hope this helps.

I cannot find the frog story mentioned. Could you please send the link.? Thank you

Hi Michelle,

The Frog story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. There’s a link to this unit in Step 4 and at the bottom of the article.

Debbie- thanks for you reply… but there is no link to the story in step 4 or at the bottom of the page….

Hey Shawn, the frog story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link Debbie is referring to at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit and you would have to purchase that to gain access to the frog story. I hope this clears things up.

Thank you so much for this resource! I’m a high school English teacher, and am currently teaching creative writing for the first time. I really do value your blog, podcast, and other resources, so I’m excited to use this unit. I’m a cyber school teacher, so clear, organized layout is important; and I spend a lot of time making sure my content is visually accessible for my students to process. Thanks for creating resources that are easy for us teachers to process and use.

Do you have a lesson for Informative writing?

Hey Cari, Jenn has another unit on argumentative writing , but doesn’t have one yet on informative writing. She may develop one in the future so check back in sometime.

I had the same question. Informational writing is so difficult to have a good strong unit in when you have so many different text structures to meet and need text-dependent writing tasks.

Creating an informational writing unit is still on Jenn’s long list of projects to get to, but in the meantime, if you haven’t already, check out When We All Teach Text Structures, Everyone Wins . It might help you out!

This is a great lesson! It would be helpful to see a finished draft of the frog narrative arc. Students’ greatest challenge is transferring their ideas from the planner to a full draft. To see a full sample of how this arc was transformed into a complete narrative draft would be a powerful learning tool.

Hi Stacey! Jenn goes into more depth with the “Frog” lesson in her narrative writing unit – this is where you can find a sample of what a completed story arc might look. Also included is a draft of the narrative. If interested in checking out the unit and seeing a preview, just scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the image. Hope this helps!

Helped me learn for an entrance exam thanks very much

Is the narrative writing lesson you talk about in https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/narrative-writing/

Also doable for elementary students you think, and if to what levels?

Love your work, Sincerely, Zanyar

Hey Zanyar,

It’s possible the unit would work with 4th and 5th graders, but Jenn definitely wouldn’t recommend going any younger. The main reason for this is that some of the mini-lessons in the unit could be challenging for students who are still concrete thinkers. You’d likely need to do some adjusting and scaffolding which could extend the unit beyond the 3 weeks. Having said that, I taught 1st grade and found the steps of the writing process, as described in the post, to be very similar. Of course learning targets/standards were different, but the process itself can be applied to any grade level (modeling writing, using mentor texts to study how stories work, planning the structure of the story, drafting, elaborating, etc.) Hope this helps!

This has made my life so much easier. After teaching in different schools systems, from the American, to British to IB, one needs to identify the anchor standards and concepts, that are common between all these systems, to build well balanced thematic units. Just reading these steps gave me the guidance I needed to satisfy both the conceptual framework the schools ask for and the standards-based practice. Thank you Thank you.

Would this work for teaching a first grader about narrative writing? I am also looking for a great book to use as a model for narrative writing. Veggie Monster is being used by his teacher and he isn’t connecting with this book in the least bit, so it isn’t having a positive impact. My fear is he will associate this with writing and I don’t want a negative association connected to such a beautiful process and experience. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you for any information you can provide!

Although I think the materials in the actual narrative writing unit are really too advanced for a first grader, the general process that’s described in the blog post can still work really well.

I’m sorry your child isn’t connecting with The Night of the Veggie Monster. Try to keep in mind that the main reason this is used as a mentor text is because it models how a small moment story can be told in a big way. It’s filled with all kinds of wonderful text features that impact the meaning of the story – dialogue, description, bold text, speech bubbles, changes in text size, ellipses, zoomed in images, text placement, text shape, etc. All of these things will become mini-lessons throughout the unit. But there are lots of other wonderful mentor texts that your child might enjoy. My suggestion for an early writer, is to look for a small moment text, similar in structure, that zooms in on a problem that a first grader can relate to. In addition to the mentor texts that I found in this article , you might also want to check out Knuffle Bunny, Kitten’s First Full Moon, When Sophie Gets Angry Really Really Angry, and Whistle for Willie. Hope this helps!

I saw this on Pinterest the other day while searching for examples of narritives units/lessons. I clicked on it because I always click on C.o.P stuff 🙂 And I wasn’t disapointed. I was intrigued by the connection of narratives to humanity–even if a student doesn’t identify as a writer, he/she certainly is human, right? I really liked this. THIS clicked with me.

A few days after I read the P.o.C post, I ventured on to YouTube for more ideas to help guide me with my 8th graders’ narrative writing this coming spring. And there was a TEDx video titled, “The Power of Personal Narrative” by J. Christan Jensen. I immediately remembered the line from the article above that associated storytelling with “power” and how it sets humans apart and if introduced and taught as such, it can be “extraordinary.”

I watched the video and to the suprise of my expectations, it was FANTASTIC. Between Jennifer’s post and the TEDx video ignited within me some major motivation and excitement to begin this unit.

Thanks for sharing this with us! So glad that Jenn’s post paired with another text gave you some motivation and excitement. I’ll be sure to pass this on to Jenn!

Thank you very much for this really helpful post! I really love the idea of helping our students understand that storytelling is powerful and then go on to teach them how to harness that power. That is the essence of teaching literature or writing at any level. However, I’m a little worried about telling students that whether a piece of writing is fact or fiction does not matter. It in fact matters a lot precisely because storytelling is powerful. Narratives can shape people’s views and get their emotions involved which would, in turn, motivate them to act on a certain matter, whether for good or for bad. A fictional narrative that is passed as factual could cause a lot of damage in the real world. I believe we should. I can see how helping students focus on writing the story rather than the truth of it all could help refine the needed skills without distractions. Nevertheless, would it not be prudent to teach our students to not just harness the power of storytelling but refrain from misusing it by pushing false narratives as factual? It is true that in reality, memoirs pass as factual while novels do as fictional while the opposite may be true for both cases. I am not too worried about novels passing as fictional. On the other hand, fictional narratives masquerading as factual are disconcerting and part of a phenomenon that needs to be fought against, not enhanced or condoned in education. This is especially true because memoirs are often used by powerful people to write/re-write history. I would really like to hear your opinion on this. Thanks a lot for a great post and a lot of helpful resources!

Thank you so much for this. Jenn and I had a chance to chat and we can see where you’re coming from. Jenn never meant to suggest that a person should pass off a piece of fictional writing as a true story. Good stories can be true, completely fictional, or based on a true story that’s mixed with some fiction – that part doesn’t really matter. However, what does matter is how a student labels their story. We think that could have been stated more clearly in the post , so Jenn decided to add a bit about this at the end of the 3rd paragraph in the section “A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?” Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

You have no idea how much your page has helped me in so many ways. I am currently in my teaching credential program and there are times that I feel lost due to a lack of experience in the classroom. I’m so glad I came across your page! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks so much for letting us know-this means a whole lot!

No, we’re sorry. Jenn actually gets this question fairly often. It’s something she considered doing at one point, but because she has so many other projects she’s working on, she’s just not gotten to it.

I couldn’t find the story

Hi, Duraiya. The “Frog” story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit, which you can purchase to gain access to the story. I hope this helps!

I am using this step-by-step plan to help me teach personal narrative story writing. I wanted to show the Coca-Cola story, but the link says the video is not available. Do you have a new link or can you tell me the name of the story so I can find it?

Thank you for putting this together.

Hi Corri, sorry about that. The Coca-Cola commercial disappeared, so Jenn just updated the post with links to two videos with good stories. Hope this helps!

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Category: personal essay

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10 personal essays that will teach you how to write

Mar 9, 2017 | Writing

“How do you learn to write?” It’s a question I ask myself often, particularly when teaching writing classes. Hanif Kureishi, author of Buddha in Suburbia and a creative writing instructor, says you can’t. Does he think the same when it comes to writing personal essays?

I disagree with Kureishi. Obviously.

How could I spend the last 20 years of my life teaching writing — personal writing, fiction, non-fiction, composition — if I believed such a thing?

But the classroom alone will not teach you to write. You need to practice and you NEED TO READ!

Every month in The Workshop — my online writing academy to build writing skills, find a community and make money with your works — I bring in a guest speaker to teach one aspect of the business of writing. Anjali Enjeti , a writer, editor and also a creative writing instructor, joined us to teach The Art of Writing Compelling Personal Essays.

Over the course of an incredible hour, Anjali gave us tips on how to focus your essay. She offered advice on what to do when your emotions are still raw, and she shared her favorite personal essays!

Reading is the very best way to improve your writing!

You nod your head in vigorous agreement. You catch your breath. At times, you clench your fists because you know something awful is coming, but you can’t help but continue reading.

Your favorite books and essays are your writer’s toolbox. When you read them, you see new ways to structure your story, uncover creative ideas for dialogue and uncover ways to strengthen your message and reach your reader more powerfully.

“Good writers borrow. Great writers steal,” said TS Eliot.

Or perhaps it was Pablo Picasso who said that. Or maybe it was Aaron Sorkin. I dunno. But the sentiment remains. We writers take what we see, hear, taste, touch, and experience and transpose them to the pages on which we write.

The essays below span a wide breadth of topics and represent different styles of writing. At the heart of each, though, lies a truth, a concise mirror held up to reflect a common lived experience. We may be left breathless, moved, laughing, devastated or anything else on the emotional spectrum. Most of all, they leave us inspired to write.

Reading one essay is a lesson learned, the ten pieces of writing below offer you a comprehensive course in personal writing. You’ll learn dialogue, structure and character development. They’ll teach you how to build tension and what questions you should ask yourself as you write.

For each, I’ve included a brief excerpt from the piece as well as a link so you can read it yourself. And finally at the end, an added gift. I’ve included a recent piece from Anjali, so you can not only revel in her favorite essays but see how her own reading creates the narrative and beauty of her writing.

10 essays that will teach you how to write

1. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen

You are in the dark, in the car, watching the black-tarred street being swallowed by speed; he tells you his dean is making him hire a person of color when there are so many great writers out there. You think maybe this is an experiment and you are being tested or retroactively insulted or you have done something that communicates this is an okay conversation to be having.

2. Karrie Higgins’ Strange Flowers

I love you like xo. Ever since my brother died, I have dialed his disconnected telephone numbers, tracking where they terminate over time, hoping to cross his ghost voice in the wires. He is finally returning my call. We have a downlink .

3. Jo Ann Beard’s The Fourth State of Matter

I have an ex-beauty queen coming over to get rid of the squirrels for me. She has long red hair and a smile that can stop trucks. I’ve seen her wrestle goats, scare off a giant snake, and express a dog’s anal glands, all in one afternoon. I told her on the phone that a family of squirrels is living in the upstairs of my house. “They’re making a monkey out of me,” I said.

4. Lydia Yuknavitch’s Woven

It was a night I wanted never to end. Or, I wish with all my heart that the story ended there. Mythic youth. But that’s not where the story ended.

5. Roger Rosenblatt’s Making Toast

Bubbies has been attending to his own education—proceeding from one word, to several, to two-word sentences, to three and more. Some say that children learn to speak in order to tell the stories already in them. An early word of his was “back.” He wanted reassurance that when any of us left the house, or even a room, we were coming back.

6. Eula Biss’ Time and Distance Overcome Content warning on this one. It is a difficult read. Lynchings and racism.

The poles, of course, were not to blame. It was only coincidence that they became convenient as gallows, because they were tall and straight, with a crossbar, and because they stood in public places. And it was only coincidence that the telephone poles so closely resembled crucifixes.

7. Mariama Lockington’s What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew

I know that my hair is curly and thick, that my mother wants me to love it natural. I know that when she drops me off at Jasmine’s to get my hair braided I feel safe. That even though it hurts when she untangles my kinks I don’t mind because she smells so good. I learn that I love the smell of black women. Of grease, flat irons, and cocoa butter. I know I am black and that my parents love me, but I know I am different.

8. Tim Bascom’s Picturing the Personal Essay: A Visual Guide

Contrary to the high school teacher’s oft-repeated maxim—“Show, don’t tell!”—the essayist is free both to show and tell. In fact, I once heard the nonfiction writer Adam Hochschild scold a group of MFA students for being so subtle in their writing that they left out critical signposts that readers needed. “Don’t be so afraid to say what you mean,” he counseled.

9. Laurie Herzel’s But Will They Love Me When I’m Done

Late in her mother’s life, Hampl asked her why she eventually allowed the poem to be published, hoping her mother would say that it was because the poem was so good. Instead, her mother said, “Because I loved you. I’ve always hated it.”

10. Anjali Enjeti’s Drinking Chai to Savannah

I survey the tourists poring over guidebooks, tapping their phones. I worry one of them will mutter something derogatory about this group of seven brown women whose mere presence seems to have doubled the minority population of this historic district.

About Leigh

I'm a writer and mentor currently living in Argentina. Want to know how I created my ideal writing life?

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Learning Objectives

Describe techniques for writing an effective personal essay

How to Write a Personal Essay

One particular and common kind of narrative essay is the personal narrative essay. Many of you have already written at least one of these – in order to get to college. The personal essay is a narrative essay focused on you. Typically, you write about events or people in your life that taught you important life lessons. These events should have changed you somehow. From this choice will emerge the theme (the main point) of your story. Then you can follow these steps:

Someone writing on sticky notes and in a notebook.

Once you identify the event, you will write down what happened. Just brainstorm (also called freewriting). Focus on the actual event. You do not need to provide a complete build-up to it. For example, if you are telling a story about an experience at camp, you do not need to provide readers with a history of my camp experiences, nor do you need to explain how you got there, what we ate each day, how long it lasted, etc. Readers need enough information to understand the event. So, you do not need to provide information about my entire summer if the event only lasts a couple of days.
Use descriptions/vivid details.
“Nothing moved but a pair of squirrels chasing each other back and forth on the telephone wires. I followed one in my sight. Finally, it stopped for a moment and I fired.”
The verbs are all in active voice creating a sense of immediacy: moved, followed, stopped, fired.
Passive voice uses the verb “to be” along with an action verb: had been aiming, was exhausted.
Develop your characters. Even though the “characters” in your story are real people, your readers won’t get to know them unless you describe them, present their personalities, and give them physical presence.
Use dialogue. Dialogue helps readers get to know the characters in your story, infuses the story with life, and offers a variation from description and explanation. When writing dialogue, you may not remember exactly what was said in the past, so be true to the person being represented and come as close to the actual language the person uses as possible. Dialogue is indented with each person speaking as its own paragraph. The paragraph ends when that person is done speaking and any following explanation or continuing action ends. (If your characters speak a language other than English, feel free to include that in your narrative, but provide a translation for your English-speaking readers.)
Be consistent in your point of view. Remember, if it is a personal narrative, you are telling the story, so it should be in first person. Students often worry about whether or not they are allowed to use “I.” It is impossible to write a personal essay without using “I”!
Write the story in a consistent verb tense (almost always past tense). It doesn’t work to try to write it in the present tense since it already happened. Make sure you stay in the past tense.

Sample Personal Statement

One type of narrative essay you may have reason to write is a Personal Statement.

Many colleges and universities ask for a Personal Statement Essay for students who are applying for admission, to transfer, or for scholarships.

Generally, a Personal Statement asks you to respond to a specific prompt, most often asking you to describe a significant life event, a personality trait, or a goal or principle that motivates or inspires you. Personal Statements are essentially narrative essays with a particular focus on the writer’s personal life.

The following essay was responding to the prompt: “Write about an experience that made you aware of a skill or strength you possess.” As you read, pay attention to the way the writer gets your attention with a strong opening, how he uses vivid details and a chronological narrative to tell his story, and how he links back to the prompt in the conclusion.

Sample Student Essay

Alen Abramyan Professor X English 1101-209 2/5/2013

In the Middle of Nowhere Fighting Adversity

A three-punch combination had me seeing stars. Blood started to rush down my nose. The Russian trainers quietly whispered to one another. I knew right away that my nose was broken. Was this the end of my journey; or was I about to face adversity?

Ever since I was seven years old, I trained myself in, “The Art of Boxing.” While most of the kids were out playing fun games and hanging out with their friends, I was in a damp, sweat-filled gym. My path was set to be a difficult one. Blood, sweat, and, tears were going to be an everyday occurrence.

At a very young age I learned the meaning of hard work and dedication. Most kids jumped from one activity to the next. Some quit because it was too hard; others quit because they were too bored. My father pointed this out to me on many occasions. Adults would ask my father, ” why do you let your son box? It’s such a dangerous sport, he could get hurt. My father always replied, “Everyone is going to get hurt in their lives, physically, mentally and emotionally. I’m making sure he’s ready for the challenges he’s going to face as a man. I always felt strong after hearing my father speak that way about me. I was a boy being shaped into a man, what a great feeling it was.

Year after year, I participated in boxing tournaments across the U.S. As the years went by, the work ethic and strength of character my father and coaches instilled in me, were starting to take shape. I began applying the hard work and dedication I learned in boxing, to my everyday life. I realized that when times were tough and challenges presented themselves, I wouldn’t back down, I would become stronger. This confidence I had in myself, gave me the strength to pursue my boxing career in Russia.

I traveled to Russia to compete in Amateur Boxing. Tournament after tournament I came closer to my goal of making the Russian Olympic Boxing team. After successfully winning the Kaliningrad regional tournament, I began training for the Northwest Championships. This would include boxers from St. Petersburg, Pskov, Kursk and many other powerful boxing cities.

We had to prepare for a tough tournament, and that’s what we did. While sparring one week before the tournament, I was caught by a strong punch combination to the nose. I knew right away it was serious. Blood began rushing down my face, as I noticed the coaches whispering to each other. They walked into my corner and examined my nose,” yeah, it’s broken,” Yuri Ivonovich yelled out. I was asked to clean up and to meet them in their office. I walked into the Boxing Federation office after a quick shower. I knew right away, they wanted to replace me for the upcoming tournament. “We’re investing a lot of money on you boxers and we expect good results. Why should we risk taking you with a broken nose?” Yuri Ivonovich asked me. I replied, “I traveled half-way around the world to be here, this injury isn’t a problem for me.” And by the look on my face they were convinced, they handed me my train ticket and wished me luck.

The train came to a screeching halt, shaking all the passengers awake. I glanced out my window, “Welcome to Cherepovets,” the sign read. In the background I saw a horrific skyline of smokestacks, coughing out thick black smoke. Arriving in the city, we went straight to the weigh ins. Hundreds of boxers, all from many cities were there. The brackets were set up shortly after the weigh ins. In the Super Heavyweight division, I found out I had 4 fights to compete in, each increasing in difficulty. My first match, I made sure not a punch would land; this was true for the next two fights. Winning all three 6-0, 8-0 and 7-0 respectively. It looked like I was close to winning the whole tournament. For the finals I was to fight the National Olympic Hope Champion.

The night before the finals was coincidentally the 200th anniversary of the city. All night by my hotel, I heard screams of laughter and partying. I couldn’t sleep a wink. The morning of the fight I was exhausted but anxious. I stepped into the ring knowing that I was tired. I fell behind in points quickly in the first round. I felt as if I were dreaming, with no control of the situation. I was going along for the ride and it wasn’t pleasant. At the end of the second round, the coach informed me that I was far behind. “?You’re asleep in there,” he yelled out to me, confirming how I felt. I knew this was my last chance; I had to give it my all. I mustered up enough strength to have an amazing round. It was as if I stepped out and a fresh boxer stepped in. I glanced at my coaches and see a look of approval. No matter the outcome, I felt that I had defeated adversity. My opponent’s hand was raised , he won a close decision, 6-5. After I got back to my hotel, I remembered Yuri Ivonovich telling me they expected good results. “How were my results,” I asked myself. In my mind, the results were great, with a broken nose and with no sleep, I came one point shy of defeating the National Olympic Hope Champion.

Even from a very young age, I knew that when my back was against the wall and adversity was knocking on my door, I would never back down. I became a stronger person, a trait my family made sure I would carry into my adult years. No matter what I’m striving for; getting into a University; receiving a scholarship; or applying for a job, I can proudly say to myself, I am Alen Abramyan and adversity is no match for me.

Link to Learning

Sandra Cisneros offers an example of a narrative essay in “Only Daughter” that captures her sense of her Chicana-Mexican heritage as the only daughter in a family of seven children.

Do Personal Essays have Thesis Statements?

While many personal essays include a direct statement of the thesis, in some personal essays the thesis may be implied rather than stated outright.

Imagine, for example, that in your personal essay you decide to write about the way someone influenced you. The influential individual could be a relative, a friend or classmate, an employer or a teacher. As you shape your essay, you would not simply assemble a collection of miscellaneous observations about the person; instead, you would be selective and focus on details about this person that show his or her impact upon you.

Let us say that the person who influenced you is a grandparent. You may know a lot about this individual: personality traits, family and marital history, medical history, educational background, work experience, military experience, political and religious beliefs, hobbies, tastes in music, etc. But as you shape your essay about how this individual affected you, you wouldn’t try to catalog all that you know. Instead, you would try to create a dominant impression by including details that guide your reader toward the idea that is central to the essay.

For example, if you developed certain habits and attitudes as you and your grandparent worked together on a project, that experience might provide the focus for the essay. If you chose details consistent with that focus, then you wouldn’t need to state that this was the point of the essay. Your readers would understand that that was the governing idea based on the details you had so carefully chosen.

Whether the thesis is stated outright or implied, then, the personal essay will have a governing idea—an idea that is “in charge” of what you decide to include in the essay in terms of content, vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone. In short, the personal essay may not have a thesis statement, but it will have a thesis.

Consider a personal essay in which a student was asked to write about a person she admired, and she wrote about her cousin. She wrote:

I admired my cousin’s decision to enlist because she had to withstand criticism from people who thought women shouldn’t be in the army and because in basic training she had to stand up to physical and mental challenges that I don’t think I could face.

The thesis statement provides quite a lot of guidance for both writing and reading the essay. Writer and reader are equally able to see what the subject of the essay is and what is being stated about the subject, and both writer and reader can see how the essay should be organized. No matter how many body paragraphs there are, this thesis implies that the paper will be divided into two sections. One section will group together the paragraphs on this topic: cousin “had to withstand criticism from people who thought women shouldn’t be in the army.” Another section will group together the paragraphs on this second topic: “in basic training she had to stand up to physical and mental challenges.”

Are Narratives Persuasive?

In a personal essay, you may not think of your thesis as “arguable” in the same way as a claim in a persuasive essay would be arguable, but in fact, you can think of it as something that should need to be demonstrated—backed up through explanations and illustrations. Usually, the idea that should be demonstrated is that you are a thoughtful, reflective person who has learned from the events and people in your life.

If the thesis does not need to be demonstrated, then there may not be much purpose in writing the essay. For, example, a statement that “George W. Bush was the forty-third president” or the statement that “Senior proms are exciting” would not be considered arguable by most people and likely would not spark a reader’s interest and make them want to keep reading.

On the other hand, the thesis statements below would need to be explained and illustrated. In that sense, these personal essay thesis statements are equivalent to claims that are “arguable.”

The evening was nearly ruined because parents acting as dress-code vigilantes threw several people out of the prom.
My team spent hours planning the prom and managed to head off a repeat of the after-prom drinking that caused some parents to question whether the prom should be held this year.
Everyone was able to attend the prom proudly because our prom committee got several stores to loan outfits to make certain everyone would feel like they fit in.
I opted to attend an alternative prom because the principal refused to allow a same-sex couple to attend.

Keep in mind that the actions or events in your essay do not have to make you look heroic. You could write a convincing and powerful essay about how you attended the school-sponsored prom, even though the principal refused to allow a same-sex couple to attend. Your essay, in this case, might, for example, focus on your regret over your decision and your subsequent understanding of how you think you can best challenge the status quo in the future. In other words, you can write an effective personal essay about a moment of regret.

When writing a personal essay for an application of some kind (scholarship, internship, graduate school), remember that the ultimate purpose of the essay is to make you, the essay writer and applicant, look good. That doesn’t mean that you need to describe you doing great things. If your personal essay is all about your grandfather and what an amazing role model and person he was, you still need to think about how your essay can make you (and not just your grandfather) look good. One way to make yourself look good is to make clear that you are a thoughtful, reflective person (and someone smart enough to learn from a man like your grandfather).

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/20435

Contributors and Attributions

Narrative Essay. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-styles/narrative-essay/narrative-essay-see-it-across-the-disciplines/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
Narrative Essays. Authored by : Marianne Botos, Lynn McClelland, Stephanie Polliard, Pamela Osback . Located at : https://pvccenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/eng-101-inside-pages-proof2-no-pro.pdf . Project : Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric . License : CC BY: Attribution
Sample Narrative Essay. Provided by : Georgia State University. Located at : gsuideas.org/SCC/Narration/Sample%20Narrative%20Essay%20Personal%20Statement.html. Project : Writing For Success. License : CC BY: Attribution
Writing a Narrative Essay. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-writing/chapter/types-of-rhetorical-modes/. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Image of person writing on sticky notes. Authored by : Nappiness. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/photos/brainstorming-business-professional-441010/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license
Do Personal Essays have Thesis Statements?. Provided by : Radford University. Located at : https://lcubbison.pressbooks.com/chapter/core-101-personal-essay-assignment/ . Project : Radford University Core Handbook. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Teacher Habits

Helping Teachers inside the Classroom and Out

How to Write a Personal Essay: Instructions, Outline

Have you ever wanted to share a meaningful life experience or emotion through writing, but didn’t know where to start? Personal essays are the perfect avenue for expressing your unique perspective and connecting with readers. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of how to write a personal essay, from choosing the right topic to polishing your final draft. Get ready to embark on a journey that will not only improve your writing skills, but also provide valuable self-reflection.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Learn how to write a personal essay in 2023 by understanding the elements, choosing the right topic and reflecting on your experiences.
Use descriptive language, evoke emotion & showcase unique qualities while avoiding cliches & overused topics.
Enhance your essay with editing tips such as seeking feedback from others and fine tuning grammar/punctuation for clarity.

What is a Personal Essay Essay?

A personal essay is a piece of creative nonfiction where the writer shares a meaningful lesson they have learned from their life experiences. Unlike a research or descriptive essay, a personal essay focuses on the writer’s individual story and experiences, making it an ideal way to showcase who you are beyond numbers and percentages in college applications. In fact, many personal essays are submitted during the application process, highlighting the importance of this form of writing. To get a better understanding of how to craft your own story, you can refer to personal essay examples available online or learn how to write a personal essay through various resources.

The personal essay format has its unique structure, typically consisting of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. To make your essay stand out, it’s essential to use a conversational tone that builds a connection with the reader. By incorporating storytelling elements and vivid descriptions, you create an engaging narrative that captures the reader’s attention and keeps them hooked throughout the entire essay.

Choosing the Right Topic for Your Personal Essay

Selecting an appropriate and engaging topic is vital for a captivating personal essay. To choose the right topic, consider reflecting on your own personal experiences, keeping your audience in mind, and avoiding overused topics.

In the following sections, we’ll delve deeper into these aspects to help you craft a personal essay that resonates with readers and showcases your unique perspective.

Reflecting on Your Experiences

To find a meaningful and engaging topic for your personal essay, start by reflecting on your personal experiences and emotions. Review, analyze, and evaluate events, ideas, and emotions from a different angle to gain insight. It’s crucial to focus on specific moments or experiences that have had a significant impact on your life and have taught you a valuable lesson.

While reflecting, think about why you did what you did and whether there’s a more effective way of doing it in the future. This introspection can help you identify a deeper truth or valuable lesson worth sharing in your essay. Your personal experiences can serve as the foundation for a captivating narrative that resonates with readers.

Considering Your Audience

When choosing a topic for your personal essay, it’s crucial to consider your audience. Think about their:

level of knowledge on the topic

By tailoring your essay to best connect with your readers, you can create a more engaging and relatable narrative.

For college essays, consider that admissions officers want to know what you will bring to their community and how you can make their school more valuable. Emphasize attributes like:

Perseverance
Original perspectives
The capacity to inspire others

Throughout your essay, showcase your unique qualities and experiences to make it stand out and leave a lasting impression on your readers.

Avoiding Overused Topics

To create a fresh and original personal essay, avoid cliché or overused personal essay topics. While it may be tempting to write about a sports victory or a life-changing event, these topics can make your essay seem unoriginal and uninteresting. Instead, focus on a unique aspect of your life, such as:

an estranged family member
a moral turning point during adolescence
a challenging experience that shaped your perspective
a personal passion or hobby that has had a significant impact on your life

By choosing a unique and personal topic, you can create an essay that stands out and captivates your readers.

When writing a personal essay for college applications, here are some tips to consider.

Steer clear of writing about Covid-19, as many applicants may choose this topic, making your essay less distinctive.
Instead, emphasize how specific events or experiences have impacted you personally and academically.
Showcase your resilience and growth through these experiences.

Structuring Your Personal Essay

A well-structured personal essay outline is crucial for guiding the reader through your narrative. It includes an engaging introduction, strong body paragraphs, and a compelling conclusion. Mastering the art of essay writing ensures that your good personal essay effectively communicates your story, much like a well-crafted personal statement.

In the next sections, we’ll provide tips on crafting each part of your personal essay, ensuring a smooth narrative flow that keeps your reader engaged.

Crafting an Engaging Introduction

The introductory paragraph of your personal essay should grab the reader’s attention and set the tone of your narrative. Start with a hook sentence, such as a quote, a vivid description, or a personal anecdote, that encourages the reader to continue reading.

Include a clear thesis statement, which provides a brief overview of your essay’s main points and establishes the direction of your narrative. Remember to keep your introduction concise and focused on your central theme.

Your opening sentence should not only capture the reader’s attention, but also provide a glimpse into your unique story. This will set the stage for the rest of your personal essay and leave a lasting impression on your readers.

Developing Strong Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of your personal essay should support your thesis statement by providing details about your experiences and how they reflect on them over time. Each new point should have its own body paragraph, maintaining a clear and logical structure throughout your essay. Use transitions and chronological order to maintain a smooth narrative flow and guide your reader through your story.

To make your body paragraphs engaging, use descriptive language to create vivid images and provide sensory details that help the reader understand your story and its characters. Also, consider incorporating personal anecdotes to illustrate a point or provide a unique perspective. This will make your personal essay more captivating and memorable for your readers.

Writing a Compelling Conclusion

Your conclusion is the final opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your reader. In this section, you should:

Restate your thesis
Summarize the main points of your personal essay
Leave the reader with a specific emotion or life lesson
Connect your narrative to a broader context

When crafting your conclusion, ensure that it reinforces the main idea of your essay and ties it back to the thesis statement. This will provide a sense of closure and finality, making your personal essay a memorable and impactful read.

Enhancing Your Personal Essay

Now that you have a solid structure for your personal essay, it’s time to bring it to life by showcasing your unique voice, using descriptive language, and learning from past mistakes.

In the following sections, we’ll discuss these aspects in detail, helping you create a captivating and memorable personal essay that resonates with readers.

Showcasing Your Unique Voice

Embracing your personal writing style and voice is essential for conveying your unique perspective and genuine experiences in your personal essay. The elements of voice include:

Choosing the right words
Sentence structure
Punctuation

By selecting language that best expresses your personality and the mood you want to create, you can effectively showcase your individuality.

When telling your personal story, focus on the details that make it special to you and consider how you experienced the event and the emotions you felt. This will help you create an authentic narrative that resonates with readers and sets your personal essay apart from others.

Using Descriptive Language

Descriptive language plays a crucial role in engaging the reader and bringing your personal essay to life. It involves using words to paint a picture in the reader’s head, making them feel like they are truly experiencing the story. To achieve this, incorporate vivid descriptions, dialogue, and sensory details throughout your essay.

Metaphors, similes, personification, and imagery are great examples of descriptive language that can enhance your personal essay. By evoking emotions and creating vivid images, you can make your essay more interesting and engaging for the reader, leaving a lasting impact.

Learning from Past Mistakes

Reflecting on past writing mistakes and learning from them can significantly improve your personal essay and overall writing skills. Here are some steps to follow.

Be honest with yourself about what went wrong.
Consider the context, effect, and potential fixes for each mistake.
Use these insights to refine your writing.
Avoid repeating errors in future projects.

By following these steps, you can learn from your mistakes and become a better writer.

To ensure you’re applying lessons learned, take the time to reflect on any mistakes and think about how you can use those lessons in your current personal essay. This continuous self-improvement can greatly enhance your writing, making your personal essay more engaging and impactful.

Editing and Polishing Your Personal Essay

Once you’ve written your personal essay, the final step is to edit and polish it to perfection. This involves seeking feedback from others, fine-tuning your essay, and ensuring it is free of grammar, punctuation, and clarity issues.

In the next sections, we’ll provide tips on how to effectively edit and polish your personal essay, creating a refined final product that captivates your readers.

Seeking Feedback from Others

Asking for feedback from friends, family, or teachers can provide valuable insights and suggestions for improving your personal essay. Be specific about the kind of feedback you’re looking for, such as clarity, structure, or overall impact. This will help your reviewers provide constructive criticism that you can use to refine your essay.

Ideally, have 2-4 people you trust read your personal essay, as different perspectives can offer diverse insights. Take their feedback into account and make revisions as necessary. Remember that ultimately, you have the final say on your essay, so use the feedback to improve it while staying true to your unique voice and perspective.

Fine-Tuning Your Essay

After receiving feedback, it’s time to revise and fine-tune your personal essay. Here are some steps to follow.

Focus on grammar, punctuation, and clarity to ensure your essay is polished and ready for submission.
Check for redundancies and make sure the writing is concise and clear.
Ensure the essay flows logically.

By following these steps, you can improve the quality of your personal essay and increase your chances of success.

Reading your essay aloud can help you spot mistakes that you might have missed when reading in your head. Additionally, use this opportunity to tweak your personal essay to better showcase your personality, experiences, and unique qualities. Keep refining your essay until you feel confident that it effectively conveys your message and leaves a lasting impression on your readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are 5 elements of a personal essay.

A personal essay consists of an introduction, body, conclusion, a compelling hook, engaging story, interesting characters, immersive setting and meaningful point.

It also uses components of argument, thesis and conclusion to make a larger argument.

How should I structure a personal essay?

To structure a personal essay, use the typical five paragraph structure for English papers, with an introductory paragraph containing a thesis or hook, body paragraphs that provide supporting evidence for the thesis, and a conclusion that ties everything together.

Additionally, ensure your essay has a conversational tone, tell readers something they don’t already know, and be sure to edit and proofread your work.

What is a personal essay format?

A personal essay format typically consists of an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction introduces the topic and establishes the writer’s attitude, while the body of the essay tells a story of a personal experience using descriptive language.

The conclusion ties everything together.

How do I write my own essay?

To write your own essay, create an outline that includes an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion that ties everything together.

Use conversational tone, be thoughtful and consider your audience, use evidence to support your argument, and remember to proofread for accuracy.

What is the main purpose of a personal essay?

The main purpose of a personal essay is to share a meaningful lesson the writer has learned from their life experiences, connecting with readers and allowing them to express their unique perspective.

This type of essay can be written in a variety of ways, but it should always be engaging and thought-provoking. It should also be written in a way that is easy to read and understand. Splitting the text into paragraphs is a key to understanding the text.

Writing a personal essay can be a rewarding and enlightening experience. By understanding the purpose of a personal essay, choosing the right topic, structuring your essay, enhancing it with your unique voice and descriptive language, and editing and polishing the final product, you can create a captivating narrative that resonates with readers.

Remember, the journey of self-reflection and growth that comes with writing a personal essay is just as important as the final product. So embrace the process and let your personal essay be a testament to your unique perspective and experiences.

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

THE ULTIMATE NONFICTION WRITING TEACHING RESOURCE

essay writing | nonfiction writing unit | Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers | literacyideas.com

270 pages of the most effective teaching strategies
50+ digital tools ready right out of the box
75 editable resources for student differentiation
Loads of tricks and tips to add to your teaching tool bag
All explanations are reinforced with concrete examples.
Links to high-quality video tutorials
Clear objectives easy to match to the demands of your curriculum

Planning an essay

essay writing | how to prepare for an essay | Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers | literacyideas.com

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

● Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

● Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

● Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

● Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

● Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

● Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear.

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

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● Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

● Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

● Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

● Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

essay writing | essay editing tips | Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers | literacyideas.com

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process.

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help:

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

essay writing | Perfect essay writing for students | Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers | literacyideas.com

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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How to Write a Personal Essay

Last Updated: February 2, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 310,734 times.

A good personal essay can move and inspire readers. It can also leave the reader unsettled, uncertain, and full of more questions than answers. To write an effective personal essay, you will need to first understand the structure of a personal essay. You will then need to brainstorm ideas for the personal essay so you are ready when it is time to sit down and craft your essay.

Starting Your Personal Essay

For example, maybe you want to write about an experience where you learned about failure. You may think the time you failed a pop quiz in class. Though the quiz may have seemed insignificant to you at the time, you realized later that failing the pop quiz forced you to reassess your goals and motivated you to get a passing grade. Seen from a certain angle, your small failure became a gateway to perseverance and determination.

This could be a seemingly small moment that ended up having a profound influence on you later, such the first time you experienced disgust as a child or the look on your mother’s face when you told her you were gay. Try to really dig into why you were hurt or compelled to overcome a challenge in this moment in your essay.
Remember that moments charged with strong emotion will often be more engaging to readers. Having a strong reaction to a specific moment will allow you to write passionately about it and keep your reader interested in your essay.

Step 3 Discuss a specific event that triggered an emotional response.

For example, you may focus on the day you found out your father cheated on your mother, or the week you mourned the death of a loved one. Think about a heavy experience in your life that shaped who you are today.
You may also decide to write about a seemingly light topic or event, such as your first ride on a roller coaster, or the first time you went on a cruise with your partner. No matter what event you choose, make sure it is an event that triggered a strong emotional response, ranging from anger to confusion to unabashed joy.

Step 4 Think of a person in your life that you have difficulty with in some way.

For example, you may think about why you and your mother stopped speaking years ago or why you are no longer close to a childhood friend. You may also look at past romantic relationships that failed and consider why they did not succeed or a relationship with a mentor that went sour.
This could also be about someone that you're close with. For example, you could write about a moment that tested your relationship with a close friend.

Ask yourself questions about the current event. For example, how does the current event intersect with your own experiences? How can you explore a current social issue or event using your personal thoughts, experiences, and emotions?
For example, you may have an interest in writing about Syrian refugee camps in Europe. You may then focus your personal essay on your own status as a refugee in America and how your experiences a refugee have shaped the person you are now. This will allow you to explore a current event from a personal perspective, rather than simply talk about the current event from a distant, journalistic perspective.

The introductory section should include “the hook”, opening lines where you catch the reader’s attention. It should also have some sort of narrative thesis, which is often the beginning of an important event in the piece or a theme that connects your experience to a universal idea.
The body sections should include supporting evidence for your narrative thesis and/or the key themes in your piece. Often, this is in the form of your experiences and your reflections on your experiences. You should also note the passage of time in your body sections so the reader is aware of when and how certain events occurred.
The concluding section should include a conclusion to the events and experiences discussed in the essay. You should also have a moral of the story moment, where you reflect on what you learned from your experiences or how your experiences changed your life.
In the past, it was advised to have five paragraphs total, one paragraph for the introductory section, three paragraphs for the body section, and one paragraph for the concluding section. But you can have more or less than five paragraphs for your personal essay as long as you have all three sections.

Writing the Personal Essay

Step 1 Begin with an engaging opening scene.

Don't begin with a line that explains exactly what is going to be discussed in, such as, “In this essay, I will be discussing my fraught relationship with my mother." Instead, draw your reader into your piece and still provide all the information needed in your opening line.
Start instead with a specific scene that contains the key characters of the essay and allows you discuss the central question or theme. Doing this will allow you to introduce the reader to the characters and the central conflict right away.
For example, if you are writing about your fraught relationship with your mother, you may focus on a specific memory where you both disagreed or clashed. This could be the time you and your mother fought over a seemingly insignificant item, or the time you argued about a family secret.
Try to use an active voice instead of a passive voice as much as possible when you're writing your essay.

Step 2 Write from your unique voice or perspective.

This writing voice may be conversational, much like how you might speak to a good friend or a family member. Or, the writing voice may be more reflective and internal, where you question your own assumptions and thoughts about the subject of the essay.
Many personal essays are written in the first person, using “I”. You may decide to write in the present tense to make the story feel immediate, or past tense, which will allow you to reflect more on specific events or moments.
Include vivid sensory descriptions in your essay to help the reader connect with your unique perspective. Describing touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound can help the reader invest in your story and feel like they're there with you.

Step 3 Develop the characters so they are well-rounded and detailed.

You can also include lines of dialogue spoken by your characters, based on your memory of the event. However, you should limit dialogue to only a few lines a page, as too much dialogue can start to veer away from personal essay and more toward fiction.

You may use a plot outline to organize your essay. The plot points should act as supporting evidence for the central question or issue of the essay.

Step 5 Focus on uncovering a deeper truth.

It’s important to remember that though an experience may appear to have all the drama necessary to make a good personal essay, it may be a drama that is too familiar to the reader already. Be wary of experiences that are familiar and filled with pathos that a reader may have experienced before.
If you are writing about the sudden death of a loved one, for example, it may feel important and deep to you. But the reader will likely know what to expect of an essay about a dead loved one, and may not relate to your essay because they did not know the loved one like you did.
Instead, you may try to uncover a truth that is deeper than “I am sad my loved one died.” Think about what the loved one meant to you and how the loved one affected your life, in positive and negative ways. This could lead to the uncovering of a deeper truth and a stronger personal essay.

Polishing Your Essay

Step 1 Try out different literary techniques and forms.

For example, you may use metaphor to describe the experience of telling your mother you are gay. You may describe your mother’s face as “impenetrable, a sudden wall”. Or you may use a simile, such as “my mother’s reaction was silent and stunned, as if she had been struck by lightning.”

As you read it out loud, you should highlight any sentences that are confusing or unclear as well as sentences that do not appear as strong as the rest of the draft. You should also make sure your characters are well developed and your essay follows some kind of structure or sense of plot. Consider if you are hitting a deeper truth in your draft and what you can do to get there if it is not yet on the page.Revising your essay will only make it that much stronger.

When you are revising, you should consider if your content is really worth writing about, if you are writing about a topic or subject you are passionate about, and if your reader will understand your writing. You want to avoid confusing your reader, as this can turn her off from reading to the end of your essay.
You should also make sure the focus and themes of the essay are clear. Your experiences should center around a central question, issue, or theme. This will ensure your personal essay is well written and concise.
Avoid relying on spellcheck to catch all of the spelling and grammar errors in your essay.

Expert Q&A

To get a better sense of the genre, you should read highly crafted examples of personal essay. There are several known personal essays that are often taught in academia, including "Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, “The Death of a Moth” by Virginia Woolf, “Shipping Out” by David Foster Wallace, “The White Album” by Joan Didion, and “We Do Abortions Here” by Sallie Tisdale. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
Ask yourself several questions as you read the examples, such as: How does the writer introduce the subject of their essay? How does the writer explore the subject for a personal perspective? What are the key themes in the essay? How does the writer connect their personal experiences to a universal theme or idea? How does the writer use humor or wit in the essay? What is the concluding moral of the essay? Does the end of the essay leave you satisfied, unsettled, curious, or all of the above? Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

Sample Essay and Template

↑ https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/thesis-sentence/thesis-sentence-angles/
↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
↑ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1/chapter/writing-a-narrative-or-personal-essay/
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/personal-essay/
↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-personal-essay
↑ https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writing-resources/point-of-view-in-academic-writing.aspx
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/story-plot/
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/literary-devices/
↑ http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2013/09/how-to-write-your-personal-essay/
↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/revising-drafts/

About This Article

To write a personal essay, start by deciding on an experience that affected your life in some way, such as how failing a pop quiz in class made you change your goals. Next, draft an outline containing the points you want to make, and including an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. When writing, start your essay with an engaging scene that introduces the characters and main theme, then develop the characters in the body section so they're well-rounded. Conclude by summing up what you learned from the experience. For tips on how to include a plot in your essay and how to proofread your work, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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10 Tips for Teaching Personal Narrative Writing in Middle School ELA

One of my favorite middle school ELA writing activities for the beginning of the school year is a personal narrative essay . I find this assignment is a great way for us to learn a lot about who our students are – as writers, and as people! It’s a great way to build foundational relationships with new students and set everyone up for a positive year!

Here’s how I like to set up personal narrative essay writing in the classroom:

1. Teach about the Genre

To begin, I like to explore the idea of personal narrative writing . While many of our middle school ELA students have written other types of essays before, this is often the first time they encounter this the personal narrative writing genre. First, I like to ask students if they have ever heard of personal essays and guide a brief class discussion.

Personal narratives create a valuable opportunity for students to share relevant stories from their own lives. Usually, this type of writing is designed to provoke an emotional reaction. Often, they find that personal narratives can be one of the most enjoyable writing assignments in ELA class!

What is Personal Narrative Writing ELA Activity

2. Help them Choose a Topic

I find that one of our students’ biggest roadblocks to writing a personal narrative essay is the fact they think they don’t have anything worthwhile to say!

When this inevitably happens, I like to remind them that personal narratives can encompass a broad range of topics. As they plan their writing, they can choose to write about a single event, or an overall experience. For example, they might like to highlight on a moment in time. Alternatively, they could focus on a single thing that spanned a number of years (developing a skill at swimming lessons or dance class, for example). Even the simplest story can make an excellent topic for a personal narrative essay, as long as it is presented in a powerful way.

I also like to emphasize that the most important part of a personal narrative is that the writing has a purpose. For example:

A funny story might enlighten readers on a lesson learned the hard way.
A scary story might serve as a warning or wake up call.
A touching story might inspire others to be a better person or view the world from a different perspective.

Sometimes I even like to share one of my favorite quotes. The saying (which is often attributed to the Dalai Lama) goes, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!” This usually reassures our middle school ELA students that we all have the ability to make a powerful impact!

If they are stuck…

If the class still seems stuck on choosing a topic, I like to set stations up around the room and break students into small groups. Next, I provide them with task card prompts at each station to get them thinking about their various life experiences that might make a good topic for a personal narrative essay.

When they arrive at each station, they read the card. Each member of the group briefly shares a story that relates to the prompt, and students take a few minutes to jot down a few possible ideas on their brainstorming sheet. As they move through the stations and repeat the process, they should generate a number of different ideas to consider.

When their sheet is full, I invite them to narrow down their choices by considering their answers to the following questions:

What are you most inspired by or excited to write about?
What might be the most interesting for others to read?
Which topic can be told with a clear series of events and interesting details or enticing descriptions?
Which story has a thought-provoking message or point?

Personal Narrative Prompt Writing ELA Activity

3. Share Two Important Questions

As the class works through the brainstorming process, they need to also consider the fact that personal narrative essays are meant to be shared with others. I will read their work when I grade it, of course, and I also like to share and display students’ writing around my classroom.

With this in mind, I like to invite students to consider two questions before they get too deep into their initial draft:

Am I comfortable sharing this story with others?
Will people be able to relate to my experiences and what I learned?

When thinking about these questions, if the student cannot respond with an enthusiastic “yes” to both, it is time to go back to the brainstorming sheet and choose a different topic. But if their topic passes this important self-check, they can keep going!

4. Start With the End in Mind

Now, it’s time for students to step back and consider the purpose of their writing. In this section of the lesson , I encourage the middle school ELA class to think about the “heart” of the story. In other words, what do they want the audience to notice and consider as they read?

This is also an opportunity for students to consider their own purpose for writing. Some questions I like to ask are:

Why do you want to share this story?
What do you want people to feel as they read your personal narrative essay?
What should the lasting impression of this story be on your reader?

5. Consider Your Audience

As part of the pre-planning process, I also like to remind middle schoolers of who their audience for this task will be. After all, personal stories should be shared with others!

I find that sometimes students approach an assignment from a different perspective depending on who will be reading their written work. This is why I like to make it very clear about the audience for their finished writing upfront.

There are many options for sharing students’ written work. Sometimes, after the essays are written, I have students sit and read them aloud to small groups of their peers. I also usually invite them to include their personal narratives in their portfolio of work from the year, which can be accessed by parents and guardians through an online portal. I may also keep a copy of their personal narratives to share with families during student-led conferences.

In some cases, a conversation with students about how they would like their words and ideas to be shared can be useful. They may surprise you with their own ideas. For example, they might like to post excerpts from their personal narratives to a blog, or even make them into a podcast!

6. Plan Out Your Story Elements

Once you have addressed the issues of topic and audience, it’s time to consider the elements of a personal narrative.

Characters:

I like to emphasize that while the writer is the main character, a personal narrative essay usually involves other characters as well. When preparing to write, I invite students to consider:

Who else is involved in the story or event?
What are their character traits, and how will you show them through your writing?
What is your relationship like with this person (or people?)

Once the characters are established, a next step for students is to consider the setting. For example, if location is important to the story, I might ask the class how they will convey a sense of place.

Here, I find it helps to brainstorm sensory details to include. I like to ask the class about the weather, time of day, sounds (for example, birds chirping, crowds, rain on the roof) and other details. These can help add color to the overall scene.

During the lesson , I like to explain that most personal narratives include one of the four types of conflict. This is sometimes new information for my middle school ELA students! I find it helps to ask the following questions:

Is there conflict between you and another person in the story? (person vs. person)
Are you struggling with some type of inner turmoil or struggling to make a decision? (person vs. self)
Are you in conflict with the natural elements? (person vs. environment)
Are you challenging an element of government or society? (person vs. society)

7. Provide an Organizational Framework

As we discuss the organizational framework of a personal narrative essay, middle school ELA students usually notice similarities to traditional story writing. During this process, a graphic organizer can support them with their planning.

Planning the Beginning of the Essay:

I remind them that the beginning of their essay should provide a captivating hook, establishing the basic details of the story. This can include background information, as well as information about the characters and setting. Most importantly, I like to reinforce that this is where they need to establish themselves as the main character! Depending on the topic, the students might introduce the conflict in this section as well.

Planning the Middle of the Essay :

As they move on to the middle of the personal narrative, I like to tell middle school ELA students to dive even more deeply into the situation, problem, or event they are describing. This helps their reader connect with the story. To do this, I also like to invite them to consider the character’s experiences (how they were feeling and what they were thinking). Just like in traditional fiction, this is also the place to build to some kind of climax.

Planning the Conclusion of their Essay:

Finally, I have students consider how they plan to conclude their personal narrative writing ELA task. In this section, they will want to tie up any loose ends, and identify any key messages they want to leave with the reader. As they organize their ideas, I ask them to think about a few things:

What could the reader learn from your experience?
Is there a moral or lesson the reader might consider in their own life?
Will your story leave the reader laughing, in tears, or ready to take action?

One thing I emphasize is that students who are unfamiliar with personal narrative writing will probably want to stick quite closely to this planning format at first. As they become more comfortable with this type of writing task, they will gain more confidence in their own style, and take more creative risks.

8. Share Writing Strategies

Now it’s time for the fun part – the writing itself! Before my middle school ELA students write their essays in earnest, I offer a few tips to get them started.

First, I remind them to write their narrative essays in first person. After all, they’re telling their own stories! We discuss the idea of being “true to your voice” as a writer, and consider how the students wish to tell their personal stories. A humorous, witty, inspiring or sad story will all require a different tone – and whatever direction the student chooses to go in, the writing should be consistent.

Next, I like to offer a few tips about engaging the reader . Dialogue can add color and vibrancy to a personal narrative. Vivid imagery and sensory details can show, rather than tell, a sense of place or emotional connection. I love sharing the sample sentence, “Her face flushed to a shocking shade of red.” This is much more effective than, “She was embarrassed.”

9. Allow Time For Peer Editing

In my classroom, I like to leave a period or two for peer editing and revisions at the end of the writing process.

The first time, I encourage ELA students to read their personal narrative writing aloud. Or – even better – they can have a peer read their work back to them. This is a great starting point for finding mistakes or weak spots in the writing that need to be changed. The second time through, students can use a checklist to edit the work in sections and offer suggestions for improvement.

By breaking the editing process down into three key areas (grammar, content, and writing structure), I find students can keep their feedback constructive, focused and efficient. Finally, I leave time for the students to go over their writing again, making spelling and grammar corrections to ensure they turn in their best work.

10. Give Options for Sharing

It’s important to remember that each student has their own personal comfort level about sharing their work with a large group. A brief survey (either on paper or via Google Forms) is a great way to check in on students and find out how they would like to share their writing.

Here are some choices I like to offer:

sharing their personal narrative essay through a pre-recorded podcast or video
reading their essay in front of the class
presenting their work to a small group of their peers
booking a private meeting with me (usually at lunch) to go through their essay together

There you have it! I hope your middle school ELA students love writing personal narrative essays as much as mine do!

If you’re looking for more unique writing ideas for middle and high school, check out 5 Outside the Box Creative Writing Assignments in ELA !

Students stuck in a writing rut? Here are 8 Ways to Engage Reluctant Writers .

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A Systematic Approach to Teaching Narrative Writing

Clear strategies for each stage of the writing process help students improve their writing and serve as effective readers for their peers.

Two middle school students work on writing together in classroom

“I’ll never forget the colors,” I often read in student reflections.

As a middle school language arts teacher, I’ve developed a systematic approach to writing that helps students improve their storytelling skills. It includes strategies for writing in a variety of genres, such as personal narrative, memoir, and creative nonfiction. And in the revision stage I teach a color-coded approach to analyzing details that helps students see clearly what kinds of details they’ve used—and which they haven’t. Apparently this approach really sticks with my students.

When these strategies are used together, they help students improve their writing skills while also fostering relationships among themselves as they act as sounding boards for each other’s work.

Prewriting Q&A as a Source of New Ideas

Prewriting is an essential part of the writing process. If ideas aren’t flowing, however, some students may become stalled, with a lack of ideas acting as a roadblock for them. To get the ball rolling, I pair students together for prewriting conversations.

To begin, I share one of my own stories to demonstrate the art of storytelling. Next, I give students the opportunity to discuss their own story ideas with a partner. Then, as I walk around listening to their conversations, I’ll pause every now and then and ask a few students whose ideas piqued my interest to share their story ideas aloud with the entire group.

Next, I’ll demonstrate asking a series of questions to the student who is sharing aloud, explaining to the class that this strategy can help them dive deeper as writers. Students will continue their discussions in pairs, eliciting as many details as possible from the storyteller through questioning.

They might ask:

“How was the narrator feeling at that moment?”
“What would happen if…”
“Can you help me picture the character?”

This type of thoughtful questioning helps students visualize the scene more vividly and replaces initial writing jitters with fun and flexibility.

They jot down their ideas with words, pictures, bullets, or anything else that helps them solidify the memories from their spoken stories now that they are ready to prewrite independently.

To See What You’re Writing, Act It Out

Instead of summarizing a whole story from beginning to end, I want students to create a writing piece based on a brief period that includes vivid detail. I’ve found that having students act out a scene helps them grasp this concept.

First, I’ll have students read aloud a few pages from our class book. Then, in small groups, they’ll act out the scene. “Now that you’ve acted it out, how long do you think this moment would have taken in real life?” I’ll ask. There will be a friendly debate. In the end, students will realize that the scene was a moment of time told with meaningful details, whether they said it took 30 seconds or 10 minutes.

Students then deconstruct the scene they just acted out by creating a timeline of key character actions. For example, using pages 9–10 of The Glass Castle , by Jeannette Walls, the scene breakdown might look like this:

At age 3, Jeannette is standing on a chair cooking hot dogs in the kitchenette and feeding them to her dog.
Her dress catches on fire, sending flames up her body.
Jeannette’s mom, painting in the next room, hears her scream and enters the kitchen.
Mom uses an army surplus blanket to put the fire out.
Mom, Jeannette, and brother Brian run to the neighbor’s house to get help.
The neighbor drops her laundry she was hanging on the line and races to take them to the hospital, saying nothing.

Students will then work independently to apply the same strategy to their own ideas, focusing on showing rather than telling the entire story. Students will share their lists with their groups and then act out each other’s ideas.

The following conversation suggestions help students clarify and solidify their ideas.

Beginning, ending, and timing: Where does the heart of this moment start? Where does it end? When one student describes a moment that feels excessively long, the rest of the group suggests methods to shorten it. If a student has a moment that is too short, the group helps to extend it.

Characters: What is each character doing? What’s their motivation? What do they look like? How are they acting?

Setting: Where and when is this taking place? What’s going on around your characters?

Dialogue: What’s being said, how, and by whom?

Internal thinking: What are the characters thinking?

Students are now ready to move on to independent writing and complete a full draft.

Color-Coding Writing as a Detail-Oriented Strategy

Following the drafting phase, I teach students a variety of revising techniques. Every day I introduce a new one—and they’re color-coded to make it easier for students to distinguish between them. We might, for example, focus on character details one day. First, students will find vivid character descriptions they love from the read-aloud or their own independent reading. Then, they’ll add their own character descriptions to their writing, highlighting them in a particular color.

I encourage students to incorporate each color throughout their drafts. If character details are represented by blue, for example, blue highlighting should be used in the beginning, middle, and end of their pieces. Other color-coded strategies include setting details, figurative language, sensory details, dialogue, and internal thinking.

The use of assorted colors allows students to clearly see areas that have been enriched with vivid details and areas that have not. This visual strategy benefits learners of all levels by instilling confidence and a sense of accomplishment as rainbows of color emerge throughout their work.

This color-coding approach also aids in peer editing and teacher conferencing by encouraging meaningful conversations like this: “I see you’ve developed thoughtfully crafted blues in the beginning to describe the Mom character. How can you assist readers in picturing and getting to know your other characters? How can you incorporate more blues later to describe them?”

To showcase daily accomplishments, students add their favorite highlighted lines to the classroom bulletin boards. While students could easily copy and paste their examples into a shared class Google Doc, I’ve found that they’re more engaged when there’s movement and camaraderie, and they like having their words physically present in the classroom.

Recently I taped a piece of bulletin board paper for students to write on in the front of the classroom and another in the back. A student was waiting patiently for others to finish at the front. I encouraged him to go write his favorite line in the back since there was no wait and it offered more space to write.

“No thanks,” he chirped. “I want everyone to see mine when they walk into the room.”

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Book Title: Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

Author: Melissa Tombro

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Teaching Autoethnography is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author’s position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing.

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Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom Copyright © by Melissa Tombro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Creative writing and creative writing guides

ISBN: 978-1-942341-21-5 ebook

This publication was made possible by a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG). IITG is a competitive grants program open to SUNY faculty and support staff across all disciplines. IITG encourages development of innovations that meet the Power of SUNY’s transformative vision.

Published by Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library (IITG PI)

State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454

The One Method That Changes Your—and All Students’—Writing

Science-based writing methods can achieve dramatic results..

Posted May 14, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

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A systematic writing framework offers a method for dramatically improving the teaching of writing.
This method received only limited uptake, despite high-profile research publications and textbooks.
A focus on writing style might have limited the method's impacts.

I remember spending hours commenting painstakingly on my students’ papers when I was a graduate student teaching in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. My students loved our classes, and they filled my sections and gave me terrific course evaluations. Yet I could see that their writing failed to change significantly over the course of the semester. I ended up feeling as if I should refund their money, haunted by the blunt instruments we had to teach writing.

As I’ve learned from directing five writing programs at three different universities, methods matter. When I reviewed comments on papers from instructors who taught in my programs, I discovered that the quantity and quality of comments on students’ papers made only a slight impact on writing outcomes. For instance, one notoriously lazy instructor took several weeks to return assignments and only used spelling and grammar checkers to automate comments. But his conscientious colleague made dozens of sharp observations about students’ arguments, paragraphs, and sentences. However, Mr. Conscientious’ students improved perhaps only 10% over Mr. Minimalist’s students. Even then, the differences stemmed from basic guidelines Mr. Conscientious insisted his students write to, which included providing context sentences at the outset of their essay introductions.

Educators have also poured resources into teaching writing, with increasing numbers of hours dedicated to teaching writing across primary, secondary, and higher education . Yet studies continue to find writing skills inadequate . In higher education, most universities require at least a year of writing-intensive courses, with many universities also requiring writing across the curriculum or writing in the disciplines to help preserve students’ writing skills. However, writing outcomes have remained mostly unchanged .

While pursuing my doctorate, I dedicated my research to figuring out how writing worked. As a graduate student also teaching part-time, I was an early convert to process writing. I also taught those ancient principles of logos, ethos, and pathos, as well as grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless, these frameworks only created a canvas for students’ writing. What was missing: how writers should handle words, sentence structure, and relationships between sentences.

Yet researchers published the beginnings of a science-based writing method over 30 years ago. George Gopen, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams created a framework for identifying how to maximize the clarity, coherence, and continuity of writing. In particular, Gopen and Swan (1990) created a methodology for making scientific writing readable . This work should have been a revelation to anyone teaching in or directing a writing program. But, weirdly, comparatively few writing programs or faculty embraced this work, despite Williams, Colomb, and Gopen publishing both research and textbooks outlining the method and process.

Peculiarly, this framework—represented by Williams’ Style series of textbooks and Gopen’s reader expectation approach—failed to become standard in writing courses, likely because of two limitations. First, both Gopen and Williams hewed to a relativistic stance on writing methods, noting that rule-flouting often creates a memorable style. This stance created a raft of often-contradictory principles for writing. For example, Williams demonstrated that beginning sentences with There is or There are openings hijacked the clarity of sentences, then argued writers should use There is or There are to shunt important content into sentence emphasis positions, where readers recall content best. Second, these researchers failed to tie this writing framework to the wealth of data in psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience , or cognitive psychology on how our reading brains process written English. For instance, textbooks written by these three principal researchers avoid any mention of why emphasis positions exist at the ends of sentences and paragraphs—despite the concept clearly originating in the recency effect. This limitation may stem from the humanities’ long-held antipathy to the idea that writing is a product, rather than a process. Or even that science-based methods can help teachers and programs measure the effectiveness of writing, one reason why university First-Year Writing programs have failed to improve students’ writing in any measurable way.

Nevertheless, when you teach students how our reading brains work, you create a powerful method for rapidly improving their writing—in any course that requires writing and at all levels of education. Students can grasp how writing works as a system and assess the costs and benefits of decisions writers face, even as they choose their first words. This method also works powerfully to help students immediately understand how, for instance, paragraph heads leverage priming effects to shape readers’ understanding of paragraph content.

Using this method, I and my colleagues have helped students use a single writing assignment to secure hundreds of jobs, win millions in grant funding, and advance through the ranks in academia. However, we’ve also used the same method without modifications in elementary and secondary classrooms to bolster students’ writing by as much as three grade levels in a single year.

Perhaps the time has arrived for this well-kept secret to revolutionizing student writing outcomes to begin making inroads into more writing classrooms.

Gopen, G. D. and J. A. Swan (1990). "The Science of Scientific Writing." American Scientist 78(6): 550-558.

Gopen, George. The Sense of Structure: Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Gopen, George. Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace . University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace . Harper Collins, 1994.

Williams, Joseph. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace . Longman, 2002.

Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Ph.D. , is a consultant on writing and organizations. She is also the author, with Maria B. Grant, MD, of The Biomedical Writer: What You Need to Succeed in Academic Medicine .

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What I’ve Learned From My Students’ College Essays

The genre is often maligned for being formulaic and melodramatic, but it’s more important than you think.

An illustration of a high school student with blue hair, dreaming of what to write in their college essay.

By Nell Freudenberger

Most high school seniors approach the college essay with dread. Either their upbringing hasn’t supplied them with several hundred words of adversity, or worse, they’re afraid that packaging the genuine trauma they’ve experienced is the only way to secure their future. The college counselor at the Brooklyn high school where I’m a writing tutor advises against trauma porn. “Keep it brief , ” she says, “and show how you rose above it.”

I started volunteering in New York City schools in my 20s, before I had kids of my own. At the time, I liked hanging out with teenagers, whom I sometimes had more interesting conversations with than I did my peers. Often I worked with students who spoke English as a second language or who used slang in their writing, and at first I was hung up on grammar. Should I correct any deviation from “standard English” to appeal to some Wizard of Oz behind the curtains of a college admissions office? Or should I encourage students to write the way they speak, in pursuit of an authentic voice, that most elusive of literary qualities?

In fact, I was missing the point. One of many lessons the students have taught me is to let the story dictate the voice of the essay. A few years ago, I worked with a boy who claimed to have nothing to write about. His life had been ordinary, he said; nothing had happened to him. I asked if he wanted to try writing about a family member, his favorite school subject, a summer job? He glanced at his phone, his posture and expression suggesting that he’d rather be anywhere but in front of a computer with me. “Hobbies?” I suggested, without much hope. He gave me a shy glance. “I like to box,” he said.

I’ve had this experience with reluctant writers again and again — when a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously. Of course the primary goal of a college essay is to help its author get an education that leads to a career. Changes in testing policies and financial aid have made applying to college more confusing than ever, but essays have remained basically the same. I would argue that they’re much more than an onerous task or rote exercise, and that unlike standardized tests they are infinitely variable and sometimes beautiful. College essays also provide an opportunity to learn precision, clarity and the process of working toward the truth through multiple revisions.

When a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously.

Even if writing doesn’t end up being fundamental to their future professions, students learn to choose language carefully and to be suspicious of the first words that come to mind. Especially now, as college students shoulder so much of the country’s ethical responsibility for war with their protest movement, essay writing teaches prospective students an increasingly urgent lesson: that choosing their own words over ready-made phrases is the only reliable way to ensure they’re thinking for themselves.

Teenagers are ideal writers for several reasons. They’re usually free of preconceptions about writing, and they tend not to use self-consciously ‘‘literary’’ language. They’re allergic to hypocrisy and are generally unfiltered: They overshare, ask personal questions and call you out for microaggressions as well as less egregious (but still mortifying) verbal errors, such as referring to weed as ‘‘pot.’’ Most important, they have yet to put down their best stories in a finished form.

I can imagine an essay taking a risk and distinguishing itself formally — a poem or a one-act play — but most kids use a more straightforward model: a hook followed by a narrative built around “small moments” that lead to a concluding lesson or aspiration for the future. I never get tired of working with students on these essays because each one is different, and the short, rigid form sometimes makes an emotional story even more powerful. Before I read Javier Zamora’s wrenching “Solito,” I worked with a student who had been transported by a coyote into the U.S. and was reunited with his mother in the parking lot of a big-box store. I don’t remember whether this essay focused on specific skills or coping mechanisms that he gained from his ordeal. I remember only the bliss of the parent-and-child reunion in that uninspiring setting. If I were making a case to an admissions officer, I would suggest that simply being able to convey that experience demonstrates the kind of resilience that any college should admire.

The essays that have stayed with me over the years don’t follow a pattern. There are some narratives on very predictable topics — living up to the expectations of immigrant parents, or suffering from depression in 2020 — that are moving because of the attention with which the student describes the experience. One girl determined to become an engineer while watching her father build furniture from scraps after work; a boy, grieving for his mother during lockdown, began taking pictures of the sky.

If, as Lorrie Moore said, “a short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage,” what is a college essay? Every once in a while I sit down next to a student and start reading, and I have to suppress my excitement, because there on the Google Doc in front of me is a real writer’s voice. One of the first students I ever worked with wrote about falling in love with another girl in dance class, the absolute magic of watching her move and the terror in the conflict between her feelings and the instruction of her religious middle school. She made me think that college essays are less like love than limerence: one-sided, obsessive, idiosyncratic but profound, the first draft of the most personal story their writers will ever tell.

Nell Freudenberger’s novel “The Limits” was published by Knopf last month. She volunteers through the PEN America Writers in the Schools program.

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Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and ...
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May 14, 2024. Most high school seniors approach the college essay with dread. Either their upbringing hasn't supplied them with several hundred words of adversity, or worse, they're afraid ...