Creative Nonfiction - SHS

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Personal Essay

Module 015 – Personal Essay

In the age of social media, people have become more communicative,

prompted by the ease provided by technology. People express themselves
more freely, posting open letters and managing blogs. Even introverts have
suddenly opened their thoughts, using media that provide anonymity.
The personal essay, however, reveals much of who the writing individual is.
At the end of this module, you will be able to:
1. Identify the type of personal essay
2. Distinguish between a personal essay and a different kind of essay
3. Define a personal essay
4. List/identify the parts of a personal essay
5. Draft a personal essay
We have been writing essays since we were in primary school. During that
time, some of your teachers may have been teaching you via an English class
or a special Composition class. This week, you will distinguish among the
different types of personal essays.

What is a Personal Essay?

Remember the time when we regard all essays as equal? In primary school, all we
know is that we have to write a certain number of sentences to form a certain
number of paragraphs required. There must at least be three paragraphs to
accommodate the basic introduction body  conclusion setup.
A personal essay should be able to reflect the opinions or views of the writer. It is not
limited to topics that are inherently associated with the writer. For example, a writer
from the Philippines does not have to be limited to things of his/her own country.
There are many other things (films, stories, news, faraway lands) that he or she can
write about. While the writer may opt to scribe an opinion piece about fantastical
beings, such as dragons, the opinion is still his or her truth. The dragons may be
fantastical, but the writer can always write something to the effect of: “How I View
Dragons” or “How the World Needs Dragons”.

Parts of a Personal Essay

To be able to start writing a personal essay, you should first know the
parts needed. You will not be able to craft a proper personal essay if you don’t know
what the basic structure is like. Here are the parts of a personal essay:

Course Module
  Introduction: This includes the thesis statement. This is more
likely the first sentence in your paragraph. This is a powerful
sentence, which encapsulates everything that the essay is all
about.

For example: Knowing how to do household chores on your own

is a vital modern skill.

The thesis statement will be supported by the subsequent

sentences.

 Body: These are the middle paragraphs that continue to build

upon the thesis statement from the first paragraph. This is
where all your research goes. Make sure that texts that have
been directly lifted from your sources have citations, and that
borrowed ideas are credited.

 Conclusion: After all your discussions that support the thesis

statement, you should be able to come up with the conclusion. A
paragraph is needed to summarize all that you have discussed,
leading to the concluding statement.

Other Meanings of the term “Personal Essay”

The term “personal essay” may also be confused with a specific kind of essay. The personal
essay is specially used to describe the essay written to get into a college or university. It
individualizes each prospective student, highlighting who he or she is, and why he or she
deserves the vacant slot in the school.
Some may use the term a little more vaguely, for all sorts of essays that take a personal turn. So,
your features, opinion piece, and just about anything that you write, laced with your brand of
humor and your POV will be considered a personal essay. This is understandable, because this
type of essay is vaguer, compared to say, for example, the argumentative essay.

Types of Personal Essays

For our purpose, it is important that we focus on four types of personal essays. These essays are
the most commonly used in our day in age.
 Reflection
- A reflection is a personal essay that is constantly requested from students. For
example, after watching a film, the student is asked to write a reflection.
Reflections allow the student to go inside themselves, seek their feelings about
what just happened or what was just presented to him or her. This is not just
limited to the educational setup. People reflect about a lot of things. Some are
compelled to put them into words.
 True Narratives
- Sometimes, you have an experience that has made a significant mark in your life.
The experience, however, cannot fill a whole novel. It is a brief, but inspiring
moment that you write in the form of an essay. This is what we call a true
narrative. The events may have been stylized through the use of literary devices,
but they are still real. They happened to you.
 Creative Nonfiction - SHS
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Personal Essay

 Blogs
- Blogs are now very popular. In fact, some earn millions of dollars annually
through the help of online ads. Blogs, such as Mashable and TechCrunch, are
more than capable of earning hundreds of US dollars a month. All they needed to
have are good writing skills, insight on what could go viral, and possibly a good
team of writers (if they cannot deliver all the writing themselves). A blog is
basically founded on a niche. Each entry is a personal essay about a related topic.
It requires a lot of research, just like the news, but the tone is conversational and
friendly.
 Testimonials
- Products and ads come with testimonials that would support them, often even
for free. Well, if you posted your testimonial as a comment at your own volition,
then more likely you won’t get paid. However, there are, unfortunately, some
cases in which people are paid for their testimonials. Worse, a company writer
may be in charge of the drafting of the words.

Reflection
A reflection personal essay may also be called simply as “reflection” or as “reflective essay”.
Here is an excerpt from a reflection:
“It appears to me that there was a sense of Low Implicit Control during this
lesson. The teacher devoted a large amount of time to disciplining the
student's behavior and controlling the student's movements.

Despite this, the lesson progressed with some great work being produced. To me
it appears that self-regulation is strongly impacted upon by the amount of
student direction, as discussed above. If children were more active in the
lesson structure and planning, then I believe self-regulation would be more
likely to occur and the teacher would not have to spend substantial amount of
time regulating their behavior for them.”

From: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/education/reflective-
writing/4.xml: Last accessed 29th August 2017

Course Module
True Narratives
Here is an excerpt from a True Narrative personal essay:
A Child’s Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town
corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I
sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it
snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for
twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and
headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the
rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow
and bring out whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-
tongued ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out
come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen.
From: http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/hdwyer/a-childs-christmas-in-wales/: Last accessed 29th
August 2017

Blogs
Here is an excerpt from a blog:
Neil de Grasse Tyson is thrilled that Americans came together to witness the
total eclipse of the sun this month. But one aspect of the sweeping excitement
stands out to him.

“Well, I just thought, there’s everyone organizing their lives around

attending and viewing one of nature’s great spectacles, and I don’t see people
protesting it,” the astrophysicist said during an interview with Trevor Noah
on “The Daily Show.”

“I don’t see people objecting to it. I don’t see people in denial of it. Yet
methods and tools of science predict it. So when methods and tools of science
predict other things, to have people turn around and say ’I deny what you
say,’ there’s something wrong in our world when that happens.”

His reference to climate change deniers who dispute conclusive science about
the causes and effects of global warming reinforce his observation on Twitter
earlier this month.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neil-degrasse-tyson-climate-change-deniers-
eclipse_us_59a5213fe4b041393a204021: Last accessed 30th August 2017
(Huffington Post is one of the most popular and most lucrative blogs in the world.)

Testimonials
The problem with testimonials is that you have to be able to gauge if they are, in fact,
genuine. You need experience with the Internet, as well as the power of discernment.
Here is an example of a testimonial for a writing workshop:
 Creative Nonfiction - SHS
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Personal Essay

Nancy created a safe space in which I could manage my blocks and fears more
effectively and concentrate on writing. Her carefully written and incisive
feedback was indispensable. In her “Jumpstart Your Writing” class, she went
above and beyond to ensure that everyone has a voice and a stake in the
direction of the class, and that our voices were heard. I have never
encountered a better writing teacher than Nancy.

–Suda Miller, Jumpstart Your Writing

From: http://nancyagabian.com/workshops/testimonials/: Last accessed 30th August

2017

Glossary
Argumentative: shows organized reasoning, using proof from research as well as logic

Blog: regularly updated website, wherein a post is in itself a personal essay of sorts
Narrative: an account of a series of events; may be used as a synonym for a story
Testimonial: a formal statement that promotes a product, service, or person
Thesis: a proposed statement that will be proved within an essay, dissertation, and other
types of research

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
Gilbert, E., Blanco, R., Lethem, J., Roorbach, B., Russo, R., Beattie, A., . . . Eggers, D. (2014).
The Story I Want To Tell: Explorations in the Art of Writing. Thomaston: Tilbury House
Publishers.
Lamott, A. (2016). Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York:
Bantam Doubleday Publishing Group.
Lopate, P. (2013). To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction. Wilmington:
University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Online Supplementary Reading Materials

The Personal Essay Boom is Over; https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-
tolentino/the-personal-essay-boom-is-over; 29th August 2017
8 Must Have Ingredients of a Successful Blog Post;
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233891; 29th August 2017

Course Module
Online Instructional Videos
Characteristics of a Well-Written Personal Essay;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egSSQzhSsCM; 29th August 2017