Personal Experience Essay Suggestions

Some Suggestions for Writing a Personal Experience Essay

1. When you see the topic, quickly choose one experience from your life that relates to the topic.

2. Write down some quick notes about the experience on a separate piece of paper.

3. Don't waste time on a formal introduction; jump right into the experience or story. Save general statements for the conclusion.

4. For most personal experience essays, use simple past or past continuous tense. If something happened previous to the personal experience, use past perfect.

5. Include details to make your essay interesting (but don't get off the topic.)

   Remember: Also:

   see, hear, smell, feel, taste. emotions, thought, actions. (What were you thinking, feeling and doing?)

6. Conclude by telling what you learned from the experience.

7. Don't worry about grammar. Take five minutes at the end to proofread your essay. (Reading aloud helps you catch your mistakes.)

8. Remember: Specific is Terrific!