When a student faces the need to write an essay about themselves, at first, it seems like an easy task. However, you might find that this is pretty challenging once you start writing. What should you write about? What information is the best for this type of essay and what should you omit? How do you structure a personal essay? These are the questions that we will answer with the following article, so keep reading to learn how to create a perfect essay about yourself.
When talking about written assignments in general, it’s often said that a great hook for your essay is worth half of a grade. Is it true? Hard to say because every professor and teacher is different, so their methods of grading are different too. But what is true is that a hook is important to grab the attention of your reader and create the right mood. This is a little different than a typical resume —How to Write an Essay About Yourself
Writing an essay about yourself is no easy feat —
Outline your impactful experiences
Before you dig into prompts, try writing out a bullet-point list of meaningful experiences you’ve had, and what they might demonstrate. Here’s an example:
- Grocery store cashier job
- Working as part of a team
- Learning to balance school and work responsibilities
- Honing communication skills
- Developing writing skills
- Fostering a passion for my school community
- Learning to meet deadlines and balance responsibilities
- Learning to balance school and volunteer responsibilities
- Working as part of a team
- Gaining an attention to detail
This is a little different than a typical resume —
Ask friends and family for input
When writing about yourself, it is important to reflect on your strengths, and who is better to do that then a supportive team of family and friends?
Consulting family and friends is a great way to learn about strengths that you might not even know you had. Your friends choose to hang out with you for a reason, and they can often pick up on your good qualities that you take for granted. Having your friends point these out can be useful for an essay, as well as a general pick-me-up!
And if you’re looking for a perfect anecdote to answer a prompt like “How have you demonstrated a commitment to your community,” who better to remember your past acts of kindness than your parents?
Don’t be too humble
There is a time and a place for humility, but you shouldn’t worry if you feel like your essay is verging on the braggadocious. These essays are an opportunity to showcase your best qualities, and you should not be worried about putting your best foot forward and telling the reader all the reasons why they should be impressed by you.
What makes these essays effective is that they both include your relevant experiences and demonstrate why they are so significant. You may feel as though you are making mountains out of molehills, but when writing about yourself, it’s important to emphasize the importance of your experiences.
Let your personality come through
Most essays written about yourself will be written in first-person, which is a perfect opportunity to add some flair to your writing. While your first priority is to include impactful examples and communicate your points effectively, it is also important to leave a lasting impression on the reader.
If you see an opportunity to show off your sense of humor or use a more personal tone, don’t be afraid to do it. As long as your remarks are appropriate, on-topic, and not too frequent, they can help put you ahead of the pack.
Try journaling
A great trick for becoming comfortable writing essays about yourself is to try keeping a journal. Journaling helps eliminate the pressure of writing an essay while helping you to become comfortable writing about yourself in an informal setting. Spending 10 or 15 minutes every night writing about your day, or answering some informal prompts can help you to get more in touch with yourself and jog your memory about past events that could be useful for an essay. Good luck, writers!
About Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman
Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman is a Scholarships360 writer who focuses on scholarships and financial aid. He has managed communications and written content for a diverse array of organizations, including a farmer’s market, a concert venue, a student farm, an environmental NGO, and a PR agency.
There is a time and a place for humility, but you shouldn’t worry if you feel like your essay is verging on the braggadocious. These essays are an opportunity to showcase your best qualities, and you should not be worried about putting your best foot forward and telling the reader all the reasons why they should be impressed by you. All students working on this type of essay make similar mistakes. We present the most common ones.Practical Tips for Writing an Essay About Yourself
- Put a sheet with the requirements in front of you and try not to be distracted by other activities.
- Sketch the main theses of your future essay: life examples, memories, goals, and interests.
- The plan should include several parts: the introduction, the main part, and the conclusion. The most extensive should be the main part. It is in it that you fully reveal yourself as a person.
- Sketching a plan, reread it again to make sure that all the details of the future essay are arranged in a logical order.
- After writing the story itself, be sure to reread it several times. First, focus on the general mood, then check the punctuation, and during the last reading, check the style and spelling.
Remember that the main goal is to describe, from your point of view, the most mundane events in an unusual form so that it becomes interesting for the reader not only to read about you, but to meet you in person. Develop your creative expression – with it you can always seem to others as an extraordinary person, but never forget about the spelling and grammar rules.
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