We all have interesting stories and messages to narrate about ourselves. However, the challenge comes in when we have to put the ideas together to bring out a meaningful narration, especially for academic purposes in the case of students.
However, as a student, you must be geared up with pro strategies on how to write a compelling personal narrative essay to meet the tutor’s guidelines and requirements. That is why, in this article, we feature all you need to know about personal narrative writing. So, what is personal narrative essay? Keep reading to find out more.
What is a personal narrative?
A personal narrative essay is one academic paper that involves writing about personal experiences, usually presented in the first person.
It is the same as any other essay with a clear structure, only that you present the information that reflects who you really are. The goal of this essay type is to let the reader know unique elements about you through the writing.
The structure of a personal narrative essay
Although a personal narrative essay is all about personal life and related experiences, it must have a clear personal narrative format. Therefore, include the following:
- The introduction
In the introductions section, use a hook that relates to the story you need to narrate about yourself. The hook will boost the reader’s morale toward your story.
Like any other essay, include the thesis at the end of the intro section of your persona narrative essay.
- The main body
This is a significant section of your personal narrative paper. It is here that you share more details about yourself, and you can begin narrating your story to the reader.
Make sure the ideas or events flow in chronological order; you can use transition words and phrases to keep your essay flowing.
In every experience or happening you share, explain your feelings and thoughts about the specific event.
The goal is to bring all the experiences to live and make the reader feel part of your story.
Note: divide the main body sections into paragraphs, with each paragraph beginning with a topic sentence.
- The conclusion
Finally, you need to end your personal narrative essay in a compelling manner. Simply sum up your feelings and thoughts about the experiences you have described in the paper.
Re-state the thesis statement and describe how the experiences affected, changed you and the life lessons from the experiences.
What makes a personal narrative compelling? Pro tips
- Read other personal essays
It can be a bit hard to wrap up a personal story and put it in an essay, especially for a beginner. This is because other essay types revolve around common aspects that require some research and a few elements to put the context together, unlike in the case of a personal narrative essay where creativity is highly required.
However, this shouldn’t be a big deal. You can make your personal story compelling by reading other related examples to get an idea of you to bring out your best story.
- Highlight the events in a chronological order
Your personal narrative essay is a story of personal events and experiences. Therefore, you need to keep the reader on the flow, how one event led to the other until the end of the story. So, make sure you include transition phrases throughout your essay to give your paper a meaningful and easy-to-understand story.
- Create an outline first
Before you begin writing your personal narrative essay, create a simple draft summing up the ideas and events you want to share in your story.
- Choose an interesting topic
Generating ideas about a personal life experience can be hard, especially if you do not pick a relevant topic.
A good personal narrative topic will not only make the writing process easy; it will also make you enjoy every bit of writing the story, hence more ideas and a good flow of your paper.
- Include emotion
One of the reasons for writing a personal narrative essay is to make your reader feel part of the story and feel like being in your shoes. Therefore, choose descriptive words that denote emotions from personal experiences.
Conclusion
Although writing a personal story through narration of events can be a bit complex process, the above practical strategies will for sure make you realize how easily you can craft your own story.