Personal Essay

ASSIGNMENT 1: PERSONAL ESSAY DRAFT

Due Week 3 and worth 80 points

You have a wealth of experiences, knowledge, and opinions that make you who you are. For your first assignment, you will share your opinions, experiences, and stories to write a personal essay.

What is a personal essay? It’s one of many types of formal essays. All formal essays maintain the same basic structure: Introduction with a thesis statement, supporting paragraphs, and conclusion. The personal essay is a narrative in which the author writes about an experience that was highly meaningful (usually a lesson was learned). For this assignment, choose a topic and discuss three reasons why the topic is important to you. The topic choices are presented in your WebText. To make this a personal essay, it’s important to include one or more stories from your life that demonstrate why your selected topic is meaningful to you.

Important note: Personal Essays DO NOT incorporate any type of research from the WebText or outside sources. If you have written a Personal Essay in a previous course, please reach out to your professor to see if you can re-use it. You are not permitted to use ANY paper from an unrelated current or past course. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

You are required to use your WebText to draft your essay in the templates!  

Compose a two (2) page paper in which you do the following:

1. Structure Your Paper: Story, Introduction, Supporting/Body, Conclusion 1. Incorporate a story from your life into one or more of the following sections: introduction, supporting/body paragraph(s), or conclusion.
   1. Is your personal story relevant to your topic? 
   1. Is your personal story structured effectively, with a clear progression of events?
   1. Is your language descriptive and precise?
   1. Do you include an appropriate level of detail in your story – just enough to help the reader understand your main points?
   1. Write an introduction paragraph, which includes your thesis statement. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences.
      1. Does your introduction include an attention grabber or hook, and/or some background information on the topic?
      1. If you are using a personal story in your introduction, is it relevant to your topic?
      1. Does your thesis statement include three distinct and personal reasons why the topic is meaningful to you?
      1. Is your thesis statement clear and concise?
      1. Does your introduction provide a preview of the rest of your essay?
   1. Write a supporting/body paragraph for each of the three (3) points/reasons from your thesis statement. It is suggested that each paragraph contain 5-7 sentences.
      1. Do your body paragraphs support each point of your thesis with relevant examples, observations, or experiences?
      1. If you are using a personal story in a body paragraph, is it relevant to your topic?
   1. Write a conclusion paragraph. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences?
      1. Did you paraphrase or restate the thesis in a new way?
      1. If you are using a personal story in your conclusion, is it relevant to your topic?
      1. Did you leave a lasting impression, so that your readers continue thinking about your topic after they have finished reading?
2. Use Effective Writing Elements: Point of View, Logic/Transitions, Grammar/SWS

1. Use first person point of view (POV) and the appropriate voice and tone throughout your paper.

1. Did you use first-person pronouns? (I, we, me, us, my/mine, our/ours)
   1. Does your personality carry over in your writing? Are your word choices personal and consistent?
   1. Is the tone casual/informal? Does it express your attitude about the topic?
   1. Write with logic and with transitions throughout your paper.
      1. Are your ideas consistent and well-organized, i.e., chronological order or order of importance?
      1. Have you used appropriate transition words and phrases so that your ideas flow from one sentence to the next and one paragraph to the next, in the order presented in your thesis statement?
   1. Apply proper grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and SWS formatting throughout your paper. a. Did you check your grammar?

i.      The way words are put together to make units of meaning: Sentence structure, pronounagreement, etc.

b. Did you check your essay for mechanics?

i.      All the “technical” stuff in writing: Spelling, capitalization, use of numbers and other symbols, etc?

c. Did you check the punctuation?

i.       The “symbols” used to help people read/process sentences the way you want them to be heard and understood: Periods, question marks, commas, colons, etc.

d. Did you format according to SWS style? (See requirements below.)

SWS FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

Your assignment must follow these general SWS formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides. It should also have numbered pages and indented paragraphs.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. Note: The cover page is not included in the required assignment page length.
• Refer to the Soomo WebText or check with your professor for any additional instructions.