Personal Expreessive Essay

Essay 1:

Write an original personal expressive essay based on a person, place, experience,

observation or object (2 -3 pages double-spaced). Your first two essays should focus on the meaning of an observation, experience, a person or a place, an object that had some impact on your life or thoughts.

Guidelines

Your first original essay should be similar in style and voice to the essay samples in Set 1.

I have selected a variety of exemplary essays by professional writers and former students to use as

models so that you can then plan and develop your own essay. You should pay particular attention to and

carefully review the model essays and use them as examples of good prose. Personal expressive style doesn’t

mean casual, ungrammatical or sloppy writing—in fact, some personal writing is the most powerful kind of

writing we read. It touches our hearts, minds and spirits, sometimes, in ways no informative or objective

writing can. It’s the writing we care about most . . . so you want this to be just right.

First and foremost, though, you must establish in your own mind that you have some real purpose in

writing about what you choose to use as the focus of your essay. The meaning of your subject, whether it is an

event, object, observation, place or a person, must be clearly and cleverly revealed to your reader. There must

be some significance to what you write beyond just telling or describing or sharing it. Your next consideration

is your audience or readers: What do they know? What is the best way to approach them? What do you want

them to understand, feel or think? This will help you decide what type of voice to use. Review all handouts on

the bb concerning these issues, especially the To Be Verb and Showing vs Telling handouts!

The sample essays possess this one key quality: meaning beyond the example/subject. All of the

sample essays have a clear sense of audience. You should absolutely write for an audience other than me—your

peers would be the target group. We will share these essays with others in the class. If, for example, you

choose to write about a personal experience or a person, keep in mind that each reader must get something or

take a something away from your essay. Don’t dwell in the realm of the obvious—telling readers what they

already know, pretending that the information is new and revealing. While this is difficult to achieve, it’s the

only kind of writing that is worth reading.

So give it a try: write a draft, read it aloud to yourself or, better, to someone else . . . then put it away for

a while then read it again, ready to make some revisions. You need this time away from the writing to see it

again with new eyes. Save your first draft, but save your revised one as another version (number these

chronologically as many times as you revise the essay). Be ready to accept suggestions, while you give

feedback to others.

The last action you should perform before you submit or share a copy of your writing is a mechanical

one: checking punctuation, word choices, etc. Submit the last draft you come up with . . . not the first one!

Review the Top 10 List posted on the Bb before submitting your final copy to me.

Try, as best you can, to say that the draft you submit is your best work for the moment. Be open and

ready though to receive useful feedback and suggestions for further revision after review. This is the writing

process we will use. You will have a chance to revise your work after peer reviews . . . but forget this for now,

and write like you don’t have that opportunity. This may help you produce your best essay.

Consider this a similar effort that athletes, musicians, dancers, actors or artists put forth. They try to

perform in rehearsal or practice at the highest level possible. While they understand that the work is just

practice, they benefit from this opportunity to achieve the best they can at the moment. It is no different for

writers. If you think to yourself: “I’ll just write a sloppy draft or a rough draft and submit that because I’ll get a

chance to rewrite it anyway,” you will not progress as far as you would if you had tried to do your best writing.

Again, going all out in practice makes the final performance better. There is no substitute for this kind

of effort. Yes, you may make mistakes and reconsider what you’ve done later (and make revisions), but you’ll

be closer to the finish line if you’ve given a full effort every time! Give this process a try, and you may see

wonders occur.

Essay specifications:

Heading information in upper left

Liz Anderson

Professor Antinarella

ENG 111 O 15C

15 February 2017

800 - 1000 words / multi-paragraph

Double-spaced / Standard 12 pt font / Times New Roman

Proofread / Spell check for mechanical errors

Label your essay document file with your last name and identifying phrase:

e.g. Anderson Essay 1