We Want to Hear Your Story

How many times are you told to "be quiet" during the course of a day? Well, here is your opportunity to speak up! We want your personal essays about topics you are passionate about.  Write a personal essay about an inspiring or profound life lesson you have learned. Your essay should be between 700 - 1,000 words.  

Here are some helpful writing tips:Writing a personal essay requires intense self-examination.  Please use these suggestions to help guide your drafting process:

• Tell a story. Be specific:  Be sure your essay is about something you care strongly enough about to elaborate and write passionately about it.  Readers want to know what you know, feel what you feel, and understand exactly where you’re coming from.  Ground your the in the events of your life.  Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed.  

• Connect to your readers: While the idea for an essay must be personal, make the frame big enough to allow your reader to find parallels between your experience and theirs.  Give readers the opportunity to say, “Ah! Yes, I’ve never been there or done that, but I can relate to what the author is talking about.” The effective writer must draw in an audience to show a more universal implication of a very personal experience or belief.
• Use details: Draw your readers in. Avoid using abstract expressions and phrases such as “the best day of my life” or “I’d never known greater grief” to describe emotions of love or loss.  Make the emotions real and immediate by noting specifics and details that draw the reader into your experience.  Employ all the senses to convey your ideas to the reader: sight, sound, taste, touch, and hearing.
• Be brief: Your essay should be between 700-1,000 words.  
• Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak.  Upon finishing your draft, read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it to simplify it until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak. Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Avoid speaking in the editorial “we” or pointing your finger by using second-person “you.” Make your essay about you, speak in the first person.
• End strong: Make sure that beyond all the idea development, your readers can summarize the MAIN IDEA that you BELIEVE in.  You should not have to hit the readers over the head with a summary statement such as “What I am trying to say…” or “What I really mean is…” or “In conclusion…”  In fact, such a closing is almost insulting or an indication that you fear you have danced around the belief without making it crystal clear.  You must aim to leave the readers clear and satisfied –whether they agree with what you believe or not.  Sometimes a brief echo of the opening is the most satisfying clincher to bring a personal essay full circle.

Writing tips adapted from thisibelieve.org

Ready to submit your essay? CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT!