The Personal Essay "This I Believe"

What is a personal essay? It's personal... It's about you and something you believe in strongly. It tells the story of how you came to believe this, or why you have this belief. It's an essay... recognizable, simple structure paragraphs with transitions beginning, middle, and end good spelling, punctuation, and grammar

What is it NOT? It's not an argument or editorial... You aren't trying to convince someone to believe like you do. You're just telling them your story. It's not a general religious or social belief... Choose something you practice every day - something that makes you who you are inside and out

This I Believe Radio Program

Tips from the website: Telling

Tips from the website: Brevity

Tips from the website: Naming

Tips from the website: Positivity

Tips from the website: Personal

So you have a belief… Now hang the D is for dialogue R is for rhetorical questions A is for anecdotes P is for personal experiences E is for examples S if for statistics

Dialogue Add dialogue to show your personality. Keep it simple, short, and don’t worry too much about being exact – get the meaning across. This isn’t a short story – only use dialogue if describing the conversation is inadequate.

Rhetorical Question Rhetorical questions are those which most people would answer the same way – they are designed to make you think twice about something. Examples: o I wondered, “Why don’t I just give up?” o Why can’t we all just get along? o If violence isn’t the answer, why do so many choose it?

Anecdotes and Personal Experiences Anecdotes are very short stories that illustrate a point. They don’t have to be about you, but in this essay, they should relate directly to how you formed your belief. Personal experiences accomplish the same goal – they show how you came to this belief.

Examples and Statistics These are less personal, so use them sparingly! Use examples to show how you developed your belief, or perhaps how it has been tested over the years. Statistics can be interesting to use, but this is not a research paper – only use them if they are extremely relevant to your essay.

Next... Listen to and read the samples in class. Go to to view more ideas. Dream about possible beliefs, and how you could tell your story. In-class work on Thurs. Aug. 21, Fri. Aug. 22, Wed. Aug. 27, Thurs. Aug. 28 Rough Draft due Thurs. Aug. 28 Revisions due Wed. Sept. 18