Crafting An Essay About Yourself: 10 General Suggestions

At first you may feel a little embarrassed to write an essay about yourself, and as a consequence of this you may find yourself putting off the assignment to the last minute. We’ve come up with these 10 general suggestions to help get started and successfully completing a great essay about yourself:

1. Start by introducing yourself

Before you start the writing seriously, why not spend a few minutes freewriting a short introduction of yourself. This can be completely informative, providing facts about where you were born, how old you are, and so on.

2. Create a list of interests or talents

Make a short list of interests or talents. You might be limited and have to choose just one but this exercise will help you come up with some good ideas that might make for an excellent written assignment.

3. Narrow the focus of your essay

Choose a single topic, narrow the focus of your essay, and use this to introduce yourself in the first few sentences of the assignment. The reader should immediately know what it is you will be talking about, so get right to the point.

4. Provide a some good details

Once you have chosen and narrowed your topic come up with one or two details to discuss in full. These should be details that capture the reader’s attention and have the ability to leave a lasting impression.

5. Don’t come off as a total brag

There is a time and a place where it’s appropriate to brag about ones accomplishments. But too much of this in this kind of assignment might do more harm than good. If you choose to discuss your accomplishments do so in a manner that is humble.

6. Write about something complex

Don’t write about anything that is cliché. A lot of people tend to choose topics that make them seem good or something for which they are proud. Consider writing about something complex that isn’t necessarily a good thing. A controversial view or opinion formed by some event is more interesting than writing about persevering through an athletic season.

7. Limit or shorten the event timeline

It’s hard to keep up when you write about something that takes place over several years. Even if key events take place years apart, you should limit the event timeline so the two seem to be happing close to one another.

8. Connect details to a larger theme

Ask yourself what the point of your story is. Consider the reader in trying to get back to the idea of what he or she should be getting out of your composition. Use the detailed events of your story to connect to some larger theme.

9. Always revise for greater effect

Set your paper aside for a couple of hours then come back to it for revision. When doing this be sure that you are looking for every opportunity to improve readability by actively re-thinking your presentation. Look to reorder, remove or add material.

10. Edit for clutter and proofread

These types of assignments can get boring pretty fast if they are filled with extraneous clutter. Edit all unnecessary words, phrases and sentences. In addition, be sure to proofread for all of the small errors you may have made in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.