You have a wealth of experiences, knowledge, and opinions that make you who you are. For your first assignment you will share your opinions and/or experiences 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) or about a topic that they have an opinion about. 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.

INSTRUCTIONS:

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

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

a. Did you use first person pronouns? (I, we, me, us, my/mine, our/ours)

b. Does your personality carry over in your writing? Are your word choices personal and consistent?

c. Is the tone casual/informal? Does it express your attitude about the topic?

2. Write an introduction paragraph, which includes your thesis statement. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences.

a. Does your introduction include an attention grabber or hook, and/or some background information on the topic?

b. Does your thesis statement include three personal reasons why the topic is meaningful to you?

c. Is your thesis statement clear and concise?

d. Does your introduction provide a preview of the rest of your essay?

3. Write a supporting/body paragraph for each of the three (3) points/reasons from your thesis statement. It is suggest- ed that each paragraph contain at least 5-7 sentences.

a. Do your body paragraphs support each point of your thesis with relevant examples, observations, or experiences?

4. Write with logic and with transitions throughout your paper.

a. Are your ideas consistent and well-organized, i.e., chronological order or order of importance?

b. Do your ideas flow from one sentence to the next and one paragraph to the next, in the order presented in your thesis statement?

5. Write a conclusion paragraph. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences.

a. Did you paraphrase or restate the thesis in a new way?

b. Did you leave a lasting impression, so that your readers continue thinking about your topic after they have finished reading?

6. Apply proper grammar, mechanics, punctuation and APA formatting throughout your paper.

a. Did you check your grammar?

i. The way words are put together to make units of meaning: Sentence structure, pronoun-agreement, 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.

b. 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 APA style? (See requirements below.)