Kally Wang

Ms. DAntonio
Creative Writing, Period 10
13 October 2016
The process of writing a personal essay involves multiple step. During the personal essay
unit, I learned how prepare for a personal essay, and most importantly, how to write a personal
essay. To prepare for the personal essay, I learned about the importance of a writers voice, and
how to make ones voice recognizable; I analyzed a great example of a personal essay and took
note of the important factors that contributed to the success of the essay, and also learned that
creating an encyclopedia can help me gather topics for my personal essay. For the actual writing
part of the personal essay unit, I learned how a free-write is a great way to collect all thoughts
and/or ideas that are essential to the essay; I learned about the importance of providing a
personal reflection, and learned new ways of revising and editing my essay for the final step of the
whole process.
Firstly, I was given a short passage from Burroways Voice. The passage teaches me
how to express my personal voice when writing a personal essay. It tells me the three essentials
factors that can make my voice recognizable. This first one is diction, which is the writers word
choice. The second one is vocabulary, and thats the whole collection of words used. Lastly, the
third one is syntax, and thats the structure the sentences. Through the three keys from Burroway,
I learned that in order to show my individuality in my personal essay, I must use a wide range of
vocabulary to assist my diction and to make my writing sound more creative and interesting. I also
learned that, I have a syntax that is unique to myself, and my syntax is shown through the way I
arrange the words in my sentences. Through Burroways passage, I also learned that my diction,
vocabulary, and syntax not only help me write expressively, but also, help determine the overall
tone of my personal essay.

Secondly, I started the process of gathering ideas and topics for my essay. To find
inspiration, I flipped through Amy Krouse Rosenthals book, Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life,
and took note of relatable and interesting parts of the book. For example, Parking Spot was the
section I found most relatable. The section basically states how Rosenthal would rather squeeze
into a narrow parking stop thats closer to her destination, instead of parking at a spacious spot
thats further away from her destination. This is relatable to me because I do the exact same thing.
After taking note of a few relatable sections, I started to create my own encyclopedia. I gathered
all the topics that come to mind when I think about each letter of the alphabet. Then, I rearrange
each topic into a different chart by associating each topic with one of the five provided prompts.
Finally, with an overview of all the possibility I can write about for each prompt, I decided to pick
the first prompt since it contains the most topics.
Thirdly, before I start writing my essay, I was given a good example to read. I read The
Costco essay by Brittany Stinson, and highlighted interesting and important parts of the essay. I
analyzed Stinsons good word choices and analyzed how those word choices bring light to her
intelligence, her personality, and her talents. Through her essay, specifically, the part that states
the kingdom of costco, I learned a new concept called the hooptedoodle, which is an
interesting way of utilizing literary elements. Then, after Ive chosen a prompt and learned of the
key factors the contribute to a good personal essay, I finally get to start the actual writing of my
personal essay. To gather all my thoughts, I started with a nonstop free-write. For this beginning
part of my essay, I must type down everything that comes to mind when I think about my chosen
topic. I typed approximately ten minutes straight and got a sense of every significant parts I might
want to include my essay. After I finished all the pre-writing parts of the unit, I wrote my essay
utilizing everything Id learned up to that point. Towards the end of the writing process, I learned
about the importance of including a personal reflection. The reflection basically states the lessons

Id learned from the experiences I expressed in my essay; it tells the reader what why the
experiences are significant to me, and how did it change me as a person.
Finally, the essay is completed, but it still needs to be revised and edited. For this part of
the personal essay unit, I used the ctrl+f key to search for words that are oftentimes common
mistakes people make in their writings. For example, I searched for the words there, theyre, and
their since those words are considered common mistakes people make. Then, I printed my essay
out and read the essay aloud with a red pen. This allows to me to hear my mistakes and mark
them. The ultimate part of the unit is the publishing of my essay. Using a rubric, I made sure that
Id addressed every listed component in my essay before handing it in for a grade.
In conclusion, in the personal essay unit, I learned how to express my voice through the
utilization of diction, vocabulary, and syntax. I learned how to develop topics by making an
encyclopedia. I analyzed The Costco Essay to find inspiration, and to see an example of how to
someone uses her diction, vocabulary, and syntax to show readers her personality and interests. I
also learned from the essay that a hooptedoodle can make an essay more interesting and
creative. I learned that free-writing is a great way to jot down all the essential ideas for a personal
essay. I learned that I should provide a personal reflection when finalizing my essay. Lasty, I
learned how to take advantage of the ctrl+f word search when finding common mistake, and how
reading aloud can make mistakes more noticeable.