Personal Essays – Finding Your Authentic Voice

This article was first published in the Written Word supplement of the Irish Independent in January 2016.

Writing a personal essay is, very simply, about writing as yourself. Unlike in a short story, where you might pretend to be a cowboy, astronaut, doctor or spy, in a personal essay YOU, an Irish teenager about to finish school, are the star of the show.

See the personal essay as a chance to reveal your personality. It is a chance to explore your attitudes, emotions, hopes and beliefs; the more original the better- show off what makes you unique and make your essay memorable as a result. Personal anecdotes can greatly contribute to revealing personal memories and feelings and can also be hugely entertaining. You also have the option of exploring your opinions and thoughts on more universal themes.

You can be flexible in the style of writing you use– try descriptive writing in one paragraph, anecdotes in another, argue a particular point of view in another. As long as your true personality is shining through the style can vary. People generally write better when they’re writing ‘what they know’ so the personal essay is a great choice for most LC students.

Here are some examples of titles that have come up over the past few years:

2015: Write a personal essay about your response to an ending, or endings, in your life that you consider significant.

2013: Write a personal essay about the tension you find between the everyday treadmill and the gilded promises of life.

2012: Write a personal essay on what you consider to be the marvels of today’s world.

If you’re stuck for ideas think about how the topic relates to you under some of the following headings:

•        You in a personal way
•        Family
•        The Local community
•        Ireland – national level
•        The world – global level
•        A humorous angle
•        Popular culture
•        Literature and History

Here’s a sample introduction for the 2012 title about ‘the marvel’s of today’s world’ written from my personal perspective:

When I was a child I watched ‘Star Trek’ with avid fascination. Giant spaceships that could take you anywhere in the universe in total comfort; magical handheld devices that could let you contact someone else instantly; machines to which you could say ‘Earl Grey tea, hot’ and get your drink instantly – amazing! Along with many children of the 80s, I fantasised about hoverboards and videophones and all the other futuristic gadgets TV could dream up. Would they exist when I was grown up? I fervantly hoped they would but didn’t expect it to really happen. Now I look around me in 2015 (the ‘future’ in “Back to the Future”!) and my hopeful inner child is utterly amazed at the marvels of today’s world. From the International Space Station to smart phones, from 3D printers to bluetooth headsets; so many science-fiction gadgets have become science fact and are affordable for most people to access. We have also made great strides in the fields of medicine, food production and human rights. We are the first generation that is genuinely capable of ending world hunger. Pope John Paul II said “The future starts today, not tomorrow” and, for me, 2015 is the great, glorious future that I anticipated when I was young.

The following techniques can be used to great effect in personal essays:

·      A Conversational Tone: imagine you’re chatting to someone when writing a personal essay and that you’re telling them all about yourself. (This doesn’t mean you should use slang or textspeak) Using a conversational tone creates intimacy with the reader and draws them in to your writing. You can pose questions and then answer them just as would happen in a conversation.

·      Use personal pronouns: It might seem obvious but use the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘me’ throughout the essay. Saying ‘this is how I see things’ is a more pleasant way to voice an opinion than saying ‘this is how things are’.

·      Quote: A well chosen quotation from a piece of writing/song lyric that you love can set off an introduction or conclusion to a personal essay really well. E.g ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done,’ Nelson Mandela. Start collecting them now!

·      Be honest: Be frank about your thoughts and neuroses – the personal essay is all about TMI! (That’s ‘too much information’ for any remaining pre-internet readers out there). Tell anecdotes from your own life – you may think that nothing interesting happens to you but curiosity about other people’s lives is a key part of the human psyche (hence our passion for soap operas).

·      Humour: Take the truth and exaggerate it (hyperbole) to add humour to your work. If an examiner is laughing and enjoying a piece of writing they’re less likely to be picking holes in it. Test out your laugh-inducing writing skills on your teacher over the coming months as a humorous tone can sometimes be tricky to convey on paper.

Really Good Radio

There are amazing resources in radio storytelling and documentaries available free online. You can stream from websites or subscribe to various podcasts for free on iTunes. Never be bored on a long journey again - get downloading!

Here are some of the best:

This American Life
Produced by Chicago Public Media, This American Life is a hugely successful radio program on NPR that brings its audience amazing stories based around a specific theme every week.

Memorable episodes include: Act V and Middle School. Leaving Cert Students might be especially interested in a recent episode entitled 'How I Got into College'.  Act 2's amazing story about a Bosnian refugee Emir Kamenica is mind-blowing.

Snap Judgement

Snap Judgement is also from NPR and also features brilliant storytelling - as it says itself - with a beat.

RadioLab
For those with an interest in Science or just fascinated by the world around us RadioLab is a treasure trove of mad facts and gripping stories.
Episodes include: the Bad Show and What a Slinky Knows.

BBC Radio 4
There are mountains of great stuff available from BBC Radio 4 from documentaries to drama to great comedy...Find some funny here.

Let me know if you've found any other great radio podcasts out there and enjoy :)

Long-form Legwork

Plath the Poetic Minx

Preparing for Leaving Cert English is all about Shakespeare, poetry, novels and yet more literature - right? No doubt you're getting that impression from your hard-working English teacher who is stuffing your school bag with notes on all of the above in order that you won't be caught out with a tricky question about Banquo or stuck if Plath has the brazen cheek not to appear on the paper two years running.

In fact only 45% of your exam paper in June will comprise of literature that you have previously studied.  A whacking 55% of your marks will be graded on your response to material you've never seen before.  You can have studied Macbeth till the Scottish cows come home and still be floored by an unusual Paper One theme or composition titles that don't quite fit your amazing story about getting signed to Real Madrid.

Your English teacher does know this and will undoubtedly be practicing comprehensions, compositions and unseen poems with you throughout the year.  Wouldn't you like to have the edge over other students however? Wouldn't you like to know a secret that will make Paper One a doddle for you and, make study, dare we suggest it, fun?

Here's my answer: 

Read long-form journalism on the internet. 

Wha-form journalism?I hear you ask

Long-form journalism.

Basically it's the anti-soundbite - long, well-researched, well-written articles on fascinating stories, events and happenings that take somewhat longer to read than the average tweet but reward you with new insight, entertainment and hopefully something gruesome to tell the family over dinner.  This website will tell you a little of the value of long-form: ReadMatter.

There are tons of great articles freely available on the internet if you know where to find them.  Follow this 3 step programme and you will be well on your way to a mind-blowingly brilliant Paper One:

Step 1: Get the Pocket App for your computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone or digital sunglasses (you don't have a pair? they'll be everywhere in 2013).  It's a very simple but fantastically useful app that saves any great article, video or webpage that you stumble across but don't have time to read right that second to your device.  It displays your selected content in an easy to read manner and when you sit down with a nice cup of tea after dinner you can kick back and read a fascinating article about the 50 coolest book covers ever or how toast became the hippest snack in San Francisco.  Yes the internet is truly a wonderland.

Step 2: Set up a Twitter account if you haven't gotten one already and subscribe to newspapers, magazines and websites that feature this sort of journalism or track down websites and bookmark them or subscribe to RSS feeds where possible.  Some examples:

Great excuse for 'borrowing' parent figure's iPads

• Wired.com (@wired)
• Longform.org (@longform)
• Brainpickings.org (@brainpickings)
• The New Yorker (@NewYorker)
• Poynter.org (@poynter)
• The Millions (@The_Millions)
• The Spectator (@Spectator)
• Men's Journal (@MensJournal)
• The Verge (@verge)
• PSmag.com (@PacificStand)

3: Make time for reading from your Pocket app at least once a day for half an hour and make it enjoyable.  Big cup of tea or hot chocolate, comfy armchair by the fire or sunniest spot in the house, tell your parents you're studying and want no interruptions (milk Leaving Cert sympathy for all it's worth this year) Believe me - it will beat Home & Away hands down.

***** Optional*****

Step 4: For the really hungry writers out there - why not have a go at writing in this style yourself? Very few students (not to mind professional writers) can produce a really good short story in 70 minutes in an exam and yet most attempt the story over any other form.  Reading an article on something a student has researched or is well-informed on is usually much more interesting and enjoyable to the teacher/examiner than yet another story about the time you got signed to Man Utd. (We really do get a lot of these essays).

And there you have it - 3 (or 4) steps to a better Paper One AND you get to drink lots of tea - Simps.  

Good luck!