Life story essays are life journey stories in short nonfiction format. This type of essay is also called an autobiographical essay. In a life story essay, you will tell a factual story about some elements of your life, with the aim of obtaining a scholarship at a university either at home or abroad, or for a school assignment.
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Part 1 of 3: Preparing for Essay Writing
Step 1. Determine the purpose of your essay
An autobiographical essay, also known as a personal narrative essay, should tell readers about your life, personality, values, and goals. The essay should tell you what things are important to you, what are your values, and experiences that have influenced the way you live your life.
- If the personal essay you wrote was used to apply to college, it should explain to the admissions committee who you are, in more detail than the basic information on the application file. Transcripts, letters of recommendation, and personal resumes will give you an idea of your work experience, interests, and academic achievements. The essay will make your application unique and different, through the life story you tell in it.
- The essay will also demonstrate your ability to write and compose an essay to the admissions committee. In addition, essays also show that you can create meaningful writing that attracts readers, conveys a unique message and flows.
- If you are writing a life story for a specific school assignment such as a composition lesson, ask your teacher what is required of the assignment.
Step 2. Create a timeline for your life journey
Writing a life story in chronological order can be a great way to find inspiration and help highlight important moments in your life.
- Include important events, such as your birth, your childhood and upbringing, and your teenage years. If other events that occurred in the family, such as births, deaths, marriages, are important to your story, include that information as well.
- Focus on an experience that had a big impact on you and you can't forget. It may be when you learn a valuable life lesson, such as failing an important test or witnessing someone's struggles and successes, or times you experience intense feelings and emotions, such as sadness at the death of a loved one or joy at someone's success.
Step 3. Look for themes in your life story
After writing down all the facts about your life, think of an experience that carries a particular theme. The theme of the essay should be the main idea that you want to convey to the reader. Themes should be interwoven throughout the essay and form the basis of the essay as a whole. Think about the answers to the following questions:
- Have you ever faced a challenge in your life that you have now managed to overcome, such as a family issue, health problem, learning disability, or academic requirement?
- Is there anything you can tell us about your cultural background, ethnicity, or family traditions?
- Have you ever experienced failure or obstacles in your life?
- Do you have a unique love or hobby?
- Have you ever traveled outside your community, abroad, city or area? What experience did you get and how did you apply the learning outcomes in college?
Step 4. Review your personal resume
Another way to find important life events or experiences is to review your personal resume or CV. Review your education and employment history, as well as any achievements or special awards you have received.
- Try to remember any accomplishments you've had by reviewing your personal resume. Think about what awards or experiences you would like to highlight in your essay. For example, explaining the story behind your achievements in high school, or your efforts to get accepted as an internship in a prestigious program.
- Remember that the function of a personal resume or CV is to list achievements and awards, so a life story essay is not to repeat that information. Instead, use the essay as a starting point to explain the process behind it, or what it reflects (or doesn't) about you as a person.
Step 5. Read some good sample essays
If any of your friends have been accepted into prestigious colleges, ask if you can read their life story essays. Also talk to your teacher or tutor, as they usually have examples you can look at or an instructive guide that includes examples.
If you're interested in reading sample life essays for high school students in America, the New York Times publishes some of the most brilliant high school life essays each year. You can read about it on the NYT website
Part 2 of 3: Writing an Essay
Step 1. Organize your essay based on important experiences or main themes
Choose one main theme as the focus of your essay. Think about your experiences containing a particular theme, and then relate it to the program or position you want to get with the essay.
- For example, you could tell about your childhood in an orphanage or when you were first hired. Explain how you dealt with the situation and what life lessons you learned. Try to relate the experience to who you are now or to your goals for the future.
- For example, your childhood in an orphanage taught you about resilience, persistence, and curiosity about family life and everyday life. This story can be linked to your application for a journalism program, as the experience shows that you have persistence and a desire to investigate other people's experiences or stories.
- Similarly, the time you spend with your mother in the kitchen cooking family dishes and recipes can be linked to your interest in bringing back and preserving past history through an archeology program.
Step 2. Avoid familiar themes
The best way to make your essay interesting is to write an authentic and honest story. Many applicants don't have a great story to tell, but they still manage to get accepted because writing about everyday events matters to them.
- There are several life story essays that the admissions committee considers cliché and familiar. Avoid stories about sports injuries, such as stories when you injured your ankle in a game and you had to figure out how to survive. You should also avoid travel stories to poor countries as the basis for self-transformation. Such stories are familiar themes that many admissions committees find cliché and neither unique nor authentic.
- Other clichés and common topics to avoid are vacations, "trouble" as an undeveloped theme, or "travel."
Step 3. Review your thesis statement
The thesis statement serves to convey the point or argument that you will write to the reader, including the theme of the essay. The thesis statement will guide your writing and should be able to answer the question, “What is the content of this essay?” The thesis statement must show that you have thought about what experience you want to tell and draw conclusions after going through reflection.
- Try to use phrases that show what you've learned. For example, “Although living in an orphanage in a troubled environment was very difficult and full of struggle, the situation taught me that regardless of where I grew up or my background, I could succeed beyond many people's expectations through hard work, perseverance, and education.”
- You can also use phrases that express lessons you haven't learned or that you'd like to learn through a program you'd like to join. For example, “Growing up surrounded by my mother's traditional food and the culture that has been passed down in my family made me realize that I wanted to explore and preserve other ancient cultural traditions with a career in archeology.”
- The two thesis statements above are great because they tell the reader what your essay is about in clear detail.
Step 4. Start with a compelling opening
Begin your essay with words that will provoke the reader to continue, such as an anecdote or interesting fact that relates to your experience.
- An anecdote is a very short story that contains a moral or symbolic message. Anecdotes can be used as a poetic way or a powerful introduction to start an essay and hold the reader's interest right away. You can start by directly recounting an important experience from the past or a time when you realized a life lesson.
- For example, you might start with a vivid memory, such as the following essay that took the author to Harvard Business School: “The first time I considered enrolling at Berry College was while hanging from a fifty-foot Georgia pine tree, trying to cheer up my classmate. in high school, literally, to take a leap of faith.” This opening provides a clear mental picture of what the author was doing at a specific and crucial moment in that moment and begins the “leap of faith” theme that is outlined throughout the essay.
- Another good essay example that conveys the author's emotional state clearly from the opening moment: “Through the eyes of a seven year old, I watched in terror as my mother winced in pain. This essay, written by a medical student, tells about the experience of witnessing the birth of her younger brother and how that experience shaped her desire to become an obstetrician. The opening sentence describes a scene and directly conveys how the writer felt during that important experience. This opening sentence also contradicts the reader's prediction, because it begins with pain but ends with joy at the birth of his sister.
- Avoid quotes. Quotations are a very clichéd way of starting an essay and can quickly pique the reader's interest. If you must use a quote, avoid common quotes like “Spread your wings and fly” or “No team member is praised for their individuality.” Choose a quote that is directly related to your experience or the theme of your essay. Quotes can be taken from poems or written works that speak to you, move you, or help you during difficult times.
Step 5. Bring out your personality and voice
While the essay should be written in a professional style and in a less casual tone, it should reflect your personality. An essay is an opportunity to express your unique point of view to readers and get them to know who you are.
- Always use the first person point of view in personal essays. Essays should be written by yourself and tell your life experiences firsthand, using “I” statements.
- For example, avoid writing something like, “I grew up going through tough times. At that time, I was in a bad situation.” You can expand the sentence to give it more weight but keep the tone and message the same. “Growing up in an orphanage, I had a hard time connecting with caregivers and friends. At that time I thought that I was in a bad situation and I would not be able to free myself from it.”
Step 6. Use vivid details
One of the biggest mistakes writers make when writing their life stories is forgetting that the reader wasn't there experiencing it with them. Provide as much sensory detail and contextual information as possible so they can understand what your life is like and how it shaped you.
- For example, consider this statement: “I am a good debater. I was very motivated and became a strong leader in high school.” This sentence provides almost no detail, and does not convey any unique or personal information that would set you apart from the ten million other essays that readers have to sift through.
- Instead, consider the following text: “My mother said I was loud. I think we have to talk to be heard. As president of the high school debate team for the past three years, I learned to show courage even when my heart seemed to jump into my throat. I learned to consider the views of people who were different from mine, and to argue with them when I strongly disagreed. I learned to lead a team to solve complex problems. And, most importantly for a girl who used to be shy, I found my voice.” This example demonstrates personality, uses parallel structures to influence, and provides concrete details about what the author has learned from his experience as a debater.
Step 7. Use active sentences
Avoid passive sentences or weak-pitched sentences. Use active verbs and show them whenever possible. You should only use storytelling sentences, for example, “I was in the onion room when that happened,” when you are summarizing an experience.
- An example of a passive sentence is: "The dog ate the cake." The subject in this sentence (the dog) is not in the position of the subject (first) and is not "performing" the action. This is confusing and unclear.
- An example of an active sentence would be: “The dog ate the cake.” The subject in this sentence (the dog) is in the position of the subject (first), and performs the action. This sentence is clearer to the reader and more powerful.
Step 8. Apply the In, Through, and Beyond approach
This tactic will help you develop your essay so that it flows smoothly from section to section, or from paragraph to paragraph.
- Get the reader INTO your story with an interesting start, for example with an anecdote or quote.
- Lead the reader THROUGH your story by conveying context and key parts of your experience.
- End with a message that goes beyond your experience by telling how that experience shaped who you are now and who you wanted to be in college and after graduation.
Part 3 of 3: Editing Essays
Step 1. Set aside the first draft of your essay for a few days
After completing the initial draft, save it for a while to create some distance and gain a new perspective. This is helpful because when you reopen the essay, you will be reading it with a critical eye. This way you also put yourself in the reader's shoes.
Step 2. Read your essay aloud
Focus on each sentence to determine if any words are unnecessary, trite, or superficial. Look for sentences that are swirling or confusing, and mark them for editing later. Don't start each sentence with the word "I" and make sure you build a variety of sentences throughout the essay.
- For example, think of the following sentence: “I had a hard time during my freshman year of college, feeling overwhelmed by new experiences and new people.” The sentence doesn't have enough power and says something that doesn't need to be clarified and doesn't make you look unique or special. There are many people who have a hard time and feel overwhelmed during the first year of college. Change this sentence so that it can show your uniqueness.
- As another example, consider the following sentence: “During my freshman year of college, I had a hard time meeting deadlines and completing assignments. My life when I was at home wasn't very organized or tight, so I had to learn to discipline myself and respect my schedule.” The sentence relates your predicament to something personal and explains what you learned from the adversity.
Step 3. Correct your essay
Focus on spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Read the essay backwards so that you are only paying attention to the words, not the meaning of the sentences.
