Follow these 2 steps to write the perfect personal essay

It's the first day of the new school year, and your teacher has just assigned you a personal essay. They have a good reason for such an assignment - a personal or explanatory essay allows teachers to evaluate your understanding of language, composition, and creativity.

If you don't know where to start, or feel overwhelmed by the urge to write a free-form statement, this list will help guide you through the process from start to finish. Writing about yourself is easy if you keep in mind the key components of a good essay.

1. Find inspiration and ideas

You can't start a personal essay without a topic. If you don't know what to write about, check out some of these sources of inspiration:

1) Go through lists of ideas to get your brain thinking about your essay possibilities. Remember that the personal essay is autobiographical, so don't write anything fake.

2) Try to write a stream of consciousness. To do this, start writing everything you think, you are an essay writer after all. Don't stop and don't put anything down. Even if the ideas are completely unrelated, stream of consciousness puts everything in your brain on paper and often contains many ideas.

3) Do a little research. Going through all the areas of interest can really get the creative juices flowing and lead to a little personal reflection. Take one of those topics that you think you would like to write about.

Don't be afraid to ask your teacher what he or she is looking for. If you still don't know what to write about, ask your teacher for guidance or a more specific hint.

2. Understanding Essay Composition

Before you start writing, memorize the basic composition of the essay. Almost all essays have three parts: the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. A five-paragraph essay is a common version of such an essay and contains an introductory paragraph, three main paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. Use an outline or general writing outline to write down your ideas before writing.