Barbara P
Barbara P

How to Write a Personal Narrative Essay Step by Step

6 min read

Published on: Apr 19, 2023

Last updated on: Oct 30, 2023

Personal Narrative Essay

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Whether you're a high school student or a college student, you may be required to write a personal narrative essay. This type of essay engages the reader in your story by sharing memorable moments and life experiences.

These are essays where you tell a story about something that happened to you. They can be tricky to write, but with preparation and practice, they can be great pieces of writing!

This blog will tell you how to write a personal narrative essay for high school. Also, it will provide some examples for you to look at. Let's get started!

What is a Personal Narrative Essay?

Personal narrative essays are also known as short stories. The writer can tell any type of story they want to their readers. These stories often rely on personal experiences, mostly memories from your past.

We use the first-person participle to write a personal narrative essay. It helps to clearly depict the personal narrative that is focused on particular moments.

Many times, high school students are assigned to write these essays as a form of creative writing. It helps the students to polish their essay writing skills and enhance creativity. Also, with the help of this essay, they can look back on their experiences and what they have achieved so far.

This essay type contains a plot that lengthens in the show essay. In addition, it discusses characters that contributed to the experiences of the life of the writer.

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Personal Narrative Essay Outline

When writing any kind of essay, you must form an outline for it. The following are the constituents of the outline of a personal narrative essay:

  • Introduction
  • Body
  • Conclusion

These three parts are discussed in detail below.

Introduction

The introduction is what captures your reader's attention and makes them want to keep reading. It should be engaging, creative and informative as well as accurate with facts from the text you are writing about.

The thesis statement is an essential part of any essay. It should concisely convey the main idea. Write the thesis statement in a single sentence or two to explain the idea of your essay. Write this statement in the second last sentence of the introduction.

At last, write a transition sentence that will help the reader to relate this paragraph to the next coming paragraph.

Body

The body paragraphs are written just after the introduction. The body paragraphs help write to explain the important elements of the essay.

A standard narrative essay comprises three basic body paragraphs. These paragraphs describe the main subject of the essay. The writer gives their point of view in the body paragraphs. They also write about the time, day and location where the incident with the writer took place.

Each paragraph will begin with a topic sentence: explaining the main idea of that specific paragraph. Also, narrate all the events in a chronological manner so the reader can have a better understanding of the story.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you’ll wrap up your story in a way that provides an overall summary of what was discussed.

Adding new ideas will confuse the reader; therefore, don’t add new ideas in this section.

How to Write a Personal Narrative Essay?

A good narrative essay is expressive and the reader enjoys reading it. If you want to write an extraordinary essay, then add sensory details to it.

Follow the next given steps to write a narrative essay of a personal kind:

1. Choose the Right Topic

There are a lot of different topics you can use for your essay. Make sure that it's an interesting experience because this type of writing is about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings.

Choose a topic according to the level of the audience and their interests.

2. Create an Outline

Essay outlines are a great way to structure your thoughts. Therefore, make sure that you stay on track with the whole essay.

An outline will help the writer to discuss all the ideas in a sequence.

3. Start With a Good Hook

How to start a personal narrative essay? Begin your essay with an interesting hook or opening statement. It should be attention-grabbing and should appreciate the reader to read the essay further.

4. Use Vivid Description

Vividness is a key ingredient in any good story and it's important to make your essay as colorful. The more vivid language you use, the easier readers can imagine what they are reading about.

5. Use Transition Words

Transition words are important in writing any kind of essay, for instance, descriptive essay, argumentative or narrative essay. These words help to create logical connections between different parts of the essay.

6. Add Emotions

The main purpose of writing behind this essay type is to let the reader feel your emotions. Therefore, you’ll add emotion in your essay and allow them to feel the things. Use descriptive words ro describe your emotion and feelings.

7. Be Consistent

Be consistent, while narrating your ideas, do not add irrelevant ideas to the essay. Give details related to the events because adding irrelevant ideas will distract the reader. So stay focused on a specific moment and write about that incident/moment.

8. Proofread the Essay

When you’re done with the writing process, it is time to revise your essay. Proofread your essay and correct spelling and grammar mistakes. Make your essay flawless by multiple revisions!

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Personal Narrative Essay Examples

Examples help readers understand the piece of writing in a better way. Narrative essays are assigned to middle school, high school and college students.

Here is are a few examples that will allow you for better understanding to write audience engaging personal narrative essay:

Personal Narrative Essay Topics

Always choose an interesting & creative topic to write any kind of essay. Check out these personal narrative essay prompts and choose one for your assignment:

  • How I balance my family life and my professional life.
  • My worst childhood memory
  • My favorite verse.
  • My favorite summer activities during vacation.
  • Why I love to write a diary
  • The first time I had a serious argument with my best friend
  • Teachers who inspired me in my college.
  • The first time someone broke my heart.
  • The most important rule in life
  • Things I could tell myself.

Personal Narrative Essay Writing Tips

Follow these tips to write your personal narrative essay in the best possible way:

  • Think about a memorable incident or your favorite experience that you want to share with the readers.
  • Plan your essay. Write the events in a logical manner.
  • Begin your essay with a catchy statement and grab the attention of the reader.
  • Make use of vivid language, so that reader can create an image out of it.
  • Use descriptive language to narrate your experiences.
  • Always use the correct sentence structure to convey your ideas.

We hope this guide was helpful for youtube to write a personal narrative essay for your college. If you still cannot pick any of these ideas you can contact a professional ‘do your essay’ service like WriteMyEssay.help.

They are a team of expert writers that provide writing help to students of all grades. They not only write essays for the clients but also thesis, term papers, dissertations, book reviews, etc at reasonable rates.

Simply contact us and place your order with us to get high-quality academic papers on time!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 elements of a personal narrative?

As this essay kind is written like a story so it also contains the following 5 elements of a story:

  • Introduction
  • Plot
  • Setting
  • Climax
  • Conclusion
Barbara P

WRITTEN BY

Barbara P, Literature, Marketing

Barbara's qualifications include a Ph.D. in public health from an Ivy League university and extensive experience working practically in the medical field. With her research experience on various health issues, she is skilled in writing papers that offer new perspectives on healthcare topics. Many of her works have been published across multiple renowned publications.

Barbara's qualifications include a Ph.D. in public health from an Ivy League university and extensive experience working practically in the medical field. With her research experience on various health issues, she is skilled in writing papers that offer new perspectives on healthcare topics. Many of her works have been published across multiple renowned publications.

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