English 11/H Ms.

Sheehan
Identity Unit: Personal Essay Spring 2018

Your Task:
Using the short stories, podcasts, and other pieces of text as examples and guides, write a
personal essay discussing a specific story or part of your life that has helped ​shape ​who you are.
Think about how your story defines who you are, and makes you an intriguing person.
Here are three choices to choose from for your personal essay:
A. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What
prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
B. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of
personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
C. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later
success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How
did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Your personal essays should include specific points of characterization, conflict, struggle or
change that you have overcome. Remember to include detailed imagery to keep the reader
engaged in the story.

Guidelines:
Be sure to
❏ Use the plot diagram that we made in class in order to outline and help detail
parts of your story.
❏ Provide a ​conflict and resolution​ within the story that really outlines how you
(your character) has changed and is dynamic.
❏ Use ​detailed ​descriptions of events, places, and people to really engage the
reader in the story.
❏ Compose a conclusion that shows the growth of where you started in the
beginning of the essay and where you ended.
❏ Organize your ideas and thoughts with complete and grammatically correct
sentences.
❏ Please proofread and spell check your work.
❏ *The paper must be a ​minimum ​of ​2 ​pages (250 words) and a ​maximum ​of ​4
pages (650 words). All double spaced.
❏ Have fun with this, you’re writing about yourself so your creativity should shine
through your writing.

Draft/Peer Workshop is due: Tuesday, May 1st ​in class

Final Draft is due: Thursday, May 3th by 3:15pm

*pages or words under/over these limits will not be scored.*