Many Quartz Ideas articles take the form of a personal narrative, a good way to ensure the article you are writing is based on your own thoughts and experiences. But there’s no reason your article can’t also include reporting, interviews, research, data, charts, graphics, and so on. A special word about personal essays: the best ones are built on a foundation of facts. These are not meandering stories. They have a clear thesis, near the top of the article, that provides an anchor for every word that follows. The question to ask yourself is: Which of the above components advance the story you are trying to tell in the most evocative and effective way?
–Quartz,
In this assignment, students write on a scholarly topic of choice, but use their own personal experience to enter and explore the topic, contemplating how the topic affects them in their daily life. They’re then asked to back up and illuminate their own experience using researched facts, statistics, theories, ideas, fictional or poetic works, or other referenced materials.
There are several different online sites that provide platforms for this kind of essay: Medium, The Millions, and StoryNews are possibilities. Students could also produce essays like these for a class blog, run on WordPress or Bloggr or another platform.
Examples
ASSIGNMENT: As your topic, you will select an impact of climate change in your hometown, or that otherwise affects you directly. Think about your experiences growing up, during vacations, or here at Smith. You’ll then do research to understand and describe the extent of the problem in the limited geographic area you select. Ideas might include drought, new weather patterns, forest fires, species invasion or loss, flooding, poor harvests, diseases, glacial retreat, or many others. In this essay, use “I” to describe your experiences and emotions regarding the issue you’ve chosen, then back it up with researched material. You must cite all your facts and information with in-text citations. Use no fewer than five sources, including at least 2 scientific papers and 3 sources that are not websites (peer-reviewed digital journal articles excepted).
An example paper from this assignment by Bushra Tasneem is here
A sociologist might ask students to connect to current events, such as the #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter or #MarchForOurLives movements, via their personal experience and sociological theory. An English professor might ask students to write an essay such as this one, in which the writer contemplates her personal fascination with fashion, and how classic literature reflects fashion’s value in our lives:
A Matter of Survival: On the Value of Fashion in Literature
Learning Goals
This flexible assignment allows students to explore current events and their impacts on their own daily lives but through scholarly practice, making the essays immediately relevant to a contemporary audience without necessarily sacrificing academic rigor. Students should be reminded that the assignment should illuminate common experience, not serve as a platform to expunge personal struggles or grief. When dealing with sensitive topics, they should aim to deploy research to guide and connect to others who might have had similar experiences to their own.
Suggestions for Multimedia Expansion
This assignment couples effectively with VIDEO ESSAYS. Students create a video version of their written paper using a sequence of still images or a video collage. The essay may be posted as a Smith blog post (WORDPRESS BLOGS AND WEBSITES) or public platforms such as Medium, or submitted to outlets like Quartz.
More Examples of the Researched Personal Essay
Jane Stangl, “Golfing with the Ladies”
