In the researched personal essay, students use their own personal experience – as frame, motivation, or a source of evidence – to explore a scholarly topic. They’re asked to contextualize, complicate, or illuminate their own experience using research: statistics, theories, ideas, literary works, or other referenced materials.
Such pieces may “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?” according to the former online publication Quartz.
Methods
Students are presented with a scholarly topic relevant to the course, then asked to bring their own personal experience to bear in order to illuminate the topic. Students may adapt a previously written academic essay (from earlier in the semester) into a personal essay, adjusting tone, audience, argument, etc.
Before writing, students should read effective examples of the genre, analyzing aspects such as how the writer begins their piece, how they maintain the personal connection throughout, their tone, how they employ research and facts, and the role of the writer as a character.
Students should be encouraged to employ extensive research in service of their topic, and their essay should employ a works cited list. They should further be encouraged to use their personal experience not as personal catharsis or creative expression, but as a literary device to connect their reader to their topic.
Students could produce essays like these for a class blog (see module here), run on WordPress or another platform. First-years could be encouraged to submit their work to the Jacobson Center’s competitive archive of exemplary first year writing, Smith Writes (see examples below). Many online blogging platforms and publications can also provide homes for this kind of essay: Substack, Medium, The Millions, or Slate are possibilities, alongside dozens of genre-specific sites like Outside Online. Literary journals that publish nonfiction are additional options (Granta being among the most prestigious of the genre).
Examples
Professional
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
Additional professional examples from Smith faculty & staff and other writers:
- Lily Gurton-Wachter, “The Stranger Guest: The Literature of New Motherhood.” Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Naila Moreira, “Reading Keats in Pandemic Winter,” The Common.
- Jane Stangl, “Golfing with the Ladies,” The Society Pages.
- Baumgardner, Jennifer, “Liberation,” Roundabout Theatre Company, New York NY; “Free to Be . . . You and Me: 50 Years of Stories and Songs,” The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA; “Macbeth in Stride,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY,” Liber: A Feminist Review.
- Elisa Gabbert, “Vanity Project,” Real Life.
Student
The Jacobson Center maintains SmithWrites, an archive of exemplary essays by first-years, submitted from the students’ Smith coursework then selected and edited by Jacobson Center staff. Many of these pieces are written in researched personal essay style. Examples include:
- Olohi John ’27 – The Ban on the Burqa
- Musayeroh Bah ’26 – I’m Walkin’ Here!: Improving Walkability And Public Transportation For All
- Aurezuh Sikes ’26 – Drag as Corporeal Spirituality at Smith College
- Shalom T Mhanda ’25 – Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Zimbabwe
- Sarah Waring ’24 – “When Things Matter”: Signs of Care in the Madison Community Garden
In ENG 119: This Overheating World, students selected an impact of climate change affecting them directly, such as in their hometown, a childhood vacation spot, or at Smith. Students conducted research to understand and contextualize the phenomenon (such as drought, new weather patterns, forest fires, species invasion or loss, flooding, poor harvests, diseases, or glacial retreat). Their essays described and narrated their experience, incorporating research from a minimum of five sources, including at least 2 scientific papers and 3 non-website sources.
A piece from this assignment by Bushra Tasneem ‘20 was published in the CEEDS blog, exploring climate change impacts in Tasneem’s home country of Bangladesh.
Liber: A Feminist Review (latest issue) is a literary journal edited by Jennifer Baumgardner and co-written by Smith students. Sample pieces are available within the journal.
Learning Goals
- Connect scholarly topics with current events and students’ personal lives.
- Explore differences and overlaps between academic and public writing in terms of audience, project, argument, evidence use, and motivation.
- Consider voice and purpose, whether to inform, convince, or connect to others with similar experiences.
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 on public platforms such as Medium. Text-first broadcasts (view module here), or Instagram (view module here) can serve to encapsulate and bring public attention to the piece.
