The personal essay: voice and structure

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 50 minutes

Read together

A personal essay tells a true story from your life and explores what it means. The French writer Michel de Montaigne, who began writing “essais”, meaning attempts, in the 1570s, is often called the father of the essay.

A good personal essay moves between two things: scene, what happened in vivid detail, and reflection, what you think and feel about it now. It starts in the middle of a moment, not with a long introduction.

Voice is how the writing sounds like you. Be honest and specific. Details such as the smell of a kitchen or the exact words someone said do more than general statements.

Do it

1. Choose a small moment that mattered to you: an argument, a kindness, a loss, a first. Write a list of sensory details from it.
2. Write the scene in the present or past tense, with dialogue and specifics. Aim for 300 words.
3. Add a reflection: what did you understand then, and what do you understand now? Avoid a neat moral; be honest.
4. Read it aloud. Cut anything that does not sound like you. Share it only if you wish.

Talk about it

• What is the true centre of this story?
• Which detail would you keep if you could only keep one?

For the grown-up

A personal essay is private writing unless the writer chooses to share it. Respect that. If an essay reveals something painful, listen without judgement and, if needed, help your teen find support.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Michel de Montaigne, Essais (first published 1580)
• Phillip Lopate, ed., The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present (Anchor Books, 1994)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.