Templates / Personal essay
Personal essay
An essay frame that moves from something that happened to what you make of it.
How to use it
Essays usually get dull because they lead with the thought. State the conclusion first and the reader only gets to agree or disagree. Show the scene first and the reader stands there with you, then takes the thought that follows as their own.
This frame has four slots: scene, question, second look, and what stays. Setting the length in advance helps. With an end in sight you can see where to stop; without one, the last paragraph keeps growing.
How it opens in the editor
Open the template and this skeleton lands in the editor, with Cite, Paper and File ready in the toolbar.
Title comes last
The scene
Show it, do not explain it. A date, a place, one thing you noticed.
The question
Turn what the scene left you with into a question. Do not answer it yet.
Second look
Write what you know now and did not then. Resist turning it into a lesson.
What stays
Close in one paragraph. Calling back one object or line from the opening scene shuts the door.
Editor features that go with it
Word counter
Count words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and pages at once.
Assignment due date tracker
See the days left until the due date and how much of your target length is written.
AI use statement
Write a one-page statement of where and how you used AI in an assignment.
Word to PDF
Open a docx file in the browser, edit it and save it as a PDF.