Templates / Personal essay
Personal essay
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.
What is inside
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.