Step 1
Consider your audience to grasp the purpose of the essay. An essay as a supplement to university application will be different than one submitted to a prominent magazine for publication. Find out what the audience is looking for, and tailor the essay to that purpose.
Step 2
Decide on the theme of the essay before you start writing. The theme is the thread that ties the essay together, and an essay without a theme is merely a list of random recollections. Start an essay with a theme to make your work coherent and easy to follow. For example, the theme of an autobiographical essay for college can be "resilience in the face of hardships."
Step 3
Make an essay outline before you start. Sketch the different sections of the essay. An essay, like a story, has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning introduces the topic to the reader, the middle expounds and the end concludes.
Step 4
Start with a direct, thought-provoking sentence. Never start with "in this essay I will talk about...." Launch into the topic straightaway. Remember that the goal is to arouse interest and curiosity in the reader, who, in all probability, have read countless autographical essays already. For example, "The summer Joe was released, I taught my mother to use a shotgun" makes the reader want to know more about what happened.
Step 5
Give a novel angle to ordinary events in an ordinary life. The first sentence does not have introduce a life-shattering event. Remember that beneath the veil of reality, there's a mysterious, unexplained world where cause and effect is not readily apparent. Avoid starting the essay with a certain date and proceeding chronologically until you arrive at your writing desk.
Step 6
Reject the temptation to be economical with truth. In the first sentence or anywhere else in the essay, do not fabricate events that didn't happen or invent conversations that didn't occur.
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