How to Be Original When Writing Personal Essays
by Drew C.
Everyone knows that a good personal essay is original. It’s one of the laws of the universe for English teachers and counselors and college admissions committees, and you’ve probably heard it a thousand times. But what does it actually mean to be original? And why does it matter?
In one sense, being original means “not being a plagiarist”—i.e., submitting your own work instead of the work of ChatGPT or your seatmate in AP Literature. In another sense, it means “unique.” As the author Herman Hesse writes in Demian, his coming-of-age novel: “Every [person] is more than just [themselves]; [they] represent the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again.”
It might sound grandiose to say that the goal of a personal essay is to capture the “point at which the world’s phenomenon intersect,” but it’s also kind of true, and it’s part of what makes the process of writing well so fulfilling.
If you express yourself authentically, nobody else can write like you. Even if, superficially, you share the same experiences and demographic data as a thousand other applicants, only you can capture your own impressions of the world and the role you hope to play in it.
That’s why brainstorming exercises are such a valuable part of the process: they help you make discoveries about your own uniqueness. They help you dig beneath all the stereotypes and cliches—all the surface-level material you can get from an algorithm—to something more authentic which is more compelling to read.
Here are a few tips for writing original personal essays:
- Trust your instincts during the brainstorming process – if something feels significant to you, it probably is. You just have to find an appropriate way to explain that significance.
- You don’t need to have all the answers – a curious mind and sharp observations are valuable traits in prospective students.
- Address the prompt, but write the essay that no one else but you could write.