Writing from a personal view can be hard and feel daunting, especially in the context of academics, where objectivity is key. However, writing personal plays a crucial role in many areas, especially in reflective essays, creative portfolios, and personal statements that you might come across in your time at university. These tasks aim to make you draw upon your own experiences, opinions, and emotions to create self-aware narratives. Here are our top tips to help you write personally whilst maintaining clarity and academic depth.
Understand “personal” in an academic context
Personal writing doesn’t mean you can be informal or unstructured. In a university setting, writing personally means you need to be reflective upon your work as well as being self-aware. You’re not telling a story, you’re reflecting upon your work, your experiences, you’re analysing why you’ve made a certain decision while writing.
For example, in a reflective essay, you could be asked to describe how a group project helped develop your communication skills. Instead of simply stating “I got better at teamwork”, you should explore how and why that development happened, and why it matters. Understanding why this impacted your skills and reflecting on how it makes you better is crucial.
I’ve had to write several self-reflections as part of my work when I do creative writing modules. I’ve done poetry, short fiction, and novel writing modules where, at the end of our creative work, we’ve had to write a short reflective piece. In this piece, we’re expected to discuss what we’ve read around the module, who we’ve been inspired by. We have to talk about why we made certain choices in our language or punctuation and so on. We’re expected to explain why we wrote certain things, how workshopping our pieces with our peers helped us develop our work further.
Personal writing in an academic context is set to ensure you as a student can reflect on the work you’ve done and understand why you’ve done it and how it’s developed your knowledge and experiences.
Use first person carefully
Quite often, academic writing avoids all use of the first person (“I” or “me”), but in personal or reflective writing, it’s essential. That being said, using the first person doesn’t mean writing as you would in a diary or a text. Make sure your tone is professional.
For example, instead of using;
“I really liked this project because it was fun.”
Try using:
“I found this project engaging because it challenged me to apply theoretical concepts to real-life situations which helped develop my understanding.”
This is more effective. Your personal voice should serve to show what you’ve learnt, and teach the reader what you’ve learnt. It has to inform and be formal.
Balance
Personal writing can involve emotion, but it’s not just about how you feel. A strong reflective piece should also explain why you feel a certain way and what the impact of those feelings has had on your learning and development.
Reflective models such as Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle or Kolb’s Experimental Learning Cycle encourage you to go beyond just description. They help you think about interpretation, evaluation, and action planning.
Try asking yourself questions such as:
- What did I learn?
- How did this impact my thinking?
- What could I do differently?
- What motivated me?
- How does my work relate to the module?
- How did I read around my course?
These questions will help you focus on important areas that are needed in personal writing for university and will help you get a good balance between personal emotion and analysis.
Show, don’t just tell
A mistake that people often make in personal writing is telling the reader exactly what you think without offering evidence or examples. Try using specific moments, anecdotes, or observations to support what you’re reflecting on.
Instead of “the lecture was confusing” try something like “When the lecturer introduced us to the topic of genre, I struggled to understand the implications of the lecture. It wasn’t until I was doing further reading later on that the topic became clearer to me.”
This approach helps ground your experience and makes the reader really understand. It’s also better because you’re reflecting on a hurdle you had to pass in your learning to improve. Always include examples where possible.
Be honest but constructive
Authenticity is crucial in personal writing. Don’t shy away from discussing challenges, failures, or uncertainties—but frame them constructively. Highlight what you learned, how you grew, and how the experience might influence your future work or thinking.
A reflection that says, “I didn’t understand the assignment,” is less useful than one that says, “Initially, I misunderstood the scope of the assignment, which taught me the importance of clarifying expectations early on.”
Revise for clarity and purpose
Even though personal writing can feel more informal, it still requires editing and proofreading. Make sure your points are clear, your reflections are logically structured, and your tone is appropriate for an academic setting.
You might organize a reflective essay by chronological events, but make sure each section links back to a central purpose or learning objective. Use headings, transitions, and clear topic sentences to guide your reader.
In conclusion, writing from a personal standpoint isn’t about being self-indulgent—it’s about being self-aware. When done well, personal writing can demonstrate depth, critical thinking, and a strong grasp of course content. Whether you’re compiling a portfolio, drafting a reflective essay, or engaging in creative practice, your personal voice is a valuable tool. Use it with intention, and let it enrich your academic work.
See here for our tips on getting experience in Creative writing!
