Experience is the process through which conscious organisms perceive the world around them.

Experiences can be
accompanied by active awareness on the part of the person having the experience, although they need not be. Experience
is the primary subject of various subfields of philosophy, including the philosophy of perception, the philosophy of mind,
and phenomenology.

Several different senses of the word "experience" should be distinguished from one another. In the sense of the word
under discussion here, "experience" means something along the lines of "perception", "sensation", or "observation". In this
sense of the word, knowledge gained from experience is called "empirical knowledge" or "a posteriori knowledge". This
can include propositional knowledge (e.g. finding out that certain things are true based on sensory experience), procedural
knowledge (e.g. learning how to perform a particular task based on sensory experience), or knowledge by acquaintance
(e.g. familiarity with certain people, places, or objects based on direct exposure to them).

In ordinary language, the word "experience" may instead sometimes refer to one's level of competence or expertise, either
in general or confined to a particular subject. In this sense of the word, "experience" generally refers to know-how rather
than propositional knowledge (or in other words, on-the-job training rather than book-learning). This talk is not about
"experience" in this sense, but is instead about the immediate perception of events.

Mental experience involves the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception,
memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes.
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How to Find Significance of a Memory
Writing an essay about a personal experience or relationship can be a powerful way of both discovering
the meaning of your own past and sharing that past with others. When you write about something in
your past, you have two perspectives: your perspective in the present and the perspective you had at
the time the event occurred. The space between these perspectives is usually where you will find
significance in that event or relationship.
 Your perspective in the present.
 Your perspective you had at the time the event occurred.
The space between these perspectives is usually where you will find significance in that event or
relationship.

Choosing a Memory to Write About

If the event or relationship is recent, you will be closer to the "you" that experienced the event. If the
event is more distant, you will often find yourself reflecting on the experience, your reactions and the
meaning of the experience differently. As you write the essay, you will need to decide if you want to talk
about the experience as you see it now, or as you saw it then. Often, you may do both of those things,
or use your perspective now as the conclusion.
Example: At the end of 8th grade, my best friend wrote me a note saying he
never wanted to be my friend again. I was devastated, and terribly depressed all
summer, terrified to start High School alone. Forty years later, I realize that that
experience was probably what made me finally reach out to develop new
friends. Those friends encouraged me to develop my life-long interest in
reading, theater, and writing. More importantly, that experience of rejection
gave me a lifelong compassion for others.

Topic Ideas
Any event from your past can be a good topic if it was important to you. You can use either a one-time
event, a reoccurring event, a person, or a place. Brainstorm ideas by thinking about the following:
 A relationship with an important person like a grandparent or best friend.
 A single encounter with someone that changed you.
 An event which was small but significant.
 A major, life changing event.
 Something that you did over and over that was meaningful to you.
 Your experience and memories of a place that embodies who you are, or has meaning for you.
 How to Decide if You Have a Good Topic
To make sure you have a good topic, you need to determine what the meaning of that event or person
was for you. To help you get ideas about the meaning and to decide whether this topic is a good choice,
jot down some notes answering the following 5 questions:
1. What did I think the meaning of the experience was when it happened?
2. How have my thoughts about it changed?
3. What did I learn?
4. How has my life direction been affected by this event?
5. Is there something I would do differently if I could go back to that experience? Any regrets?

How to Organize Your Experience Essay Easily

Why re-invent the wheel? Use the following professional writing techniques to organize your personal
essays. These strategies aren't secret and they aren't hard. They are what you've seen over and over in
books and movies. Now you need to use them yourself.

Chronological Organization
This is the most obvious way to tell the story. You just tell it in the way it happened in the order it
happened. Most of the other organizing techniques use this way to tell the main part of the story. See
Anne Dillard's "Handed My Own Life" for a good example of chronological organization of a personal
essay.
Characteristics of this organization strategy:
1. Tells story in the order that it happened.
2. Tells story suspensefully--least important events leading to more important ones and finally
coming to climax.
3. Explains meaning after climax or lets events show the meaning. For example, Dillard states her
understanding in a series of phrases, such as "I was handed my own life," and "my days were my own
to plan and fill" along with a lot of specific details of how she did that. Of course, she also uses the title
to explain her meaning.

Expectations Unfulfilled
Want an easy way to organize your essay? Try the "Expectations Unfulfilled" technique. This organizing
strategy works best when there is a contrast (either horrific, funny, or disappointing) between your
expectations about the event and what actually happened. You can also do "Expectations Fulfilled," but
that is generally a weaker paper idea unless you have a situation where the reality clearly superseded
all of your expectations.
Characteristics of Expectations Unfulfilled:
1. Introduction vividly describes expectations for a particular event. Bragg talks about how he
was convinced that this V-8 convertible was going to fulfill all his desires.
2. Maybe foreshadow the problem. Bragg's uncle warns him to be careful because "That'un could
kill you."
3. Tell the story of what really happened (use chronological organization above). Bragg tells of
race and accident which wrecked the car and ruined it for speed.
4. Describe the contrast between reality and expectations. Bragg's memories of the crash are
the radio still playing and being pulled out unscratched and of being famous not for having the best car,
but for being the kid who survived a 100-mile crash.
5. Reflection on experience. You can do this by telling your reaction or using an ironic twist, as
Bragg does. Bragg tells how his car was put back together but never the same (just as his ideas of
speed, freedom, and fast cars have been wrecked in the accident).
6. Conclude with irony. An ironic end can sometimes be a good conclusion for this sort of story.
Braggs writes about how after his car gets rear-ended at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket he sells it in
disgust to a preacher's kid who "drove the speed limit.”

Frame Example
Frame Organization Strategy
Using a frame story for the introduction and conclusion should be familiar to you from lots of
movies.One good example of a story frame is Aladin. In this case, the movie opens with the frame of
 The Genie, now a human in a sailboat, telling his son about his earlier existence, before flashing to the
present story of Aladin, the magic lamp and their adventures. The movie returns to the frame at the end
of the movie as the Genie looks at the last page of the photobook Ellie has made for him. He learns that
it was the journey of the relationship which was the real adventure.
Another kind of frame can be a flashback. In this technique, you start in the middle of the action (or after
it is over) and then flashback to an earlier memory. Benjamin Button uses the story of a woman
spending time with her mother in her deathbed as the frame for the Mother’s re-telling the story of her
strange romance.
The advantage of using a frame is that it makes it easier for you to talk about the meaning of the story,
especially if you use the present day to flashback to the past. Be sure the frame is not just random.
There should be an event, object, conversation, or situation which causes you to flash back in memory.

Internal and External Conflicts

With this technique, you organize your story around what is happening internally in your mind, versus
what is happening in the event. Of course, like "Expectations Unfulfilled" this works best if there is a
conflict between what is happening in your thoughts and what is happening in the situation.
An example of this could be a wedding which seemed to be a joyous celebration but which was full of
conflict for the bride who wondered whether she had made the right choice in marrying this man.
Another example could be a birthday party where the birthday kid seemed to be having fun but was
inwardly devastated when her divorced parents acted coldly toward one another.

Student Sample
You can combine some of these strategies together to make your essay shine. A good example of this
is the student essay by Jean Brandt, "Calling Home." Along with using a frame. Brandt also uses
internal and external conflicts in her organization.
1. Introduction: beginning frame story. Brandt's essay has her ride to the mall.
2. First conflict and resolution: Brandt has an internal conflict about whether she should steal
and the resolution that she will.
3. Second conflict and resolution: Brandt's second conflict is external when she is caught by the
store owner and he calls the police.
4. Third conflict and resolution: Brandt's third conflict is both internal and external. She wonders
how her parents will react. She is brought to the police station but not punished by her parents. She
realizes that disappointing them and realizing she had made the wrong choice is worse than if they had
punished her.
5. Conclusion: ending frame and expectations unfulfilled. Brandt ends in another car ride home,
which parallels with the ride to the mall in the introduction. The twist is that not only was the mall trip not
what she expected, but she has also disappointed the expectations of her parents too.

Small Events Can Make Good Essays

Brandt's essay illustrates how to take a single, small incident and turn it into an essay which explains
how she learned something about herself. It is a coming of age essay. When thinking about your own
essay topic, try to think about moments in your life which were important turning points. The event can
be something small and doesn't have to be dramatic. What is important is the significance of that event
in your life. See the chart below for some ideas.
Memories of Times When You
Events People Memories

were forgiven teacher got an award

did something wrong neighbor lost something

got caught grandparent created something

didn't get caught sibling or cousin gave a gift

 had an adventure best friend forgot something

met a friend uncle or aunt were embarassed

spent time with grandparent bully felt ashamed

met your hero someone different from you regrets

Do you have a favorite memory of your father? Of sports? Of childhood?

Tips for Chronological Organization

Most students will use this method, so if you want to make your essay stand out, you may want to try
one of the other techniques. When you do use this method remember:
 Where's the Conflict? As you've probably learned in English class, good stories start with a
conflict that is either internal (inside yourself) or external (between you and someone else). Good
stories show the development of the conflict, the crisis (called a climax) and then the resolution of what
happens afterward (either good or bad). Make sure your story follows this pattern.
 Don't add unnecessary details. You need to "clip" the memory effectively. Imagine yourself as
a film editor. What needs to be in the story? What can you leave out?
 Make details specific and interesting. Make your descriptions of the setting, characters and
action concrete and specific. For example:
Don't say, "Maura was a beautiful but boring blonde bombshell."
Say, "Maura was a sleek, 5 foot 10, long-haired, blonde who never tired of talking about her exotic
vacations or newest boyfriend."
 Keep Boredom at Bay. Tell enough detail like setting and character development that the
reader is drawn into the story, but don't spend so much time in details that your reader gets bored.
 Action and Dialogue are Best. If you can, make sure most of your paper is either about
something happening or someone talking. Both action and dialogue move the story along faster than
description.

Metaphor Organization
Sometimes, there is a particular object or repeated event which is the focus of the memory. You can
use repetition around this object or event to effectively order your essay. "On Being a Real Westerner"
by Tobias Wolff is a good example of using a metaphor to organize.
Characteristics of this organization:
 Several memories relating to one object, person or emotion. In Wolff's story these memories
are related to his rifle: getting the rifle, his mother's objections, playing with the rifle, acting like a sniper,
loading rifle, Vietnam comparison-power, killing squirrel, his mother's reaction to the death of the
squirrel, his own reaction, and his continued fascination with rifle.
 Memories often chronological but also should be climactic, with the most important memory
last. In Wolff's story, the climax is when he shoots the squirrel and has to deal with the reality of what
owning and using a rifle really means, or what it really means to "be a westerner."
 Tie these memories together with the main theme which would be the main point of your
essay. Wolff ties his memories together with the theme of power, the power of the rifle, how the hunger
for power shaped him, and his powerlessness to change the past, "a man can't help the boy."
Did you have a moment when you felt carefree? When you returned to childhood? When you did
something crazy?

Organizing Essay About a Person

Generally, it helps to keep the essay focused on one to three important memories about that person.
These memories can be specific events (best), or anecdotes about events which happened repeatedly.
Characteristics of this sort of essay:
1.Vivid Portrait of Person
 Dialogue (the reader can hear how this person talks).
 Describe a place which reflects the person (the reader can know about the interests of the
person and picture them where you do).
 Person (describe what the person looks like).
2. Specific Memories
 Pick memories which show the person's character or reveal your relationship.
 Tell one time incidents: every essay should have 1-3 of these. Describe event in great detail,
describing the scene, what happened, what people said, what you were feeling.
 Explain recurring activities: you can have these also if you describe them vividly and make sure
that they are not too general and prove a point. Don't say, "My mother always scolded me." Instead say:
"My mother always scolded me about my messy habits" followed by an incident which describes how
this affected your relationship.
3. Indication of the Person's Significance
Choose 1 or 2 main points to make: Trying to explain everything that person means to you is too much
to do in a short essay.
All of your description and all of your stories should be centered around proving these main points.

Other Organizing Strategies

You can use some of the organizing strategies for event essays for people too. Here are some
suggestions:
I. Revelation/Expectations Reversed
1. Your usual judgment about the person.
2. Analysis of personality/Physical description /some of background history.
3. The revelation about them (story of a particular moment when you saw this person from a
different perspective).
II. Conflict and Resolution Organizing
1. The story of a conflict you have with this person.
2. Analysis of personality/Physical description/background history.
3. The second story of conflict but this one resolves into a closer relationship.
4. Third story--conflict leads to a lesson learned.
5. Fourth story--a different conflict/ lesson learned is conveyed to others
III. Comparison and Contrast
Notice that both views are found in each paragraph or section. This paper is ordered thematically.
Another possibility is to talk about all the views of another person first, then talk about your views.
1. Introduction: Description of person and set-up of contrast between you.
2. Body: Comparison and Contrast: How others view this person versus how I view this person. Or
how I used to view that person versus how I now view them.
3. Conclusion: How I have come to see this person

Questions & Answers

Question: What is the best way to start my essay?
Answer: One really good way is to just start writing down everything you can think of that has to do with
that personal experience: sights, sounds, memories, smells, and feelings. When you do this sort of
brainstorming, you don't have to worry about grammar or even writing complete sentences. Just write a
list of everything you can remember. Sometimes people make this using a web, with the main idea in
the middle and lines going out to show the connecting ideas. Whichever way you write it, this brainstorm
list gives you a start for your ideas.
After that, you will need to organize your information in order to write the essay. You can use the ideas
in this article for that.
Question: Do you think "Describe some memorable things that happened to you recently, and tell why
these experiences were meaningful to you?" would make a good essay topic?
Answer: Your question is basically the main idea of most personal experience essays which have to do
with recalling a specific experience. I always suggest that to make a good essay, students focus on a
very specific moment in time. Try to describe that experience so that the reader feels they are there.
Question: What is the best way to start my essay about my experience at a deaf/blind school?
Answer: 1. Expectations: describe what you were expecting before you went. This introduction
technique is especially effective if your expectations were reversed.
2. Vivid description: Tell the scene in vivid sensory detail, perhaps focusing on the setting or on one or
two children.
3. Background: tell what you have experienced previously which sets you up for this experience.
Question: What are easy words one can use to enter and exit a flashback?
Answer: You need to use a time transition word or phrase which tells the reader it is in the past, such
as "seven years ago," or "when I was twelve." You can also just tell the reader you are remembering:
"Looking at the night sky made me remember..." or "The look on her face made me remember when..."
Coming out of the flashback, you will probably start a new paragraph and say something like: "The
meaning of this memory is clear to me when...," Now I know that..., "Looking back I can say that..." For
more transitional phrases, see my article: https://hubpages.com/academia/Words-to-Use-in-Star...
Question: What are the points to consider while writing my story on how I almost got molested by a
neighbor?
Answer: Quite honestly, I would be very cautious in writing a story about this if it is for a class. You
would have to be careful with the language you used and want to be sure you did not cause undue
stress to another person who may have faced actual abuse. I always tell my students that writing about
anything deeply personal is a wonderful idea because it helps you to come to a better understanding of
how that particular incident affected your life. However, writing about a deeply personal event for a class
is the same as writing it for the public because lots of other people may see this if you are doing any
sort of peer editing in the class. If only the teacher sees it, you may have a different situation. However,
I think the best thing to do is to talk to your instructor.
Question: How do I think of something to write about? Like something that left a mark in my life?
Answer: Many events, large and small, can make good essays. My sample essay takes a small event,
going to the beach, and expands on the meaning that has had in my life. Often, the easiest and best
essays are written about something which is ordinary but which has shaped you. That can be a place
you visit all the time, a family tradition, a place that makes you feel peaceful, or a one-time event which
you feel changed your direction in life.
Sometimes, students worry that they don't have any dramatic story to tell. However, I often find that the
dramatic stories (especially if they are recent) are harder for students to actually pull the meaning out of.
In fact, some large events in our lives are things we don't fully understand until we are much older (like
a parent's divorce or the loss of a loved one).
One way to get a topic is to think about your emotions towards something or some place or memory. If
you have strong emotions, then you will probably have a meaning you can draw from that experience.
Question: For a personal essay, is an experience better if it is something that you think has only ever
happened to you?
Answer: An experience essay can be written about an experience that is unique, but it doesn't have to
be. Your experience and reaction will be interesting to the reader if it is something that they have not
experienced, but it may actually be more interesting to them if they have also experienced something
similar. It is important to think about that while you write. You might want to say things like:
"Many people may have experienced something similar.."
or
"My experience was unique to me, but other people may share this type of experience..." or
"What the experience meant to me was
Even though this is something other people may have experienced, I had never thought it would happen
to me..."
Question: In a school project, they asked us to take a self-help habit and pretend it was written about
you and your life. We need to write a page in our book about that. How do I do this?
Answer: You probably need to talk with the instructor. Since I am not familiar with what your book is
supposed to include, I can't offer specific information. However, it sounds to me as if you are supposed
to describe yourself as doing this self-help habit and tell how this habit changes your life for the better.
Question: I would like to write about my sister's death. What would be a good way to introduce the
topic?
Answer: I am very sorry for the loss of your sister, but I think that in writing about it you can use both
share about her life with others and also help your own grieving process.
You can an essay about someone who has died at the moment you learn she is ill, or has passed away.
Or you can start it at the funeral and then flash back to her death and explain along the way how that
affected you and what she meant to you. However, often the best way to start this sort of essay is to tell
a short, favorite story about your sister which explains her importance in your life. Then you can flash
forward to some point in time which involves the main story and tell about that experience. Your
conclusion can tie those two stories together as you use the first story to explain the effect her death
has had on you.
Question: I need to write an article about my experience as a TB patient. What is the best way to start
my article?
Answer: Start with a story that illustrates the main point you want to make, or which startles the reader
with your experiences. Perhaps you can tell about when you got the disease, or how people reacted to
hearing you were ill. Another possibility is to start with the story of a good or bad experience with the
health care system.
Question: I am a native of Uganda, and at one point lived in poverty. What would be a good way to
write about my experience in an essay?
Answer: Start by telling a story of a time when you were living in poverty. You might want to start in the
present moment when you see someone else living in poverty and then flashback to a story about your
own life. Then come back to the present moment and tell how you feel about the time in your life now,
and what you have learned from the experiences you had. You also might want to talk about how that
has changed you and influenced your thinking and how you act now. If you want, you can end with
something like helping out the person you see, or encouraging your reader to think, act, or believe
something different about poverty.
Question: What is a good topic on the subject of stresses in life?
Answer: Stress is a common experience and writing a paper about your personal experiences with
stressful situations is an interesting idea. Here are some topic ideas:
What I learned from stress at work.
How I've learned that families can add to a student's stress.
What parents could do better to help their children overcome stress about school.
How social media increases stress in adolescents.
How animals can help you overcome stress.
How I've dealt with stress in my schoolwork.
Why college students shouldn't worry so much about stress from tests.
How stress leads to panic attacks and strategies I've learned to remain calm.
How friends can help each other overcome stress.
How disrupted or inadequate sleep affects our ability to handle stress.
Do essential oils really help people deal with stress?
Is our microbiome important in dealing with stressful life situations?
Does stress really cause people to be infertile?
How important is exercise and eating to enduring stressful situations?
Can you learn to be more resilient in a stressful situation?
How can you learn to slow down and enjoy life?
What is the best way to handle big disappointments and roadblocks?
How can you stop worrying about what other people think?
Question: What is the best way to start my essay of experiencing life on a farm?
Answer: I think the best way of starting a farm essay is to tell a story. You can either tell a typical
morning or a typical day of your life on the farm or tell a story of a dramatic event like the birth of a calf
or a difficult time with crops or weather. The story you tell should relate to the meaning you want to
express to the reader at the end of the essay. For example, if you want to explain how living on a farm
has made you an independent thinker and able to deal with a crisis effectively, you can start with a story
that shows you doing that, or shows a time when the circumstances forced you to develop those
character qualities. If you want to explain the beauty of living in nature on a farm, you can tell a story of
what it is like to see the sunrise each day, or tell what it is like to walk along the land of your property
and explain in vivid sensory detail what you see, hear, smell and feel.
Question: What is the best way to start my essay about my experience with adapting to a new country
with a new language and culture?
Answer: Start with a conversation or story about a time that you either misunderstood someone, or
they misunderstood you. To make this most effective, try to choose a time which was either funny or
embarrassing.
Question: Is personal experience about traveling a good topic?
Answer: Writing about your personal experience while traveling is not only an excellent topic, it is a
genre all of its own. Rick Steeves is a radio commentator who has on guests each week who give
travelogue experiences as well as recommendations. What you need to do for a good travel experience
paper is to describe a few things very vividly and then explain how those experiences impacted your
life. You might talk about something you saw, someone you met, or some part of history you came to
understand. Another thing you can use is the experience of traveling and what you learned about
yourself.
Question: "Describe your experiences with issues of diversity." How would one answer this question?
Answer: Generally talking about your experiences with diversity means giving examples of times when
you had encounters with people who are different from you in race, socio-economic status, culture, or
some other life experience which you are not familiar with.
Question: How can I set a scene in my personal experience essay for a student not willing to go the
gym?
Answer: An excellent way to set a scene of conflict is to use dialogue. You could have the teacher
telling the class what to do and then talking with the student who says they do not want to go. Then you
can tell the inner thoughts of the teacher about the situation. Many times, I find that my students are
reluctant to write dialogue because they aren't sure how to write it, so I've written an article about
that: https://letterpile.com/writing/Punctuation-of-Conv... You will probably also want to look at my
example of a reflection essay for help.
Question: Concerning writing a personal experience essay, is it possible to write about a person you
lost?
Answer: While I always suggest that people check with their instructor to find out if there are any
restrictions in the assignment, I would say that writing about a person you have lost through either death
or another circumstance like moving away, divorce, or a broken friendship can be a good topic for a
personal experience essay. Often, we learn a lot as we think about these experiences of loss and I've
often found that writing about this type of topic can be not only meaningful to students but also healing.
Question: What would be a good way to write about a coup d'etat that I have experienced?
Answer: Start with your feelings about your country before this event, or with your feelings right now.
Then go to the event and conclude with how this even affected your life and also your country for better
or worse.