What does it means when you are asked to tell about yourself. It is a common question. It gets asked at job interviews, in meetings, when you speak with someone new when colleagues want to get to know you.

It is a phrase that serves to inquire about your life, but what are you supposed to say in response? How would you go about writing an essay about yourself?

How would you start? A counterintuitive approach is to ask yourself who is your reader and what would be the purpose of what you write.

Determining answers to these two initial questions should give you an idea of how you can attract attention to what you have to say. It’s what will persuade the audience that your essay is going to be worth reading because you are so fascinating they absolutely have to read about you.

Arm yourself with the basic information about yourself. You know: name, age, parents, siblings, place of birth. But you can season your narrative with these facts as you go along but the smartest way to start is by seeking to impress from the very start.

Make your readers sit up and take an interest. You want them to continue reading not fall asleep. What mood do you want to conjure up? It will set the overall purpose of your text. Is there an event or situation that best outlines your personality and demonstrates your strongest trait.

A really good essay demonstrates that you have advanced presentational skills and are a confident person. But don’t brag. You want the audience to recognize how amazing you are, but you must be careful not to come over as arrogant and overbearing.

There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. But you can tread this path by honing your skills as a storyteller. First of all, never be embarrassed when talking about yourself. Your job is to make what you write as captivating as possible!

To do this try to create a positive impression on your readers. Choose a story from your whole life that is a good showcase for your best traits, and let it roll.

Was there any conflict in the situation? How did you go about dealing with it? What where the positive characteristics wrapped up in your personality that assisted you in emerging victorious? Were any mistakes made, and what did you do to fix them?

To give you some general ideas to include in a personal essay, paint by numbers:

• Choose your topic and include information about your talents, your education, your goals and whether they have changed and why.
• Decide the message you want to give and make it as specific as you can to draw the audience’s focus.
• Avoid any generalizations and include lots of pools of interest made up of unique details.
• Don’t boast or brag, but sound as confident as you can so readers recognize you as knowing your own self-worth.
• Choose your topic and focus on the situations where you overcame obstacles and solved problems using your own skills and abilities.
• Don’t be afraid to demonstrate your struggles and how you made difficult choices. By showing you’re not perfect you can still underline how you always try to do your best.
• Focus on one topic and don’t get lost trying to touch on too many things. Less is more and too much is too much. It will just confuse your readers.
• Set yourself – and stick to – a word limit and other parameters. Narrative and chronology are essential to start from the very beginning. Otherwise, you may risk filling up the quota and not make the most important point.
• The more bright and realistic details you can add the more interest your audience will have in what they are reading.
• Create a dynamic flow to your story so that your readers are engaged from start to finish.

Many people are frustrated when they are asked to tell about themselves. It’s why writing a personal essay can appear daunting and complicated. It’s not.

To write a powerful conclusion to your essay about yourself focus on the results. What have you learned?

You will need to add an element of emotional appeal, but be careful not to overuse it. Remember the feeling you want your readers to experience, and evoke it. And leave the audience wanting more!