A personal essay is the use of someone’s various personal experiences to allude and argue a bigger picture and idea. The use one theme and pick experiences throughout their life to show something. This is different from a memoir as the latter focuses on a specific and detailed memory to describe a moment to someone else. A personal essay on the hand is an essay because it uses evidence to form an argument much like a real essay. That is not to say that a memoir is not arguing something, but they have the scope to go much more in-depth into a theme or idea whereas personal essays don’t necessarily use the same level of analysis but have the aim to change the reader’s point of view.
