What are the conventions of a “personal essay”?

• Usually told in the first person and in past tense, where the writers recall an event, person or an important part of their life
• They can have bias and opinion throughout the whole essay

• Autobiography vs biography: an autobiography is written by the subject themself (1st person), and a biography is written by someone else (3rd person)
• Memoir vs autobiography: memoir is more about a specific part about someones life, a shorter time frame or a certain element, it could even be more personal than an autobiography
• Memoir vs personal essay: a memoir would be like a reflection on a past event, whereas a personal essay has cherry-picked anecdotes that kind of support the same point