Personal/Literary: This kind of essay balances two requirements: that the writer narrates one or more autobiographical events (presumably in the first person “I” form), and that these “personal” narrations have an interesting “universal” point to them. For example, one could write about the death of the family dog, but the event would have to reveal a theme more compelling than “my dog died and it bummed me out.” Perhaps the essay’s theme would be a reassessment of the “man’s best friend” idea or maybe be an exploration of the difficulties of having to change roles from pet-master to physician (E.B. White did this in his essay, “The Death of a Pig”). I don’t care which events you finally choose or which interesting theme you hope to convey, but the two must balance well.