Library FAQs

Personal experience has a role in persuasion and in writing. It should not be the basis of an argument. It must be short and integrated into the argument. An argument should still have authoritative, balanced, and credible research at its core. When incorporating personal experience, the writer should use first person. No in-text citations or source list entries are needed.

Below is an example where the author moves between first and third person points of view when using personal experience and research to support the paragraph's main point.

Vaccinations are life savers. Diseases like whooping cough and scarlet fever used to kill more young children than any other cause. Today, however, child mortality due to disease has been almost completely eliminated by medical science (Jackson, 5). In my family, my two children would have died due to childhood disease without their vaccinations; in contrast, scarlet fever took the lives of my older two sisters. However, when children are not vaccinated, the death rate increases: For example, "Global measles deaths increased 50% from 2016 to 2019, and more than 200,000 people died in 2020 alone" according to the WHO (6). Thus, when people look at the mortality rate of children pre- and post-vaccination development, the value of vaccinations cannot be denied.

If you would like to use your own previous work, check with your professor first. Please see the link to the Academic Integrity Policy in the Student Handbook for more information.