For Multilingual Writers: Counting your own experience

COUNTING YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

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You may have learned that stories based on your own personal experience don’t count in academic arguments. If so, reconsider this advice, for showing an audience that you have personal experience with a topic can carry strong persuasive appeal with many English-speaking audiences. As with all evidence used in an argument, however, narratives based on your own experience must be pertinent to the topic, understandable to the audience, and clearly related to your purpose.