from the website:

'This I Believe' Essay-Writing Instructions
For this project we are guided by the original This I Believe series from the 1950s. Below you will see the producers' invitation to those who wrote essays. Their advice holds up well and we are abiding by it. Please consider it carefully in writing your piece.

The best essays from the 1950s found a way, at least in part, to tell a story. The writers took belief out of the ether and grounded it in the specifics of their lives, sometimes writing of moments -- or parables -- when belief was formed or tested or changed. They wrote about the source of belief, how it was forged and those who influenced it.

The memorable essays were not litanies, but focused on a core, because three minutes is a very short time.

Finally, it's important that these essays be personal, honest, and real. They should sound like you. This is radio. Try to write in a way that's comfortable to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself and keep editing and simplifying until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and feel right to say.

The Original Invitation from 'This I Believe'
This invites you to make a very great contribution: nothing less than a statement of your personal beliefs, of the values which rule your thought and action. Your essay should be about three minutes in length when read loud, written in a style as you yourself speak, and total no more than 500 words.

We know this is a tough job. What we want is so intimate that no one can write it for you. You must write it yourself, in the language most natural to you. We ask you to write in your own words and then record in your own voice. You may even find that it takes a request like this for you to reveal some of your own beliefs to yourself. If you set them down they may become of untold meaning to others.

We would like you to tell not only what you believe, but how you reached your beliefs, and if they have grown, what made them grow. This necessarily must be highly personal. That is what we anticipate and want.

It may help you in formulating your credo if we tell you also what we do not want. We do not want a sermon, religious or lay; we do not want editorializing or sectarianism or 'finger-pointing.' We do not even want your views on the American way of life, or democracy or free enterprise. These are important but for another occasion. We want to know what you live by. And we want it terms of 'I,' not the editorial 'We.'

Although this program is designed to express beliefs, it is not a religious program and is not concerned with any religious form whatever. Most of our guests express belief in a Supreme Being, and set forth the importance to them of that belief. However, that is your decision, since it is your belief which we solicit.

But we do ask you to confine yourself to affirmatives: This means refraining from saying what you do not believe. Your beliefs may well have grown in clarity to you by a process of elimination and rejection, but for our part, we must avoid negative statements lest we become a medium for the criticism of beliefs, which is the very opposite of our purpose.

We are sure the statement we ask from you can have wide and lasting influence. Never has the need for personal philosophies of this kind been so urgent. Your belief, simply and sincerely spoken, is sure to stimulate and help those who hear it. We are confident it will enrich them. May we have your contribution?

Adapted from the invitation sent to essayists featured in the original 'This I Believe' series. Excerpted from 'This I Believe 2,' copyright © 1954 by Simon and Schuster.