“Writing Personal Essays:
How to Shape Your Life
Experiences for the Page”
by Shelia Bender
I loved this book. Unlike many of you I never got beyond English Comp at a junior college so this little book is a god send to me. I think what I loved most about it was the way she organized the process of writing the personal essay. I also learned from her “three-step response” to a work in progress. I have used this book to start a writing process that is not only enjoyable but rewarding.
The Three-step Response
To help the writer understand what kind of contact his or her writing makes, my responsibility as a reader of the work is to:
1. report the images and phrases that stick with me
2. monitor the feelings that occur inside me as I read, and report these feelings accurately
3. tell the writer where I want to know more
