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Writing Personal Essays: How to Shape Your Life Experiences for the Page
Bender helps writers get under the skin of their memories, discover what they really mean, and tell the truths of their lives in essays.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
4 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Bender
23 books8 followersSheila Bender is the founder of Writingitreal.com. She teaches online and in-person offering classes and writing consults by Zoom as well.
Her passion is to facilitate those who write from personal experience. Visit her at WritingItReal.com and look for her classes as well at Il Chiostro, Women on Writing, and the International Association for Journal Writing.
Her passion is to facilitate those who write from personal experience. Visit her at WritingItReal.com and look for her classes as well at Il Chiostro, Women on Writing, and the International Association for Journal Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 26, 2013
I’m a fan of personal essays. The form allow writers to connect with readers in ways that articles and fiction don’t often do. The topics are so wide-ranging that there is pretty well something for everyone, whether your preference is serious social issues or light, humorous pieces. As someone who’s written a few personal essays, I wanted to learn more, and this book was a great choice.
Author Sheila Bender spends several chapters explaining the eight different essays styles (I had no idea there were so many). She also provides three major tips for analyzing essays, which is a crucial element of the writing process. To help readers’ develop analytical skills, she provides samples of first drafts in every chapter for discussion. She then provides some of the contributors’ second draft so readers can see the difference. It’s a really useful teaching tool.
The last chapter discusses how to publish an essay, emphasizing the importance of thorough research. Since the book was published in 1995, however, many of the research guides may no longer exist. Google searches would be a good starting point today, but definitely not the only resource. For those of you who aspire to write personal essays, this book is a useful reference.
Author Sheila Bender spends several chapters explaining the eight different essays styles (I had no idea there were so many). She also provides three major tips for analyzing essays, which is a crucial element of the writing process. To help readers’ develop analytical skills, she provides samples of first drafts in every chapter for discussion. She then provides some of the contributors’ second draft so readers can see the difference. It’s a really useful teaching tool.
The last chapter discusses how to publish an essay, emphasizing the importance of thorough research. Since the book was published in 1995, however, many of the research guides may no longer exist. Google searches would be a good starting point today, but definitely not the only resource. For those of you who aspire to write personal essays, this book is a useful reference.
July 30, 2022
I'm sure I bought this book when I was in college or shortly after. I don't remember reading it then. But I'm glad I've trundled it along with me throughout the years and have read it now, just when I need some direction on writing personal essays.
In this book, Sheila Bender covers the basics of eight essay structures: Description, Narrative, How-To, Compare and Contrast, Classification and Division, Cause and Effect, Definition, Argument and Persuasion. She includes some writing strategies and exercises to come up with essay topics and access memories in order to write a personal essay. Since almost all essays include multiple essay structures, she shows how to weave them together, so the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
I found this book to be beneficial for my essay writing and illuminating when parsing out various essays to understand their structures and core elements. Some of the example essays she uses were good, some not so good. She also introduced to me a three-step response method of constructive criticism that I think works well. This includes what images stick with a reader after reading an essay; what feelings occur upon reading the essay; and where the essay should include more information. After using this method throughout the book and on some of my own writing, I will incorporate aspects of it in my workshops.
Bottom line from me is that if you are writing personal essays, whether you're just starting out or have written several, this book will be valuable to you.
In this book, Sheila Bender covers the basics of eight essay structures: Description, Narrative, How-To, Compare and Contrast, Classification and Division, Cause and Effect, Definition, Argument and Persuasion. She includes some writing strategies and exercises to come up with essay topics and access memories in order to write a personal essay. Since almost all essays include multiple essay structures, she shows how to weave them together, so the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
I found this book to be beneficial for my essay writing and illuminating when parsing out various essays to understand their structures and core elements. Some of the example essays she uses were good, some not so good. She also introduced to me a three-step response method of constructive criticism that I think works well. This includes what images stick with a reader after reading an essay; what feelings occur upon reading the essay; and where the essay should include more information. After using this method throughout the book and on some of my own writing, I will incorporate aspects of it in my workshops.
Bottom line from me is that if you are writing personal essays, whether you're just starting out or have written several, this book will be valuable to you.
April 5, 2017
A chapter on each of the eight different types of essays, comparisons of first and subsequent drafts with analysis, the three step 'response' and information on publishing provide a good overall look at a format I have not explored. I'm most likely to do Personal or Narration Essays so I skimmed some ( ie. Classification an Division, Compare and Contrast)
I especially like the three step response to be used in helpful critique:
1. report images and phrases that 'stick' with you
2. monitor and report feelings that occur as you read
3. tell the writer where you want to know more.
General publishing information as well as suggestions for organizing submissions is helpful.
I especially like the three step response to be used in helpful critique:
1. report images and phrases that 'stick' with you
2. monitor and report feelings that occur as you read
3. tell the writer where you want to know more.
General publishing information as well as suggestions for organizing submissions is helpful.
October 25, 2013
A very introductory introduction to the subject. For each of the eight essay types she identifies, Bender supplies one question as a writing prompt. Rather than supplying classic pieces as examples of the types, she draws on her students' writing. That approach is pretty much only worthwhile when in each chapter she includes a student's first draft, her response, and the subsequent revised draft.
Perhaps this book would be worthwhile for a novice writer in the genre...but as a general rule one is better off picking up an anthology and reading the greats.
Perhaps this book would be worthwhile for a novice writer in the genre...but as a general rule one is better off picking up an anthology and reading the greats.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews