The Miss Dennis

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“The Miss Dennis School of Writing" is the story, which is written by a freelance writer Alice Steinbach. The story is about her nine-grade creative writing teacher - Miss Dennis who is a small, compact woman with apricot hair. Miss Dennis asks her students to pay attention about things that happen on the way to school in the morning, and write about them. Then, Miss Dennis teaches her students that if they want to write a great descriptive essay, they have to make the readers see what the writers see. Moreover, she helps her students to realize their own unique voices. Though she is very strict, Steinbach respects her a lot, and she talks many things in her life to Miss Dennis, including her father’s death. Also, Steinbach feels that she and Miss Dennis have a connection to each other. Then, in the final class, Miss Dennis gives Steinbach a book of poems, which Steinbach really appreciates. At the end of the story, Steinbach learns that Miss Dennis has died, and when she thinks about Miss Dennis, she is not sad but smiling instead. From my own perspective, I am really into this story because everyone has the teacher that they really respect, and I have mine too. More important, through this story, Steinbach aim to guide readers to know how to write a good descriptive essay in particular, and essay in general by using the lesson that she was taught by Miss Dennis. The story also states that the common fear of realizing our own voices will constraint our writing skills. Hence Miss Dennis advices that overcome this fear will help us to become a better writer, and also expresses what we want our readers to see from our piece of writing. Also, in the story there is a detail, “She is saying: “Pay attention”.” Through this, Steinbach, again, emphasizes that it is also important to pay attention to things surround us, which will help us to realize our one of a kind

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