It's time to "Bless, Address, or Press" Denise!

For me, it is still a little weird to write a blog post based off of someone else blog. But, I am always up for a challenge, and this type of blog posting pushed me out of my comfort zone, bring it one!

I love Hicks’ (2013) quote, “To bless is to simply offer praise. To address means to ask specific questions about the ideas. To press is to ask critical questions in order to help the writer move towards a stronger version or the writing or a clearer explanation of his/her opinion.” (p.83) This quote helps me as a peer give feedback to my fellow classmates and friends on their writing in a way that they will be able to take something away from my response, and I will be able to learn how to become more critical and reflective while reviewing others work. During the last blog where we were asked to “Bless, Address, or Press” one of our peer's blogs, I wrote using one of Catherine’s blogs. This week I will be diving into one of Denise’s recent blog postings titled: “Entry #9: The Power of Descriptive Writing”. I look forward to “Bless, Address, or Press” different aspects of her blog.

Press

While reading Denise’s blog on descriptive writing, she began her second paragraph by stating that she loved Tompkins’ (2019) chapter on descriptive writing. Denise then went on to share the five different techniques that Tompkins discussed in the chapter that help the writers move from simply telling their writing to showing their writing. (Tompkins, 2019) These five techniques include: “adding specific information, choosing words carefully, creating sensory images, using figurative language and writing dialogue (p. 136). While I love the way that Denise introduced this paragraph, I would have liked her to expand on one or more of the five techniques in a personal connection to the chapter. I think by expanding on one or more of the techniques, this section of her writing piece could have added to the strength it already had!

Address

I love the way that Denise started off this blog post. It was very personal. It takes courage and guts to write about yourself as a younger student, especially if it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies. Denise wrote about how writing was difficult for her, how she felts like she was lousy at it. When Denise learned about descriptive writing she assumed that her reader would automatically be able to paint a picture in their heads about what she was talking about. Now as an adult she knows that the reader doesn’t always get it right away. My question for Denise would be, how will you help students who were just like you in school? How will you help students develop an understanding and love for writing?

Bless

I think it’s important to end on a good note, and that is why I have left the bless portion of this response to the very end. Denise is a great writer! I love the enhancements that Denise has made to her blog, they really add to the overall presentation of her blog. I enjoy the pictures, and how they flow with her writing! You rock Denise, keep up the great work!

References

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Tompkins, G.E., & Jones, P. D. (2019). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (7th ed.). NY, NY: Pearson.