As a boy in Rock Island, Illinois, Dalkoff was terribly insecure and shy. He had few friends and no self-confidence. One day in October 1965, his high-school English teacher, Ruth Brauch, gave the class an assignment. The students had been reading To Kill Mockingbird. Now they were to write their own chapter that would follow the last chapter of the novel. Dalkoff wrote his chapter and handed it in. Today he cannot recall anything special about the chapter he wrote. What he does remember--what he will never forget--are the four words Mrs Brauch wrote in the margin of the paper “ This is good writing.” Four words. They changed his life. Over the rest of that year in school, he wrote many short stories and always brought them to school for Mrs Brauch to evaluate. She was encouraging , tough, and honest. "She was just what I needed," Dalkoff said. He was named co-editor of his high-school newspaper. His confidence grew; his horizons broadened; he started off on a successful, fulfilling life as a writer. For the 30th high-school reunion, Dalkoff went back and visited Mrs Brauch, who had retired. He told her what her four words had done for him. He told her that because she had given him the confidence to be a writer, he had been able to pass that confidence on to the woman who later became his wife, who also became a writer herself. Four words. They can change everything.