Typically, teachers approach ambiguity in student writing by suggesting that students focus on diction, syntax, and writing format; however, the works of modernists (including T.S. Eliot, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Marx, and Pablo Picasso) suggest the importance of conceptions of semantic clarity. Transformational models for syntactic elements in deep and surface structures of language expose the need for similar models describing semantic dimensions of clarity. The following elements, which employ terms from transformational grammar, exemplify the deep structure's influence upon clarity and ambiguity: (1) Are words functioning referentially in the deep structure; i.e., are there clear referents and referential functions? (2) Is the use of words truth functional? (3) Is the use of words based on reported or stipulated uses? (4) What is the degree of conventionality in the linguistic and nonlinguistic contextual conditions for the uses of words? (5) What are the degrees of tolerance in the use of words? These elements reflect a modernist interpretation of deep structure and point up the importance of pedagogical approaches that focus on meaning. (GW)