The popular arts are useful resources in college composition courses both because of their appeal for students and because they embody the fundamental patterns, or archetypes, found in myths, fairy tales, and classic literature. The nine basic archetypes examined in certain composition classes at Queens College (Flushing, New York) are the Shadow, the Trickster, the Temptress, the Good Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Helpful Animal, the Holy Fool, the Quest, and Rebirth. Students can find examples of such archetypes--for example, the Shadow, which is one of the easiest to recognize and to understand--in classic literature, television shows, myths, and popular songs. Students can participate in a variety of composition activities related to the popular arts, including studying and writing about language techniques employed in the popular arts, writing about situations involving their personal "shadows" (the sides of themselves that they fear and try to hide), discussing and writing about the "shadow" of the United States, writing about the portrayal in rock music of woman as Temptress, and writing short essays about the archetypal patterns in specific rock songs, fairy and folk tales, advertisements, comic strips, and myths. (GT)