Teaching writing on the basis of purposes has certain advantages over teaching on the basis of techniques. The primary advantage is the greater resemblance to "real writing." Most student writing is apprentice work, as students themselves know, but it is far easier to point to nonacademic analogues of the categories of purpose (definition, substantiation, evaluation, and recommendation) than it is to point to the techniques standing alone (exposition, description, narration, process analysis, comparison/contrast, classification, analogy, and so forth). A second advantage of an approach through purposes is that students see progress in their knowledge of rhetoric, for the categories themselves are incremental, building from definition to recommendation. Finally, the approach to writing through purposes returns emphasis to first principles, placing priority on what is needed rather than on how to go about what is needed. Bringing purpose to the fore also brings value implications to the fore, such that once a goal is stated its appropriateness can be addressed. (RL)