The most important competence in using language is not to be discovered in the anatomy of isolated features but in the holistic view of writing and speaking in context. Three general views of education can be summarized as defining the learner as willfully ignorant, needing to be whipped into shape; as a blank tablet or empty jug, waiting to be filled with knowledge; or as malleable material, waiting to be changed, developed, enlarged by knowledge into another creature. Probably the favorite theory of our age is the last view, called "developmental." The awareness of a relationship between a writer and a reader is essential to writing with any degree of literacy. Writers should also be simultaneously aware of both writing as it represents content and writing as a thing-in-itself, a system of symbols and signs. Standardized tests of writing competency tend to eliminate the purpose for writing, the stance of the writer, and the specific issues to be addressed, so test results are sterile and often misleading. (AEA)