College students who have clear goals for careers in engineering, management, law, medicine, and teaching have a pressing need to become proficient in writing, speaking, listening, and reading. While they should continue the reading and analysis of imaginative literature that they began in high school, they should also develop their latent powers in the other dimensions, especially listening and speaking, and should learn the basic techniques and subtleties of professional writing and reading as well. Exercises that combine as many of the four skills as possible have proven to be both well-liked by students and very efficient in increasing overall mastery of language skills. Two typical assignments--interviewing and abstracting--illustrate how the student is required to produce coherent, useful communication using several skills in conjunction. Success of the pedagogy is shown by growth in syntactic maturity, organization, emphasis, documentation, and student confidence. (Author/FL)