A journal-based college composition program has been developed that links journal writing to the development of competence in more formal writing. Students write both free choice and assigned entries, and their entries become the basis of all the themes they write; in-class assignments focus on the improvement of specific aspects of the journal entries. Each student's journal is given an end-of-semester grade based largely on effort. Assignments are sequential and are based on a synthesis of prominent educators' views on appropriate sequential writing activities. They progress from preliminary free writing exercises to personal and narrative writing, and then to descriptive, expository, and persuasive writing. The concept of invention is introduced, and the distinction between process and product--between journal entry and theme--is stressed. Students are given help in transforming journal entries into themes, in inventing new material, in reorganizing and rearranging existing ideas, in detecting stylistic weaknesses, and in rejecting inappropriate material. A journal-based composition program provides needed writing practice while at the same time helping students become competent, proficient writers. (GT)