By incorporating letters to the editor and other reader participation columns in print media into the content-focus of the course, composition teachers can bring to life the student's rhetorical situation, especially with respect to audience and purpose. Such reader-writing is especially effective when students analyze the texts for clues to the implied reader. Reader-writing is equally effective in structuring writing assignments, particularly if the teacher wishes to emphasize the purposes rather than the modes of discourse. Students can be led to see how these different formats can be adopted to suit a variety of purposes. The purpose of a given sample of reader-writing can be classified in one of five ways: (1) to express a considered opinion, (2) to supply needed information to the debate, (3) to correct another contributor's errors, (4) to show connections between disparate issues in order to construct the pattern of a larger issue, or (5) to influence public opinion and policy-making. The frequent reemphasis of these forms of public conversation throughout the course encourages the students to expand their reading and their sense of the world. Integrating the material into the structure of the course also allows for a developmental approach in two ways: from shorter, more restricted "letter" form to larger, more elaborated public essays; and from a concrete, personal community audience to a more abstract, generalized, invented audience. (HTH)