In recent characterizations of reading and writing, the distinctions melt into each other so that one definition serves for both: both are the creation of meaning. In the act of creating meaning, readers become writers and writers become readers. While reading is primarily receptive and writing is primarily productive, fluency in reading is very much a product of productive abilities, and fluency in writing is very much a product of receptive abilities. Studies by cognitive psychologists and psycholinguists show the effect of predisposition and context on interpretation, and demonstrate that the integration of ideas takes place during reading: memory is not a matter of straight information retrieval, but instead depends on constructive processes that occur during reading. The differences between speech and writing suggest the need for writers to assume a receptive stance. Reading one's own text as if a stranger is a way to determine whether a context and the nonverbal information contained in gesture and intonation have been conveyed. Probably good readers and writers move back and forth between these two aspects unconsciously. Less fluent readers and writers need experiences that will demonstrate the undersides of reading and writing. Approaches that force a reader to move into the writer's territory and the writer into the reader's territory are a first step. Giving readers incomplete texts and asking them to predict the content and structure of what is missing, or presenting writers with their own work in modified cloze format are two suggestions for helping students experience the productive and receptive qualities of both reading and writing. (HTH)