Based on the experiences of writing lab instructors working with college students whose writing was affected by poor comprehension of difficult texts, this book explores the use of writing about reading to help students become more aware or analytical of their reading processes. The first chapter provides a theoretical context for teaching analytical reading in the context of writing. The second chapter recounts a teacher's work with a basic writing student whose inexperience with reading interfered with his writing, and describes the individualized reading course that balanced familiar and unfamiliar reading materials. The third chapter describes adapting a similar approach in a class of 22 freshman English students, focusing on a single book, and how the teacher's responses to student journal entries concerning their reactions to the book helped the students develop both critical reading and critical writing abilities. The fourth chapter discusses how the same approach was adapted to a sophomore literature class, and how the students' writing about reading allowed the instructor to take part in their attempts to understand the assigned texts at every stage of their reading. The book concludes with a 16-item annotated bibliography of works exploring the psychological and pedagogical theory behind this approach. (HTH)