Since her Certificates in General Education for Adults class had not achieved the required competencies at writing for self-expression, a teacher felt it would be an appropriate genre for her to model. She drafted, edited, and completed the text on a large-screen computer. When trying to decide whether each text achieved the competencies required at each level, the teacher became aware of difficulties experienced by the students as authors and herself as a marker. The class wanted the text to be perfect from the beginning; the teacher wanted to focus on the writing process. In the second writing session, the class was more vocal and critical. The strategies the class used to try to tighten and amend part of the teacher's writing changed quite markedly between the two sessions. The teacher was frustrated that she and the class did not share a meta-language to describe faults and features of texts. By not preparing ahead, the teacher became more realistically aware of the thoughts and feelings of a less experienced writer and perceived more clearly how writing can be so daunting to students. One of the teacher's main points was to demonstrate that very few writers get it right first time. The students realized writing is always a struggle, and constructing, clarifying, and revising written texts are the most important tasks. The teacher discovered the curriculum she used had problematic features she must address. (YLB)