How can writing instructors prepare students for informed and engaged civic discourse when opportunities for such discourse are seemingly limited and ineffective? This essay examines this question by reporting on a case study that explored civic discourse and civic participation at the local level of government. The aims of the case study were to investigate the kinds of discursive participation that occurred during the council meetings, to determine the feasibility of scholars' assumptions that civic discourse at the local government level offers the greatest opportunities for citizen participation, and to examine scholars' claims that composition instructors can and should prepare students to engage actively and responsibly in the civic discourse of their communities. The essay then discusses the implications of the study for composition instructors whose goals include preparing students for informed and engaged civic discourse. (Contains 2 notes.)