As an alternative to the conflict among college composition teachers who are either repressive and authoritarian or permissive and lenient, a middle course offers teachers the latitude of encouraging free writing for some students and directed writing for other students, both of which may be responses to students' needs to express themselves. This approach recognizes the differences in language ability discussed by James Deese in "Psycholinguistics," who associates formal, highly structured speech with middle and upper classes, and restricted speech of limited syntax with the lower class. With the guided method, the teacher aids students both in learning sentence structure, grammar, and syntax, and in developing evaluative judgment and self-confidence. Free writing advocates may use the Ken Macrorie method of requesting spontaneous writing for a specified length of time, emphasizing the avoidance of phony pretentious language. A fine balance is necessary between encouraging creativity and imposing discipline as needed by students for realizing their potential. (JM)