One way to make it possible for students to write intelligible composition in a foreign language is to provide them with a knowledge and understanding of the bilingual dictionary at the beginning of the composition course. A unit on dictionary usage is presented that was designed for use with students in a third-year college Spanish composition course. The unit is based on four common "errors" that cause students' compositions to get out of control. These are: (1) misspellings, (2) vocabulary selection, (3) grammar/syntax miscues, and (4) complications caused by English expressions and idiomatic English usage. For each category, an explanation is given along with an example and a set of dictionary awareness exercises. In conclusion, a set of sentences students have written selecting wrong words from the dictionary is presented. These sentences illustrate all the types of errors that have been discussed. (Author/AMH)