An approach to writing for high school and college students is presented in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): The science fiction course I teach is an elective that enrolls about fifty students per class. Ninety percent or more of the students are not English majors and have done little writing in the recent past. Assigning frequent papers proved difficult in such a large class. THE APPROACH (excerpt): Out of these problems came the five-minute entry. At the start of each class, students wrote for five minutes in response to a question about the assigned reading for that day. Grammar, mechanics, and organization do not count. Papers receive an 'S' (satisfactory) or 'U' (unsatisfactory), the only criterion being that they must demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that their authors have read and thought about the assigned reading. This eliminates the need to take attendance or grade quizzes, and encourages regular attendance and timely reading of assignments. Students who write poor entries can be identified early in the term. Thus the five-minute entry gives the students frequent writing practice and affords the instructor relatively painless opportunities to observe student writing. (KC)