The use of prose models in the English as a second language writing class has been criticized for promoting product-based rather than process-based learning. However, the process-centered approach has a number of drawbacks, and prose models can solve some of these inherent problems. Properly designed models can be an essential part of a writing class if their purpose is to show how writers with limited English proficiency can solve a communication problem in an acceptable, idiomatic, and concise way. Students can learn a little about rhetorical patterns by studying a dozen or so models, but to increase the range of content areas in which students can operate and to build up an inventory of adaptable cliches, they should be exposed to many more models. By studying a large number of models and solutions, students realize that writing is more than the application of a few simple formulas. They see the communicative value of the structures they learn and appreciate the kinds of communication problems writing can solve. (MSE)