This book is designed to provide guidance on conference teaching for teachers who have not done much one-to-one teaching, for those who have but are looking for new insights, and for tutors in the writing lab. The first chapter offers a rationale for one-to-one teaching and discusses the role of the conference in teaching writing, what conference talk accomplishes, and the benefits of one-to-one teaching. The second chapter describes the shapes and purposes of the conference--including its goals, tasks, elements, formats, and scheduling--and the roles of the teacher. The third chapter discusses conference activities such as conversation, directive versus nondirective approaches, uses of language and other forms of communication, and conference problems. The fourth chapter offers a diagnosis for teaching one-to-one that isolates the teacher, student, and written product as separate elements. The fifth chapter proposes some strategies for teaching one-to-one, especially strategies for working on rhetorical and composing skills. A discussion on whether grammar can be taught is followed by a consideration of general and specific strategies for grammatical correctness. (Some practice activities for tutor-training classes and some excerpts from conferences are appended.) (SRT)