When English instructors functioning simultaneously as researchers study the reading and writing processes of their own students, it is important that they fully describe the context within which the study takes place and the effect that the dual instructional/research environment has on the participants, who are, similarly, functioning as both students and subjects. In a 1984 course on introspection in reading and writing processes, two instructors at Indiana University examined the various strategies graduate English and reading students used to respond to a range of teacher-designed and self-designed reading and writing tasks. Results indicated that students were extremely sensitive to their new role as research subjects. For some students, the desire to cooperate with the instructor's research seemed to overwhelm their normal behavior. Other students felt that the course's structure emphasized the research environment, causing them to be more conscious of their role as subjects. The overwhelming role that students played in the course was that of the "good graduate student." Less sophisticated students (e.g., those enrolled in the freshman composition classes) would probably exhibit, to some degree, the same behavior. (JD)