Giving students direct experience with the writing contexts and demands they will soon face as professionals focuses their attention on learning as much as possible from a required writing course. Our approach has concentrated on developing an experiential (client-based) curriculum to provide students the benefits of writing for real audiences as well as meeting both student and teacher goals--engagement with real content, authentic practice of key writing skills, and sophisticated analysis of rhetorical context. Anticipating--and avoiding--potential pitfalls can help students take full advantage of the opportunities inherent in the client-based curriculum.