An adjunct faculty member who teaches in three very different colleges and universities sees the similarity of course objectives for freshman writing, in which each program emphasizes rhetorical mode requirements to the exclusion of writing as discovery. Student writing is product-centered, and the writing act is linear in that it adheres to a discourse formula. Students are not encouraged to express or explore their own ideas on an assigned topic, rather they need to find information for their topic, narrow the topic, create a thesis statement, and adhere to a preconceived outline. Furthermore, the writing programs transmit contradictory messages, simultaneously indicating the value of free writing and insisting on formal outlines and the finished product. The problem appears to be one of mixing modern rhetoric with classical rhetoric in pedagogical theory and practice, i.e., illogically merging the process and product approaches into a current-traditional paradigm. Rather, the writing classroom should be opened up for personal expression in which the student is put on equal footing with the instructor. The writing instructor is no longer the true authority of expression, and the classroom becomes a discourse community. This atmosphere empowers students to be responsible for their learning. (KEH)