A teacher-written essay comparing writing to farming served as a process model for analogical student themes. This assignment, given to 39 students in 2 classes of a first course in freshman composition, produced complete analogical essays in all but 4 cases. The essays, questionnaire responses, and retrospective essays on the writing of the original assignment created a cumulative picture of student writing processes. Although unaware of any theoretical paradigms, the students wrote within a process-of-inquiry framework. Like the teacher's model, their essays manifested a four-part pattern of development: from preparatory problem, to intermediate incubation, to flash of insight, to final verification. The students' discoveries during this process can be classified according to the communication triangle--from the writer's standpoint, from that of the audience, or from that of the message itself. These discoveries can also be classified on a continuum from already known to not-known, or undiscovered. The students' success with the assignment and their follow up comments confirm the usefulness of the teacher's essay as a process model. (JL)