This report lists and discusses guidelines for short-term electives, or mini-courses, for the high school language arts curriculum. There are a few references to other fields besides English and to the interdisciplinary humanities to suggest the adaptability of the guidelines. The guidelines can be used for a variety of types of short term courses, such as "selectives," nongraded courses, cyclical courses, phased courses, triads, mods, and concept mini-courses. Nine advantages of such courses are listed. The author discusses ground rules that appear to be necessary for a school to incorporate such courses and presents detailed suggestions of steps to follow in the process of preparing the new curriculum. The last section of the report is devoted to comments about planning such mini-courses. The author emphasizes that the basic rationale behind these courses should be a shift of the major effort of learning from the teacher to the students. (Author/DI)