The English curriculum comprising the document was written specifically for students deficient in composition by a team of English teachers from a Minnesota high school, in response to the expressed needs of their colleagues in the Robbinsdale area. The content is fitted into a career-related schema, ungraded and experience-based. For example, in one of the curriculum's series of open-ended exercises, students interview employed acquaintances to determine what communication skills their work requires, gather samples of actual job-related written communications, and evaluate them. The book is divided into five sections: (1) revealing oneself through language, (2) situational factors (audience, purpose, occasion), (3) organizing the message, (4) forming the message, and (5) mechanics. Each of the first four sections contains statements of basic assumptions and objectives, several sequential, self-directed learning activities related to the topic, and several supplementary teacher-directed activities. The fifth section, comprising more than one-third of the book, contains 12 Skillpacs, which are series of worksheets designed to teach spelling and vocabulary and to aid students while they are learning the processes of organizing and forming messages. Pretests, post-tests, and teachers' guides are included. All the sections are color-coded. (AJ)