The rationale behind the approach taken for an academic writing course, "Communicate in Writing: the English of Academic Study," is discussed. The first step was to provide a theoretical framework for the analysis of specimens of appropriate texts in functional terms. This analysis was made in order to identify the most frequently occurring functions which the course would then teach. It would also indicate ways in which these functions are characteristically sequenced to produce coherent discourse. The requirements were two: the specification of a set of ranks, and the parameters for the analysis. Two distinct parameters, the communicative and the rhetorical, yield three possible approaches to the design; the third is a combination of the communicative and the rhetorical. Which of these three approaches is appropriate depends on the specific aims of the course. The third was judged suitable to the requirements of the pre-sessional writing course. The validity of the third approach rests on the assumption that the characteristic sequences of communicative functions can be identified for specific rhetorical types and discourse positions. Two other criteria were kept in mind: sequencing potential and internal surrender value. (CFM)