One does not teach writing, one learns writing which is to say that the role of the teacher is to help the student learn by actually writing. However, crucial to writing is the preparatory step with which the teacher can help: motivation. That is, students who know why they are writing and to whom they are writing can write with an intensity not otherwise likely. A variety of role-playing tactics can be used in a composition class to help the student prepare to write. An assignment can be made as if the student were writing to his or her immediate supervisor justifying the existence of his or her job within a company. The student may pretend to be composing a mailer to a disinterested person asking that person for funds for a charitable society or to resubscribe to a magazine. He or she may pretend to be a politician defending a position, or a teacher recommending one textbook over another, or an applicant writing a personal statement to a personnel director, or any of a number of other roles which require some awareness of the motive of the writer and of the concern of the audience. This role-playing helps the student by creating that most important of all writing components, motivation. (TJ)