There are compelling reasons to use talk in the writing classroom to improve both expressive and expository writing. First, speaking is natural, and students come to the writing classroom linguistically well-developed and confident. Second, talking encourages exploration of words by slowing down the thought process without completely stopping it. Third, this naturalness and ease of speech establishes a comfortable atmosphere in which writers feel free to take risks in writing and in sharing their writing. Talking activities can be helpful during all three stages of the writing process. Prewriting activities include role-playing followed by free writing, or discussing an unusual object before writing about it. Questioning can be a very important activity during the drafting stage. As students begin editing or revising their papers, student-teacher conferences and peer revision can help make the students' communication clearer and more in tune to audience needs. Most important, students must both understand that talking about writing is necessary and observe teachers talking about writing to learn this fact. Once talking about writing becomes important to teachers it will become important to students as well. (HTH)