Developed as a model for teachers faced with the task of assigning research papers to students who are still apprentice writers, this two-part paper explores the possibilities of written response that reside both in the dialogic interplay of ideas in utopian texts and in the criticism of utopian texts. The first part examines some ideas contained in Bakhtin's "The Dialogic Imagination," and applies his theories to the study of diverse utopian and dystopian texts in a collaborative learning environment, the research writing class. The second part gives some practical suggestions for developing the ideas of the first section. For example, three class days are allowed for discussion of a book, followed by two days work in small groups on initial writing assignments, after which revisions are made and writing is then discussed by the class as a whole. Suggestions are also given for related assignments, and an extensive bibliography of utopian literature, as well as a secondary bibliography for research purposes, is furnished. (NKA)