The formulae developed to encourage the impersonal writing considered correct in academic disciplines have their roots in past gender-biased scientific writing in which "male" thinking and writing intervened to subjugate female Nature. Vestiges of this idea of a masculine order as a clearly superior state are present in the more traditional college writing courses that teach that impersonal/objective writing is not only different from more personal and subjective writing, but better. However, current writing in the sciences challenges the idea that mature exposition is impersonal--that it does not talk directly to the reader, that it is unpoetic, that it always sticks to a single and clearly defined point, and that it avoids generalizations. From Bertrand Russell to Lewis Thomas, scientific writing is filled with subjective observation and metaphorical language. If freshman composition instructors wish to help students make use of personal feelings and observations in their content area writing they can follow these suggestions: (1) organize course materials around a theme rooted in subjective experience but also applied to impersonal writing; (2) reward students' desires to see and write about impersonal subject matter against a personal backdrop; (3) encourage a mix of rhetorical modes within a single paper, while helping students do so consciously and selectively; (4) encourage experimentation with mildly innovative paragraph organization; (5) encourage organization that leads toward a question rather than an answer; and (6) encourage students to regard writing as a means of thinking rather than a reflection of fully completed thought. (NKA)