The double entry journal, first suggested by Ann Berthoff in "Forming/thinking/writing," offers a way to break out of the one-way discourse and single-voiced thinking that predominates in traditional rhetoric and academic writing. Typically, double-entry journals are set up so that students quote from a source in the left-hand margin and comment on it in the right. In this way, a dialogue of sorts is established between the student and the author. At times, the student may paraphrase and interpret--or as Peter Elbow says, "translate"--the authoritative discourse into more personal, private language--into the internally persuasive word. Bringing into play two voices instead of one, the double-entry journal can also engage students in a critique of discourse. The implications for becoming situated in a discourse become apparent when students paraphrase key phrases from a discourse into "ordinary" or everyday language. In a developmental writing course at Ferris State University, for instance, a special 1993 issue of "Newsweek" devoted to the issue of date rape illustrated how gender relations are constructed by certain key words and phrases. Students read two contrasting articles, one by a conservative feminist and one by a feminist. Then, students were asked to take on the perspective of the subject in the discourse in order to answer the claims made by the discourse. Excerpts from student writing show its effectiveness in assuming and understanding different perspectives. Contains 5 notes and 22 references.) (TB)