The author of more than one article has asserted in these pages that a goal of studying composition is to transcend the natural orality of the untrained intellect. Keith Whitaker hereby turns that around. While he allows the salutary effect of patterning one's prose after the great works of our civilization, he cites Socrates and the Bible to argue that ubiquitous college writing courses do more to stifle thought than to stimulate it. (Contains 33 notes.)