The purpose of a semester course for journalism and creative writing students at Washington University was to help students, through reading and writing portraits in "new journalese," become capable critics of new journalistic writing. Students first were introduced to the techniques of new journalism in Tom Wolfe's book on new journalism and in some of his portraits of individuals, and then spent two-thirds of the semester analyzing various group portraits by different authors. Concurrently, students began work on the preliminary steps of their 15-25 page portrait--the term project. After choosing suitable subjects, students learned oral interviewing techniques, conducted interviews, and finally worked their material into a new-journalistic portrait. (JM)