A number of common procedures underlie speaking, writing, listening, and reading; some students acquire these through exposure while others do not. A program for the teaching of procedures will differ from many conventional programs in that it will first identify and recognize these procedures. Abstract and complex prose and issues of organization, style, and rhetoric are not frequently taught, although they are tested; however, students frequently perform poorly on such tests because there has been scant opportunity for them to learn these features of discourse. Mastery entails procedures for reading a test analytically and for producing effective writing. Such procedures must be taught for students to perform well in writing tasks. Tests erroneously assume that performance in the receptive mode indicates proficiency in the productive mode. Procedures for dealing with experience by temporal, spatial, and logical structuring must be taught, as well as aspects of medium (imagery, metaphor, symbol), structure, voice, and operations in producing and receiving discourse. (DF)