Because poetic writing as a method of discourse and as a tool for learning plays a significant role in many theoretical models of writing but is rarely used in practice, a study was conducted to examine the effects on 70 college students in an introductory psychology class of a mixture of poetic and transactional assignments on the subject of schizophrenia. Students had one major expressive assignment (journals), two drafts (a first poem and a short story), and one final poetic assignment. They also had one draft and one final transactional assignment. A checklist and open ended questionnaire were used to gather student responses. Results indicated that the poem assignments encouraged creativity and helped students understand schizophrenia from the inside, while the transactional assignments helped them organize their thoughts and prepare to communicate them to another audience. (The report also briefly describes the experiences of one of four students selected for in-depth examination.) (JL)