One challenge for composition instructors is to determine exactly, or even approximately, what objects and rituals must be observed for students' words to fall with the "true." Another is to successfully communicate these objects and rituals to their students through the various techniques of discipline. The arbitrary nature of delimitation, which makes such identification difficult, coupled with the instructors' own frantic attempts to tow the latest pedagogical line, prompts them to engage in acts of discipline with ultimately conflicting results. Michel Foucault's analyses of discipline and punishment shed some light on classroom structures that render the student powerless. The circular seating arrangement and the writing journal, for instance, may seem like liberating practices but they also reinforce existing power structures between students and teachers. (TB)