This article describes an attempt to give university students of English as a second language instruction in writing literary essays. The students were given literary commentaries to listen to in the language laboratory, and then were asked to summarize these commentaries, using, as much as possible, the structures contained in the original recordings. It was found that this type of exercise was not enough by itself and, furthermore, created certain problems. Therefore, the following types of exercises were elaborated to supplement the basic exercise and to remedy the problems it had generated: (1) phonetic (pronunciation); (2) oral reading and intonation; (3) literary expression; and (4) special exercises involving poetic and rhetorical creation. Appendices contain examples of these exercises. (Author/AM)