This paper explores the concept of intuition and applies its observations to the teaching of writing. As background, the distinction between instinct and intuition and a few common misunderstandings about intuition are discussed. The major portion of the paper identifies four intuitive senses: (1) The sense of the normative, which refers primarily to matters of tone--following this sense helps writers stay within the general range of reader tolerance bounded by the excessive and the boring at each extreme; (2) The sense of simplicity, which does not provide proscriptions like "avoid big words," but gives a sense of balance indicating the most economical means to achieve the highest return; (3) The sense of rhythm, which helps writers to produce readable prose without proscription--intuition is the basis for the rhythm of sentences as well as paragraphs and larger structural units in the essay; and (4) The sense of order, which is a complex process of shaping that reveals itself in the sequence, transitions, and proportions of a piece of writing. (CC)