Because any reading or writing research project or teaching method rests on some kind of epistemological assumptions and some models of reading and writing processes, a coherent theoretical approach to the interrelationships of the reading and writing processes is needed. In light of the post-Einsteinian scientific paradigm and Peircean semiotics, reading and writing are seen as always involving individuals, with their particular linguistic/experiential resources, in particular transactions with particular environments or contexts. Analyses of the reading and writing processes reveal parallelisms in patterns of symbolization and construction of meaning. The processes associated with "literary" and "nonliterary" reading and writing concern the reader's or writer's stance, which can fall into different parts of the "efferent/aesthetic continuum": stance is determined by the proportion of public or private linguistic activity which is admitted into the scope of selective attention--the "efferent" stance, which is concerned chiefly with what can be "carried away" or used, draws on the public aspect of sense, whereas the aesthetic stance includes proportionally more of the experiential, private aspect. Differences between these processes defeat the notion of an automatic cross-fertilization of reading and writing activities. A well-rounded humanistic education encompasses both aspects of the continuum, teaching students to differentiate the circumstances that call for a particular stance. (A figure of the efferent/aesthetic continuum is included, and 21 references are appended.) (MM)