Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism has applications to rhetoric and composition instruction. Dialogism, sometimes translated as intertextuality, is the term Bakhtin used to designate the relation of one utterance to other utterances. Dialogism is not dialogue in the usual sense of the word; it is the context which informs utterance, and without which utterance cannot exist. Thus, composing is never the business of the writer working alone, but always the result of his or her interaction with the world, and with its readers and subjects. Dialogism rejects the notion that writing can express an individual self, believing that what is expressed in discourse is culture, or values held by a particular culture. In terms of general composition instruction, dialogism forces individuals to reexamine their definitions of the elements of the rhetorical triangle (writer, subject, and audience), as well as the relationship of these elements to each other. Two advantages offered by dialogic thinking for composition instruction are: (1) by locating expression in society rather than in self, an enhanced appreciation of authorship as a community-based activity may result; and (2) by accepting flux as the natural order of things, and of the rhetorical situation, a true appreciation for the relentless change which underpins the composing process may be achieved, and thus those pedagogical strategies which emphasize openness, rather than closure, and which posit change as the norm can be embraced. (SR)