First year writing students were asked which kinds of writing they enjoyed, and why. Their responses indicate a preference for "creative" writing, where "creative" is defined as "personal." The students in the research sample reacted against a form of knowing that requires them to place more emphasis on objects (human or non-human) in their world than on themselves, suggesting that subjectivist and procedural knowing work hand-in-hand for college-age students. Their responses show that, overall, they understand the reality of separate knowing, the voice of reason that doubts and questions each proposition it encounters. In addition, many students are able to use their knowledge of how to write for the intelligent but uninformed reader, yet simultaneously believe that the best writing reveals truth through self-generation of knowledge. Separate knowing is too impersonal for these students; yet their marked preference for personal writing, their distinct need to "get into" a subject and be able to understand immediately, suggests that they might readily and with much less protest gravitate toward this way of knowing if encouraged to do so. As a consequence, the passage of students to the perspective which integrates thinking and feeling, self and other, while acknowledging that knowledge is constructed and the knower is an intimate part of the known, could be a more pleasurable collaborative experience for both student and teacher. (Three pages of data on writing preferences and survey results are included.) (PRA)