In 2003, Terrence Martell, a finance professor at the City University of New York's Baruch College, encountered a classroom of 80 seniors who could navigate the complex intricacies of the futures markets and commodities trading. But when he asked them to write a report explaining to a commodity pool operator why he or she should retain the student after two months on the job as commodity trading advisor, many failed to live up to Martell's requirements. Frustrated, Martell turned to Baruch College's Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, which operates across the college to support faculty and advise them on teaching written, oral, and computer-aided communication. Martell asked the Institute what could be done to help the students understand and complete the assignment with better results. The Institute sent in Mikhail Gershovich, then deputy director and now director of the Institute, and John Choonoo, director of institutional research, to diagnose Martell's problem. Their report noted that the "majority of the cohort did not recognize the role they were asked to perform nor the purpose their writing was supposed to serve." This article describes how the Institute was able to help Martell. The Institute's early years, its communication-intensive courses, and the strategies it employed are also described. (Contains 5 figures.)