Book excerpt: This short, accessible new text in the McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series provides research-based information and practical advice to instructors who teach writing to second and foreign language learners. Based on the principles of communicative language teaching, the text can be used as a supplement to other books in the Series or to other main texts. It is appropriate for a basic methods course or a course on second or foreign language writing; it can also be used as part of a preparation course for ESL or foreign language teaching assistants, as a text for continuing education courses for high school ESL teachers, or as an aid for practicing second language teachers.