I wonder if the "academic essay" (as if there were only one--and we know that's not the case) is actually used as an excuse to teach other kinds of things like: --the reading strategies of different academic fields --Toulmin logic --a rhetorical approach to writing and reading --an analytical attitude to language. (Add some more of your own) It's struck me for sometime that the academic essay is only a device to get at these kinds of far more important issues. It's like a public relations effort. Students often believe that that they need to write in the genre of the academic essay. I am not certain that some a singular kind of thing exists, but these other resources--the ability to note conventions, the use of evidence etc--now those just might prove useful. So the essay just might be an excuse to get at these other issues. Catherine F. Schryer Dept. of English University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 (519) 885-1211 (ext 3318)