This text provides an outlook on a first-year writing programme's evolution by bringing together a group of related essays that analyze, from various angles, how theoretical concepts about writing actually operate in real students' writing. Based on the beginning writing programme developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a course that asks students to consider what it means to be a literate member of a community, the essays in the collection explore how students become (and what impedes their progress in becoming) authorities in writing situations. Features that set this book apart from others in the field include: demonstrations how research into specific teaching problems (eg. the problem of authority in beginning writers' work) can be conducted by examining student work through a variety of lenses such as task interpretation, collaboration and conference, so that instructors can understand what factors influence students, and can then use what they have learned to reshape their teaching practices; adaptability of theory and research to develop a course that engages basic writers with challenging ideas; providing a model of how a large writing programme can be administered, particularly in regards to the integration of research and curriculum development; and integration of literary and composition theories.