"Conversations on the Written Word" is itself a conversation, for more than one voice speaks out in these essays. Three of Robinson's students, who are also his colleagues, contribute essays to the collection: Cathy Fleischer writes about a literacy project in an inner-city high school; Carol Winkelmann wonders about students on the margins in college writing; Patricia Stock joins with Robinson to write about language and learning and ways to think about learning, drawing upon experiences in remedial classes in the University of Michigan and in high school classrooms in an industrial city in Michigan. In Conversations, Robinson carries on his own conversation with his own learning and experience, varied as both have been. A Linguist in an English department who was trained as a medievalist; a chair of an English department in which the dominant interest was and is literature; director of a university-wide writing program; director of programs in education - Robinson brings diverse perspectives to the study of the issues. The essays treat: language and its various uses, literacy and its uses, the social and ethical implications of language use, the pragmatics and practicalities of language learning in secondary and collegiate classrooms.