Dr. Mary Beth Culp, Emeritus Professor of the University of South Alabama and founder of the Mobile Bay Writing Project.   The Mobile Bay Writing Project at the University of South Alabama was begun in 1998 in response to a growing need for writing instruction in our schools.  It is an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a professional development network of more than 175 sites in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.  It was begun in 1973 at the University of California, Berkeley, as a bottom-up, rather than top-down model of professional development.  This simple but profound idea has been the basis for the continued expansion of a program which is regarded as the most effective model of its kind in the United States. The NWP is based on the following principles: 1.  Programs designed to improve the teaching of writing must involve teachers at all levels and in all content areas. 2.  Meaningful change happens over time and can best be accomplished by classroom teachers. 3. Teachers of writing must write. 4.  Student writing can be improved by improving the teaching of writing. 5.  The best teacher of teachers is another teacher. The Mobile Bay Writing Project has three major components:  the summer institute; inservice programs conducted by teacher consultants throughout the year; and continuity programs for continuing professional development of participants.  It is in the summer institute that teachers of all levels are immersed in the NWP philosophy.  The institute features writing and responding groups, teacher demonstrations, and reading/discussion of current reading and writing research and pedagogy. While all aspects of the institute are critical, it is the idea that teachers of writing must write that is most empowering. In the daily sessions participants experiment with a variety of forms of writing, reading to small and large groups, getting feedback from their peers, revising, and publishing.  This model of the writing process is at the heart of teaching writing¸ and together with the study of current research forms the basis of  personal and professional growth, which is sustained by the continuity programs.  As a result of their expertise, teachers conduct inservice programs for area schools through the South Alabama Regional Inservice Center.  This teachers-teaching-teachers model has been an effective means of reaching teachers in all schools of the region and improving the teaching of writing at all levels. As I read the selections in this anthology, selected from pieces written during summer institutes, inservice programs, and continuity programs,   I was reminded again of the power of writing and of how much our concept of writing has changed as a result of psycholinguistic research.  We used to believe that writing was a way of telling what we know, of informing, of persuading, of hypothesizing.  Writing is all those things, but it is so much more.  Writing is not only a way of telling what we know, but a way of finding out what we know, a way of knowing.  When we express ourselves in writing we clarify our ideas, beliefs, values, and goals—in short who we are as human beings.  That is a significant goal of education, both for students and teachers.