This easy-to-read paperback is the result of the author's desire to learn more abouthow students think and feel about themselves as learners in a “large urban college”pre-freshman ESL composition class. It is intended for teachers, scholars, and graduate studentswho are interested in how students learn to write as well as their accompanying thoughtprocesses and emotions. The main body of the book, chapters 4–7, presents “casestudies of the journal writing experiences of five students” (p. 8) chosen to represent thevariety of cultural backgrounds and personal involvement with the freewriting process in journalkeeping. The students came from Colombia, Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, People'sRepublic of China, and Japan.