Researchers seem to have made little progress toward better understanding the nature and importance of individual differences. The authors present a paradigm to explain such differences so that researchers will be better able to study the wide variety of approaches that students employ. The volume synthesizes and expands the large body of research on individual differences, and shows how personality theory can explain the kinds of individual differences found in writing processes, written products, teaching styles, and other areas. The authors discuss how personality theory can be used to help students develop their writing skills in a process more suited to their personality type, and demonstrate how teachers' responses to student writing is to some extent a reflection of their personality type.