The preceding two essays focus on the ongoing challenge to engage students in meaningful conversation with the course content, their reading, their instructor, and one another. The authors, Maureen Neal and Ed Jones, have read each other’s essays and provided the following brief responses. This cross talk between the writers is an attempt to make explicit the more subtle cross talk between the essays experienced by those who read them one after the other.

This article explains the rules for playing the “Interpretation Game” in a literature-based first-year writing class, describes the resulting class discussion, and reflects on the ways that rules and games can promote rich collaboration.