"Punto y aparte" comes from the Spanish expression used to indicate the beginning of a new paragraph. In the context of this book it implies a new experience in Spanish for students as they move toward a hight level of discourse and Spanish proficiency. "Punto y aparte" focuses on and recycles seven major communicative functions throughout: describing, comparing, reacting and recommending, narrating in the past, expressing likes and dislikes, hypothesizing, and talking about the future. What is unique about this approach and these materials is the idea of narrowing the focus of instruction to seven communicative functions, all of which appear in every chapter from the very first day of the course. The functions are moved to the forefront of the course so students are consciously forced to look at grammar in a different way.