The write stuff.

• Position: What's New?

We once had a college roommate who always studied by candlelight, insisting that he was "going to be the next Abraham Lincoln." The future 16th president also was known to hone his rhetorical skills as a poor youth by scratching out words on the back of charcoal-blackened fireplace shovels. At that, however, our roomie drew the line. As an engineering major, he was quite proficient with top-of-the-line drafting pens and pencils. We, on the other hand, usually had some cheap pen that leaked and left blotches all over our need-it-to-pass term paper. It took us 20 years to catch on, but we've finally seen (or drawn) the light and have obtained a series of scripting implements worthy of our profession, thanks to Core, a new series of writing instruments available from Sanford's Rotring brand. Sanford, a division of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., Bellwood, Ill., is the mother company of Pa- Cc per Mate, Colorific, Parker, Waterman, and Sharpie. (More about them later.)

The Core series provide soft ergonomic grips, rugged rubber nib caps, sturdy metal clips, visible ink windows, and lightweight aluminum barrels. The Titanium XS and Corridium XL fountain pens run about $25, while the Eterium and Lysium mechanical pencils are $17.50 apiece, as is the Titanium ball point pen.

Another pair of precision writing tools come from Sensa, Carlsbad, Calif., in the form of the Cloud9 ($24.99) and Stypen-Up ($19.99). The former, thanks to its creative design, has been exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, as well as the Louvre in Paris. The Cloud9 has a sleek, molded design featuring a perfectly balanced lightweight composite resin body. The soft-touch response grip makes it "float like a cloud across the paper," thus the name. (The gift case is equally intriguing, with the pen floating against a sky-blue background.) Since the fluid grip displaces finger pressure, there is greater support and the elimination of "writer's bump." Perhaps best of all, nestled within the contoured alloy clip is a crystal lens, which magnifies your shirt...