Novel heat-curable acrylic-terminated monomers are provided which exhibit an optically anisotropic melt phase at a temperature which enables it to undergo melt processing in the formation of molded articles, etc. The monomers are capable of being heat-cured at temperatures in excess of the melt processing temperatures to produce a thermoset self-reinforced composite. The monomer may, for example, consist essentially of the reaction product of p-acryloyloxybenzoic acid and a difunctional aromatic moiety in a molar ratio of about 2:1.