The case study examined the development of English writing skills in a native Russian-speaking college student with no previous instruction in English as a Second Language. It drew on writing samples from 2 years of English language instruction. Theories of first and second language acquisition, especially in written expression, are analyzed in relation to observations of the writing process, interviews with the subject and his instructors, and analysis of written products. Analysis of errors and syntactic maturity of the compositions found that errors decreased and syntactic maturity increased over the 2-year period. No correlation was found between number of errors and syntactic maturity. Information from formal oral interviews conducted with the subject, when compared with his writing development, indicated greater syntactic maturity but also more errors in writing than in speech. The subject had considerable writing anxiety. A questionnaire concerning his attitude, beliefs, and strategies, administered to the entire class, revealed that the subject was not typical in many ways, such as in his perception of his own second language abilities. In addition, his compositions reflected some classic stages of acculturation, including culture shock, anomie, and eventual assimilation. (MSE)