The purpose of this study was to investigate ESL students' performance and strategies when writing direct and translated essays. The study also aimed at exploring students' strategies when writing in L2 (English) and L1 (Arabic). The study used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative procedures for data collection and analysis. Adapted strategy questionnaires, writing essay prompts and follow-up questions were utilized for data gathering. Thirty six university students participated in writing three different essays (direct L2 essay, L1 essay, and translated essay). Furthermore, the participants responded to strategy questionnaires and answered follow-up questions. The results revealed statistically significant differences between direct and translated writing in favor of the first one. No significant differences between direct and translated writing in the use of strategies were found. The study's findings may have pedagogical implications for the fields of writing instruction, writing assessment and teacher training. Based on the results, the study ended with some recommendations to assist and direct future research.