The United States has always been the top choice of Taiwanese university students who want to study abroad. Consequently, English writing is especially vital for doctoral dissertation; insufficient research deals with academic writing of such students, despite its importance to their success. This paper aims to fill the gap by analyzing the course syllabi as well as interviews with Ph.D. students at a university in New York State. Task analysis and verbal reports of these students yielded significant insights that may contribute to more effective guidance for both academic writing instructors and curriculum developers in Taiwan.