Currently postgraduate hospitality courses are attracting large numbers of international students, many of whom do not speak English as a first language. In addition, these programmes are also popular with first language students drawn from non-traditional academic backgrounds. Both cohorts experience difficulties with the academic genre requirements associated with study at postgraduate level, and these difficulties impact on the successful completion of their studies. Research indicates that students benefit most from academic literacy instruction when this instruction is contextualised in the relevant discipline area. This article describes the attempt of two lecturers, one an applied linguist, the other a discipline expert, to develop credit bearing papers that would address students' academic literacy challenges using a contextualised discipline specific approach.