This article explores the types of audience engagement strategies used by a Japanese secondary school student in an after school course preparing for a high-stakes impromptu academic writing task on a university entrance exam. The study uses appraisal theory--the branch of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) concerned with the patterning of interpersonal meaning in discourse--to track the changes in the engagement strategies used by the student. The article also details various instructional techniques employed by the teacher to help students gain insights into the beliefs and values of the university's admissions officers. The findings show the participant's post-test to be more overtly dialogized than the pre-test with an increase in both the amount and variation of engagement strategies. The study also explores possible pedagogical implications for reader-oriented instructional approaches. (Contains 2 tables.)