A study investigated whether transfer from native to second language in writing occurs, and if so, whether the different rhetorical structures that student writers from other cultures bring to the task of writing in English affect their writing in ways that may affect the grades assigned by experienced raters. To do so, the processes used by essay raters in responding to writing products were analyzed. Four raters evaluated 20 academic essays written by non-native graduate students of various language backgrounds at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and commented on the features of the writing leading to their assessments. Excerpts of the comments for five papers are presented. It is suggested that there is enough evidence in these comments to warrant further research on the significance of language transfer on writing assessment, on the interlinguistic differences in transfer, and on techniques of writing instruction to address this issue. A 37-item bibliography is included. (MSE)