This paper draws on the Academic Literacies approach to examine tutor/student relations in the production of academic texts. We address issues associated with learning to write in such contexts, through exploring the perspectives of two groups of non-traditional students as they reflect on their experiences in navigating educational contexts in a Brazilian public university. The term non-traditional is used here to refer to students from social groups whose previous generation had no, or very limited, access to university. In order to explore the "hidden features" of the contextualized nature of academic writing, we present two cases: students from Angola and from Campo, both groups not traditionally represented in Brazilian universities. We explored the development of writing in academic contexts by examining tensions identified by these students and their tutors/teachers as they engaged with academic literacies.