Evaluating the longitudinal effects of a 5-year secondary school composition curriculum, a study investigated students' perceptions of their ability to use essay-level and syntax-level skills. Student questionnaires provided perception, definition, and usefulness data about the curriculum. Results showed that 3 years elapsed before students became proficient in writing essays using the "illustration" mode. Findings also showed that the students overestimated their ability to use the essay-level skills, but underestimated their syntax-level skills. They defined the essay terms better than the syntax terms and demonstrated that they considered the former more useful. The analytic essay scores correlated positively with student perception and ability to define. Although they used fewer final free modifiers, students' sentence and T-Unit length compared favorably with results in similar studies. The results suggest that developing competent writers requires (1) an articulated curriculum; (2) an English Department sensitive to the time and effort required by the task; (3) student, teacher, parent, and administration participation; (4) continually high standards and constructive feedback; and (5) teacher understanding that not all students progress at the same rate and that none will write well all the time. (Tables of data are appended, and exhibits such as writing samples, proposed writing topics, and a student questionnaire from the study are included.) (JD)