A study at Queens College (City University of New York, New York) investigated the literacy backgrounds of nine non-native-English-speaking students of varied ages and language groups who failed the freshman composition test. Data were gathered in focused interviews (questions appended), which asked for the student's recollections of the experiences of learning to write in the native language, of learning to write in English, and difficulties in dealing with the composition test. Results indicated the students had had extensive writing instruction before coming to the United States, and came from home backgrounds having similarities in writing experience. However, their educational backgrounds varied in emphasis on the function and genre of writing. Formal writing was often connected with study of literature. Students had varied cultural educational and cultural constructions of the writing experience in three areas: interpreting a writing task; anticipating the reader's needs; and developing and organizing ideas. The interviews confirmed some findings of contrastive rhetoric research on organizational patterns, but also suggest that cross-cultural differences are not limited to the organization of writing, but are also shown in how the writer approaches and interprets a writing task and goes about orienting the reader. Contains 19 references. (MSE)