The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the difficulties ELL students experience in their writing development from the perspective of twenty ELL students. Through the use of questionnaires and in depth interviews, this study attempted to explore the writing needs or difficulties of ELL students. The findings indicated that ELL students perceived their highest writing difficulties in linguistic/cognitive deficiencies (M = 3.89;SD = 0.50), next highest in psychological/emotional deficiencies (M = 2.77;SD = 1.18) and the third in sociocultural aspects of writing difficulties (M = 2.48;SD = 1.10). In addition, this study discussed some of the influences of those writing difficulties on ELL writing and some implications for ELL teaching.