Scholarship in applied linguistics has not sufficiently addressed learner motivation in mandatory writing classes in postsecondary settings. The data collected through short interviews from 20 students enrolled in a mandatory academic writing program at the junior/senior level in a California State University indicated that learner motivation in these classes was largely the result of how learners related themselves to variables such as self-efficacy, goal orientedness, interest in writing activities, novelty of teaching methods, and relevance of the writing genre for their intended careers. The findings, in overall, were in agreement with the claims made in applied linguistics and educational psychology that learners' cognitive and emotional appraisals of self, task, and the learning environment would largely determine how they would conduct themselves in and relate to the whole classroom environment (Dörnyei & Otto, 1998; Paris & Turner, 1994; Schumann, 1997, 2001).