Intervention exercises have tended to be limited to restricted controlled output in studies related to second language (L2) learners' acquisition of written academic formulaic sequences (FSs), while measurement of use has been drawn from freer output (AlHassan & Wood, 2015; Jones & Haywood, 2004; Peters & Pauwels, 2015). The current study reports on an intervention designed to be less controlled than previous studies and therefore closer to what learners would subsequently be required to produce. The intervention required a treatment group to edit target FSs into given paragraphs. These paragraphs were similar to those they were later required to produce and from which the data were drawn. Data drawn from pretests established that there was no significant difference in the occurrence of target FSs use between the treatment and control groups. Data drawn from posttests were used to determine whether there was any significant difference in the occurrence of the target FSs between pre- and posttests for each group. Results from the treatment group indicate that the intervention appears to have been effective in increasing learners' utility with the target FSs.