The article is devoted to the actual problem of teaching students of non-linguistic majors to write in a foreign language. The purpose of the study is to assess the students' level of written language competence. In 2018 and 2019, the Academic Competition (AC) of foreign languages "Prometheus" was held at South Ural State University (SUSU). In the qualifying round of the AC, students of 1st and 2nd courses took part: in 2018 -- 1,300 people, in 2019 -- 1,600. Participants who scored more than 60% of the correct answers were allowed to the "Writing" section. The essay was chosen as the format to test written speech. The number of students who wrote an essay in 2018 was 186, in 2019 -- 294 of the total number of participants. Evaluation of written works was carried out on the basis of the requirements to the similar task in the international IELTS exam. 4 criteria were assessed: Task response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The analysis of the participants' written works has revealed that the most difficult thing in creating written speech works in a foreign language is the ability to express and argue one's own opinion. The study examines the psychological and pedagogical features of writing in a foreign language. The authors formulate guidelines for teaching students to write in a foreign language.