This study investigated five Korean ESL graduate students' access to and utilization of professional and social resources in the process of socializing into American academic writing discourse. As a pilot study for a larger scale research study, data for the present study were collected during a four-month period through interviews. Findings suggest that socialization into American academic writing discourse was difficult, frustrating, and disempowering as well as restricted by lack of coordination among resources. Based on their prior experience and second-hand information provided by peers, the participants remained legitimate peripheral passive users of university resources such as the writing center, an ESL program, and research courses designed to help them. They were, however, active users of intertextual resources they sought out themselves. Peer advice appears to be more influential in Korean L2 graduate students' resource use choices than their advisors' and departments' recommendations. (Contains 1 note.)