This paper investigates the approaches taken to essay writing by five Asian international students at an Australian university. Analysis of their in-depth interviews reveals links between their perceptions of learning, their perceptions of essay writing, their motivation for completing the task, and their awareness of the structural conventions of the essay as a genre. These links are apparent, irrespective of whether the students were taking a deep or a surface approach to the task. In addition, analysis of the interviews shows that the students who were taking a deep approach to writing had developed high levels of cross-cultural awareness, specifically in relation to the learning cultures, and the discursive structures of academic writing in Australia and their home country. Implications for the practice of teaching academic writing within the context of increasing cultural diversity in higher education are discussed. (Contains 1 note.)