Students entering the university encounter a new discourse community with its own writing conventions. Students' prior experiences with writing exert a powerful influence on how they perceive writing; when ESL students consider themselves accomplished writers this may lead to resistance (Canagarajah, 2002; Fox, 1994). This paper examines how the way writing is taught in Singapore complicates the transition to the university for students. At the university, professors expect students to adopt a stance in their term papers and support their position; instead, students view the task as one of knowledge display and avoid directly stating their opinion. Students acquire many of these writing conventions at Junior College during their preparation for the General Paper in the GCE 'A' Level examination where they write on general topics for an undefined audience; students carry these notions about writing into the university setting.