This publication presents a proposal for academic writing instruction at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, and, by extension, in Creole-speaking language communities. It advocates the adoption of an enlightened policy promoting writing instruction in the disciplines. Based on the analysis of archival materials, as well as interviews of past and current teachers of primarily first-level writing-in-English courses at the UWI, it critiques in detail the philosophical underpinnings, practical applications, and limitations of these courses, from their beginnings in the 1950s to the turn of the 21st century.