This paper was originally conceived as a position paper arguing for the retention of KEYS to Academic Writing Success (KAWS), a successful undergraduate writing programme which had been developed by AUT University’s unit for Learning Development and Success: Te Tari Awhina. However, AUT’s approach to developing academic literacies has recently been reviewed; therefore this revised version merely seeks to document the approach taken in KAWS, which may be of pedagogical interest to colleagues considering adopting a genre-based approach to academic writing programmes. This approach aims to empower first year undergraduate students with the confidence and skills to tackle their first writing assignment, which is typically an essay, due in the first few weeks of the first semester. As a coherent writing development programme, KAWS has received positive endorsements from colleagues teaching on the programme and by faculty staff members whose students’ writing improves as a result of having attended the programme, and overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students themselves.