The purposes of this study were to (1) better understand the range of writing performances characteristic of Taiwanese junior high school students; (2) analyze the factors influencing their writing performances; and (3) analyze the factors influencing their performance after controlling for writing ability as measured by the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students (BCTEST). Writing samples of Taiwanese junior high school students from the 2007 administration of BCTEST were collected, and analyzed with regression analysis and multinomial modeling. It was found that, after controlling for writing ability, performances differed primarily in terms of writing style. Implications for instruction and suggestions for future research are offered.