This study analyzes the writing of Brazilian students from one class in a language course as well as their responses to a questionnaire and an interview, in order to investigate genre characteristics in their written work and also their perceptions concerning the genres they produce. The analysis is based on the five characteristics of genres presented by Swales (1990:58): communicative purpose, structure, style, content and audience. This qualitative study used 28 compositions written by 16 students in one advanced-level class in a language course; two genres and one text type were analyzed. The data include 10 advice letters, 10 film reviews, and 8 narratives. After all the students answered the questionnaire, five from the same class were interviewed so that their perceptions could be considered in the genre analysis (Swales 1990, 2001). The analysis of the data showed that the students have some awareness of the communicative purpose and content of the genres they produced; however, they demonstrate a lack of control of genre structure when there is no given model for the writing. This structural variation does not hinder the students success as learners, though, considering their overall performance in the course. There is also variation in the students perception of audience, since either they envision an imaginary reader or they write for the teacher. Both the interviews and the texts showed that further lexical learning and review of grammatical structures would help them write more fluently and confidently. The results indicate that, although the students have some genre awareness about their writing, they need to acquire greater learner autonomy in order to be able to investigate their own difficulties and revise and consolidate the content on their own. The study suggests an approach to teaching that will encourage learners to gain more confidence and fluency in their writing and to produce genres with autonomy, so that they may be enabled to participate actively in discourse practices in their social, professional and academic life.