Prior studies conducted on college students' perceptions of their academic control have demonstrated that academic attributions are malleable and that low levels of perceived control leading to academic failure can be mitigated by employing an Attributional Retraining (AR) intervention designed to modify maladaptive attributions. This study assessed the effect of an Attributional Retraining treatment designed to promote adaptive attributions for students in first-year writing classes. A 2x2 factorial analysis was used as the experimental design for this study to understand the cause and effect relationship between the AR treatment as well as initial levels of perceived academic control (PAC) and the dependent variables. The dependent variables for this study were academic outcomes of grades and GPA, self-perceptions of performance, causal attributions (including luck, effort, teacher quality, and so forth) as well as post-test levels of PAC. Multiple assessments using ANOVA, MANOVA, and MANCOVA conducted on 148 first-year writing students in control and treatment groups demonstrated that results of this study were contrary to previous studies designed to modify testing strategies. Although treatment effects on academic outcomes with a covariant of high school grades were insignificant, interaction effects between AR treatment/control group and Low/High-PAC group indicated the treatment resulted in significantly higher post-test PAC and perceptions of performance for High-PAC students compared to their peers in the control group. Additionally, students with initial Low-PAC in the treatment group had significantly lower post-test PAC and perceptions of success than their counterparts in the control group. Implications of the research suggest that complicated writing strategies recommended in the treatment may have been outside students' Zone of Proximal Development, and the process of writing itself is complex, transformative, and happens over time. Implications further suggest that those creating pathways through increased utilization of critical pedagogy for learners to achieve in writing must consider the complex nature of writing and writer identity alongside levels of PAC, individual attributions, and student perceptions of performance. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]