A case study examined one college student's poor performances during timed-writing sessions to develop a method to allow students to maintain the quality and ease in writing they achieve in other writing situations. The student, assigned to write a movie review, volunteered to participate in two 90 minute talk-aloud protocol sessions to examine his composing process. The first session revealed a major problem with lack of concentration during the composing process. Next, a set of cue cards was developed and modeled for the student writer to be used as a tool during the writing assignment. Each card contained one directive statement representing one general category of activity, for instance elaborating, planning, and making improvements. The second session revealed significant improvement in the student's attention to task, time management, planning behavior, and use of higher-level statements. The product was only marginally better than the first essay, however, indicating the need for further research. (The appendix contains six handouts of data and cue card prompts.) (KEH)