A study investigated patterns in the apparent syntactic errors of native English-speaking, upper-level learners of Arabic as a foreign language. One hundred writing samples, including summaries, criticisms, and free composition, were gathered from a number of university courses. Error types analyzed included articles, subordinate clauses, two-word vocabulary, active participles, tense and agreement, and word order. It is concluded that by teaching an integral grammar course in composition to intermediate and advanced learners of Arabic, many problems of syntax can be overcome. Some kind of contrastive analysis of functional discourse patterns in Arabic and English should also be considered. (MSE)