The authors review three different strands of work on English writing research and instruction, working to harmonize them into a coherent translingual approach to teaching writing in the postsecondary EFL/EIL/ESL writing classroom. Five principles from English composition research (now often called writing studies) describe the fundamental knowledge base; next, the work of researchers specifically in the writing of L2 speakers provides a contrasting perspective; and finally, recent translingual scholarship usefully complicates the other two. The paper then offers two sample writing lessons that demonstrate an approach to writing pedagogy triangulating these three bodies of knowledge.