An experimental study explored writing-learning relationship in a Korean college curriculum. Two teachers and 207 students participated and four sections of a freshman English reading course were used. Students in two sections were allocated to an experimental group, and students in the other two sections, to a control group. Based on the premise that different writing tasks can involve students in different kinds of learning, this study adopted essay writing and answering comprehension questions. For a ten-week period, the experimental group wrote essays on their six reading chapters. The control group wrote answers to comprehension questions on the same chapters during the same period. Pre- and posttest data were analyzed by using ANOVA. The analyzed variable was a change in reading comprehension, measured by the comprehension subtest of TOEFL. Results showed that writing essays could improve students' reading comprehension more than answering comprehension questions. That was congruent with the results from previous studies in a native secondary school curriculum, and interpreted as supporting the use of essay writing in EFL learning environments. Supplementarily, the interaction by teacher by treatment had a noticeable effect on the students' reading comprehension. Some directions for further research were suggested. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)