Many students drop out from their education during the first year in higher education.One reason is the demand of academic writing. In order to meet those students in a constructive way, we need to know more about their relation to writing. The aim of the paper is to describe and analyze the students conceptions on their own writing within their first year as teacher students. The students participated by answering a questionnaire, and we present the students answers on questions concerning writing in general. Questions dealt with in the study are: do you write in your everyday life? why do you write? do you like to write? do you have role models? and in which way do you think your writing will be useful during your education? The 400 informants are students within the teacher training program. The questionnaires were filled out in connection to a lecture within one of the first couple of weeks of the programs during 2014 and 2015. All students participated, and we see it as a fruitful way of putting writing on the agenda. The students are given the chance to reflect on writing and they get a first glance of how to conduct research. The students conceptions were primarily that their writing had either a therapeutic or a social function, but some answered that they write fiction such as poems, short stories or lyrics. They use social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Some students answered that they never write in their everyday life. Most students took the opportunity to answer with arguments and comments