This study investigates an aspect of the use of discourse-organising nouns (DONs), that is, abstract nouns such as decision, fact, problem, and thing, in Swedish advanced students’ academic writing in second language (L2) English. Specifically, the study examines the use of pre-modifiers together with DONs in a corpus of L2 student writing, and in what ways the texts produced by the L2 students resemble or differ from those produced by native-speaker students and expert writers in this respect. A number of significant differences across the writer groups were identified, including variety of usage and the expression of attitude and involvement. In short, the L2 students and, to a lesser extent, the L1 students, were found to use fewer types, and different types, in comparison with the experts, and to use them in different ways, resulting in discourse that can be characterised as imprecise and colloquial. The differences were largest between the L2 student writing and the expert writing, though findings suggest that both student groups can usefully be thought of as learner writers in this respect. The findings reported here contribute to a wider understanding of the characteristics of student writing and students’ academic literacy in a second language.