This qualitative study explored the impact of reading on writing in a collegiate French culture course that emphasized genre-based writing pedagogy. In particular, the study focused on how 19 advanced collegiate learners of French used model text resources in writing a letter-manifesto and what their perceptions were of participation in genre-based writing instruction. Based on this study's findings, the authors make an argument for how genre-based pedagogy can facilitate advanced literacy development in a FL. They also highlight challenges of this pedagogy and directions for future research and implementation in collegiate FL programs.