In recent years, the number of guides to academic writing in German written for students has increased dramatically. This study examines how these guides as well as instructors’ manuals on how to teach academic writing (partly in the context of language teaching) cover the distinct features of what has been referred to as academic language (Wissenschaftssprache). The ana- lytical framework adopted here is the language-sensitive competence model of academic writing. This model distinguishes between several academic writing, knowledge and skill types and also considers individuals’ linguistic background and prior literacy development. This study shows that the ways in which academic language is addressed in these texts are unlikely to contribute to students’ competency development. Reducing the complexity of written German academic lan- guage to a short set of prescriptive rules is, this study argues, not only exceedingly difficult but also problematic. This study concludes that the main approach taken in many German textbooks, writing pedagogy, could be complemented with those developed in language teaching, to pave the way for an academic language pedagogy based on writing studies (Schreibwissenschaft).