This case study examined the changes in teachers’ beliefs after a professional development project for teaching writing through a case study of two writing teachers in a Chinese university. The author found that the project broadened the teachers’ understanding of different writing theories. It provided a clear model of how to integrate these new approaches into regular writing courses, changed their instructional focus and shifted their perception of teachers’ roles in teaching practice. The author emphasizes that this programme enriched the teachers’ writing knowledge and developed a more inclusive view of different writing strategies, which helped them understand the nature of writing more clearly.