With the conference goal of "how to encourage learners to engage in their learning to make a difference in their lives, their local communities, and beyond," how to engage normally disengaged students will be presented. Academic writing, whether as a stand-alone class or as required assignments in subject classes, is dreaded by many university students. It is perhaps the underlying reason many students are tempted to plagiarize and more recently use AI-assistance, like chatGPT, to help complete their writing tasks. Techniques will be presented that can help students realize the value of learning to write effectively. Also to be presented are activities to develop students' metacognition of themselves as students, such as their attitude towards studying and their behaviors that result in stress and low performance. Through such attitude adjustments and self-awareness raising, students will be better positioned to not only succeed in their studies at university without cutting corners, but to understand how the skills they develop can be applied in areas outside of university.