In today’s world where international academic communication and cooperation become frequent, publishing original research has become an embodiment of a university’s capacity, or even a nation’s capacity for scientific research and an embodiment of a country’s international influence. It is also an important parameter for assessing academic performance of postgraduates. Enhancing students’ academic writing ability in English is essential not only in promoting international academic communication, but also in increasing the chance of making Chinese scholars heard in the international academic arena. English academic writing courses for postgraduates should be based on students’ needs, combining language study with students’ needs for academic research in their subject areas, thus enhancing their motivation and interest in study. Through academic writing examples in architecture, this paper discusses task design principles of English academic writing projects from the aspects of purposefulness, specialism, critical thinking and collaboration, in the hope of bringing some enlightenment to project-based English academic writing courses for postgraduates, thus enhancing students’ academic writing ability and realizing the goal of putting what they have learned into practice in the real world.