This study investigates lexical bundles (LBs), a particular type of frequently occurring multiword sequence, in the academic writing of native and nonnative English-speaking first-year university students. The study extends the functional analysis of LBs in the literature by investigating the evaluative prosody and semantic preference of LBs in the same semantic domains that are employed by novice student writers from the two different language groups. The students wrote argumentative essays in response to identical writing prompts. The very specific functions of the LBs in the essays were examined and compared. The results indicate semantic traits specific to each language group. This outcome can contribute to instruction on argumentative essays, which are a common pedagogical writing genre assigned across disciplines at the undergraduate level as well as in language-focused courses in general.