diff --git a/gin.go b/gin.go
index 3192f6c4..25402fe2 100644
--- a/gin.go
+++ b/gin.go
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ func (engine *Engine) Run(addr string) {
 
 func (group *RouterGroup) createContext(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, params httprouter.Params, handlers []HandlerFunc) *Context {
 	return &Context{
-		Writer:   ResponseWriter{w, -1},
+		Writer:   ResponseWriter{w, StatusUnset},
 		Req:      req,
 		index:    -1,
 		engine:   group.engine,
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ func (c *Context) JSON(code int, obj interface{}) {
 	if code >= 0 {
 		c.Writer.WriteHeader(code)
 	}
-	encoder := json.NewEncoder(c.Writer)
+	encoder := json.NewEncoder(&c.Writer)
 	if err := encoder.Encode(obj); err != nil {
 		c.Error(err, obj)
 		http.Error(&c.Writer, err.Error(), 500)
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ func (c *Context) XML(code int, obj interface{}) {
 	if code >= 0 {
 		c.Writer.WriteHeader(code)
 	}
-	encoder := xml.NewEncoder(c.Writer)
+	encoder := xml.NewEncoder(&c.Writer)
 	if err := encoder.Encode(obj); err != nil {
 		c.Error(err, obj)
 		http.Error(&c.Writer, err.Error(), 500)
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ func (c *Context) HTML(code int, name string, data interface{}) {
 	if code >= 0 {
 		c.Writer.WriteHeader(code)
 	}
-	if err := c.engine.HTMLTemplates.ExecuteTemplate(c.Writer, name, data); err != nil {
+	if err := c.engine.HTMLTemplates.ExecuteTemplate(&c.Writer, name, data); err != nil {
 		c.Error(err, map[string]interface{}{
 			"name": name,
 			"data": data,
diff --git a/response_writer.go b/response_writer.go
index 91a4595e..ee6bbe8a 100644
--- a/response_writer.go
+++ b/response_writer.go
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 )
 
+const (
+	StatusUnset int = -1
+)
+
 type ResponseWriter struct {
 	http.ResponseWriter
 	status int
@@ -14,6 +18,31 @@ func (w *ResponseWriter) WriteHeader(code int) {
 	w.ResponseWriter.WriteHeader(code)
 }
 
+func (w *ResponseWriter) Write(data []byte) (int, error) {
+	// net/http.Response.Write only has two options: 200 or 500
+	// we will follow that lead and defer to their logic
+
+	// check if the write gave an error and set status accordingly
+	size, err := w.ResponseWriter.Write(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		// error on write, we give a 500
+		w.status = http.StatusInternalServerError
+	} else if w.WasWritten() == false {
+		// everything went okay and we never set a custom
+		// status so 200 it is
+		w.status = http.StatusOK
+	}
+
+	// can easily tap into Content-Length here with 'size'
+	return size, err
+}
+
+// returns the status of the given response
 func (w *ResponseWriter) Status() int {
 	return w.status
 }
+
+// return a boolean acknowledging if a status code has all ready been set
+func (w *ResponseWriter) WasWritten() bool {
+	return w.status == StatusUnset
+}