diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index 768eb76c7..a4c4c376b 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class UserError(Exception):
     """
 
 
-# Utilities.
+# Encoding utilities.
 
 def _out_encoding():
     """Get the encoding to use for *outputting* strings to the console.
@@ -137,6 +137,27 @@ def print_(*strings, **kwargs):
     sys.stdout.write(txt)
 
 
+# Configuration wrappers.
+
+def _bool_fallback(opt, view):
+    """Given a boolean or None, return the original value or a
+    configuration option as a fallback.
+    """
+    if opt is None:
+        return view.get(bool)
+    else:
+        return opt
+
+
+def should_write(write_opt):
+    """Decide whether a command that updates metadata should also write tags,
+    using the importer configuration as the default.
+    """
+    return _bool_fallback(write_opt, config['import']['write'])
+
+
+# Input prompts.
+
 def input_(prompt=None):
     """Like `raw_input`, but decodes the result to a Unicode string.
     Raises a UserError if stdin is not available. The prompt is sent to
@@ -327,6 +348,8 @@ def input_yn(prompt, require=False):
     return sel == 'y'
 
 
+# Human output formatting.
+
 def human_bytes(size):
     """Formats size, a number of bytes, in a human-readable way."""
     powers = ['', 'K', 'M', 'G', 'T', 'P', 'E', 'Z', 'Y', 'H']
@@ -374,6 +397,8 @@ def human_seconds_short(interval):
     return u'%i:%02i' % (interval // 60, interval % 60)
 
 
+# Colorization.
+
 # ANSI terminal colorization code heavily inspired by pygments:
 # http://dev.pocoo.org/hg/pygments-main/file/b2deea5b5030/pygments/console.py
 # (pygments is by Tim Hatch, Armin Ronacher, et al.)
diff --git a/beets/ui/commands.py b/beets/ui/commands.py
index 348d12c88..69213ea97 100644
--- a/beets/ui/commands.py
+++ b/beets/ui/commands.py
@@ -1293,10 +1293,8 @@ def modify_func(lib, opts, args):
     query, mods, dels = modify_parse_args(decargs(args))
     if not mods and not dels:
         raise ui.UserError('no modifications specified')
-    write = opts.write if opts.write is not None else \
-        config['import']['write'].get(bool)
-    modify_items(lib, mods, dels, query, write, opts.move, opts.album,
-                 not opts.yes)
+    modify_items(lib, mods, dels, query, ui.should_write(opts.write),
+                 opts.move, opts.album, not opts.yes)
 
 
 modify_cmd = ui.Subcommand(