diff --git a/lib/buffer.js b/lib/buffer.js
index 591d13537990ce..6faab3096542d4 100644
--- a/lib/buffer.js
+++ b/lib/buffer.js
@@ -1106,8 +1106,10 @@ Buffer.prototype.write = function write(string, offset, length, encoding) {
     }
   }
 
-  if (!encoding)
+  if (!encoding || encoding === 'utf8')
     return this.utf8Write(string, offset, length);
+  if (encoding === 'ascii')
+    return this.asciiWrite(string, offset, length);
 
   const ops = getEncodingOps(encoding);
   if (ops === undefined)