This report summarizes six studies that examined the work of the Swedish Free Writing in School (FRIS) project, which followed the language development of 191 elementary school students from different socioeconomic areas over a three-year period. Following a brief description of the project, the report discusses each of the six studies, which deal with pupils, essay themes, and language analysis; the development, description, and assessment of language; sex, home, and school differences in language; the language of creativity; child and adult language; and stimulation before free writing. Among the main findings of the studies reported are the following: (1) a significant linguistic development took place between grades four and six; (2) ratings could be predicted by a few simple facts from the essays, including number of different and unusual words and of punctuation marks used; (3) sex differences existed and tended to increase during the intermediate stage, with girls having higher productivity than boys; (4) differences existed between social groups in grade four, but almost disappeared in grade six; and (5) comparisons between adult and child language confirmed that vocabulary is important. (FL)