To determine the role that writing plays in personality and attitude change, a study was devised using the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI) and teacher observations. High school students were asked to keep a journal and were given a time during the day to free write. Teachers were asked to identify those students who had developed great interest in writing and had had a change in their attitudes that set them apart from their peers. These students manifested attitude changes by (1) expressing a new appreciation for journals, (2) turning in more assignments, (3) writing more, (4) beginning to come in for advice about their writing, (5) beginning to rewrite papers before handing them in, (6) coming in early to write, (7) writing more in journals than what was required, (8) handing in unassigned writing, and (9) shifting from material to personal/confessional writing. The OPI scores substantiated the teachers' intuitions about changed attitudes in the study population. Results showed that writing improved students' personality orientations in various ways. The writers were better thinkers and accepted ambiguity and complexity more readily. The writers also felt better about themselves, as writing had given them a tool to examine their own lives. (Appendixes include a description of the scales, graphs and contrasts of scores, the test, and the experimental design.) (HOD)