Prepared as part of a British project investigating children's language at home and at school, the study described in this paper centered on an examination of the spoken and written narrative texts produced by children to determine (1) the relationship between spoken and written texts; (2) the differences, if any, in the production processes used in each; (3) the characteristics that most influenced raters in ranking the texts; and (4) whether the qualitative differences that led to the ranking of the texts as successful or unsuccessful were the result of individual differences or represented different stages in common sequences of development. The major portion of the paper consists of discussions of specific narrative samples that explain how and why each was rated successful or unsuccessful. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the complex interrelationships between speech and writing and offers several implications of the study for teachers. Copies of student writing samples and of the writing prompt are appended. (FL)