This preliminary report of the 1988 Manitoba Writing Assessment Program contains a summary of student performance for the provincial sample as a whole. The report is based on a systematic random sample (a total of 186 papers) consisting of 20% of all students enrolled in grade 8 Language Arts in French Immersion programs. Chapter 1 describes the spelling exercise and the persuasive and narrative writing tasks on the test, as well as the scoring procedures for each student paper. Chapters 2 and 3 contain a summary of the results on the persuasive writing task and four sample products. Chapters 4 and 5 contain four sample stories, as well as a summary of the scores assigned on the narrative writing task. The final chapter presents the results of the spelling test. (KEH)