Oral reading passages are often used to elicit speech samples from clinical populations. Few objective guidelines exist, however, to guide one's selection from among the many existing passages. Therefore, this study was undertaken to describe phonetic, lexical, and structural characteristics of 15 oral reading passages. The passages differed markedly in the demands that they placed upon the speaker (i.e., length and complexity), as well as the adequacy of the phonetic sample. (Contains 1 note.)