THIS INVESTIGATION WAS CONDUCTED TO DESCRIBE THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF DEAF STUDENTS BETWEEN 10 AND 18 YEARS OF AGE IN TERMS OF SIX MEASURABLE VARIABLES, AND TO RELATE THESE VARIABLES TO TEACHER JUDGMENTS OF QUALITY OF LANGUAGE. TEN STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLES OF COMPOSITIONS BY DEAF STUDENTS WERE SELECTED FROM 14 RESIDENTIAL AND DAY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR THE DEAF. COMPOSITIONS WERE WRITTEN UNDER STANDARDIZED CONDITIONS, IN RESPONSE TO THE PRESENTATION OF A FOUR-PICTURE SEQUENCE. THREE MASTER TEACHERS OF LANGUAGE OF THE DEAF SUBJECTIVELY SCORED THE COMPOSITIONS IN EACH, OF THE 10 SAMPLES. THE MEAN CORRELATION OF THE THREE TEACHER-JUDGES' SCORES WAS .744. ALL SIX MEASURABLE VARIABLES TENDED TO CORRELATE POSITIVELY WITH AGE, BUT CORRELATIONS WERE SMALL. EQUATIONS WERE DEVELOPED WHICH WERE CONSIDERED TO BE USEFUL INSTRUMENTS FOR EVALUATING THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF GROUPS OF DEAF STUDENTS RELATIVE TO THE NATIONAL POPULATION OF DEAF STUDENTS REPRESENTED BY THE SAMPLES. (GD)