The ability of 20 deaf or hearing impaired high school students to demonstrate written recall of story propositions and correct story inferences from prose was examined and compared with 20 hearing students. Students were tested individually and were asked to read a story and then to rewrite it without looking at it. Premises in the recalled story were compared with premises of the original. The number of correct inferences was also calculated for each student. Deaf Ss did not exhibit significantly different recall for inferences than did hearing Ss. Hearing Ss did recall a significantly larger number of premises than deaf Ss, and both groups recalled significantly more premises than inferences from the story. Results suggested the need for helping deaf students to learn syntax. (CL)