A study contrasted two first grade writing programs to ascertain changes in the students' regard for writing in a manner that could be measured and compared. One writing program encouraged students to write expressively and find their way into print, while the other program used the more traditional or skill-sequenced approach through preparatory steps. It was hypothesized that students using the expressive writing strategy would show measurable improvement in three aspects: (1) the students' understanding of the function of writing, (2) their attitude toward writing, and (3) their regard for themselves as writers. The pretest and posttest instrument consisted of 24 questions that covered writing function, attitude, self-concept, and technical vocabulary. The writing programs were monitored by collecting samples of work from six randomly chosen students from each of six classrooms. Results showed the expressive writing students improved in their grasp of technical writing terms, and yet the two groups did not appear to differ significantly in their regard for themselves as writers. In addition, the expressive writing classes' positive responses to writing declined over the course of the year while the skill-sequenced class did not grow appreciably more positive toward writing. (HOD)