This study compared the writing products of 60 third grade students who drew before writing a story on a self-selected topic (Experimental Group) with the writing products of 59 third grade students who simply wrote without drawing (Control Group). An analysis of the students' writing products revealed two important findings. First, students who drew be fore writing tended to produce more words, more sentences, and more idea units, and their overall writing performance was higher than the students who wrote without drawing. Second, these results were consistent for boys and girls regardless of group membership. The findings indicate that the differences in writing performance were probably due to the integration of drawing and writing. Implications for writing research and instruction are discussed.