Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) proposed a model of children's writing, labeled "knowledge-telling," which they characterized as being simple and linear in nature. By contrast, their model of more expert writing is described as "knowledge transformational," because it is more sophisticated in its involvement of complex problem-solving processes. These researchers report that children, and even most adolescents, do not write at a level that would implicate knowledge-transformational processes, especially in expository prose writing. Their evidence contrasts with the reports of process-based writing researchers (such as Graves, 1985;, who through ethnographic investigations have described youthful writing as more representative of transformative processes than the "knowledge-telling" model might predict. Alternative research approaches are needed to evaluate these conflicting claims regarding the developing writing process. A stimulated-recall procedure, which enabled protocol analyses to be performed on participants' in situ comments, was employed with 53 twelve-year-old children to examine their reports of their own writing processes. A narrative-writing task was used as a context for these children in which to comment on their writing as they wrote. The protocols of the sessions were recorded, transcribed, and evaluated for evidence of transformative problem-solving behaviors (largely as identified by Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987), including: extended start-up time, time-monitoring, task completion time, note-making, oral reports of planning, audience awareness, and revision of story plans, and the use of a range of sources for story ideas. Many of these sixth-grade participants showed evidence in their protocols of at least one, and some, as many as five of the targeted transformative behaviors. Gender effects included performance quality, and time monitoring: Girls wrote higher quality stories, and boys monitored time more during writing. Writing quality, in turn, related to planning and revision indices, which correlated with each other, and planning related to audience awareness. Revi-