In a study designed as a pilot project to test a taxonomy of noun phrases (NPs) and indicate results to be expected from a larger subsequent survey, 13 essays from a basic writing class and 10 essays from an advanced composition class were analyzed for four NP types: (1) those requiring earlier text information for full interpretation, (2) those fully interpretable on their own, (3) those requiring extra-textual, readily accessible information for full interpretation, and (4) those requiring extra-textual, not easily accessible information for full interpretation. Statistical analysis using t-tests showed that the basic essays contained significantly more NPs requiring nonaccessible information and fewer NPs containing readily accessible information than did advanced papers. These results suggest that the taxonomy of noun phrases is a useful one, but that a similar study using a larger, randomly selected sample is needed. (Author/DF)