Beginning in 1999, an analytical writing measure was offered as an optional test in the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) program. This test will be incorporated into the GRE General Test in fall 2002. The essays in this test focus on critical reasoning and analytical writing skills. This study examined the performance of various examinee groups on this performance-based test. Because the test has been optional, the examinees are self-selected in that they presumably thought that they would do well on the analytical writing tasks. Over the 2-year period, 5,946 examinee records could be matched to both the Writing and GRE General Test. Results provide some assurance that incorporating a writing measure into the GRE General Test will not necessarily increase group differences. Standardized differences for gender groups and many minority groups in this study are smaller on the Writing Assessment than on the multiple-choice Analytical measure, which the Writing Assessment is to replace. For some groups, most notably examinees who may have second language difficulties such as English-as-a-Second-Language and Asian American examinees, the standardized differences are larger on Writing than on Analytical. From a fairness perspective, these results have implications for scoring the assessment. The decision to use the writing measure as part of an admissions decision could have a major effect on applicants selected for admission. Allowing a choice of Issue topics appears to be associated with differential preference rates some of the time. It is also apparent that the time allotment for essay tasks has major consequences for some examinee groups. Five appendixes contain supplemental material in tables. (Contains 13 tables, 12 figures, and 6 references.) (SLD)