A study has been made of the transverse stretching of poly(ethylene terephthalate) film previously drawn longitudinally at constant force and width. The crystalline phase has been characterized using wide-angle X-ray diffraction : the orientation of the chain axis and the normal to the phenylene ring have been determined, as well as the crystallite size. Infra-red spectroscopy and refractive index measurements have been used to characterize the orientation of the material averaged over the crystalline and amorphous phases. The results showed that the crystals, which were preferentially aligned with their chain axes along the first stretching (longitudinal) direction, break down during the second drawing and that recrystallization takes place to produce crystallites with their c-axes aligned along the transverse stretching direction. The observed increase in the tendency for the normal to the phenylene ring to be normal to the film plane correlates with the increase in crystallite size along the chain axis for crystallites oriented with their chain axes in the transverse direction.