The welding distortions, transverse shrinkage and angular change, on the butt welded joint made by the process of shielded metal arc welding, were studied on the basic study of bead on plate weld. On the study of bead on plate weld, the temperature distribution on the plane normal to the direction of the weld line was assumed to be parabolic. The form of the distortion formulas of welded joint for transverse shrinkage and angular change were derived theoretically. Also, the experiments were performed about three cases, for changing type, sizes of welding electrodes and types of grooves, welding on mild steel plate, to compare theoretical study and experiments. It was found that the theoretical study was in good agreement with the result of experiment. Also, the optimal welding conditions for reducing weld distortions were suggested.