Like people who keep returning to the same spot looking for a lost object, composition teachers sometimes retrace their steps, seeking the formulas for successful writing instruction. In both cases, those who go back without learning from their search show more hope than wisdom. Recently, a number of leaders in our profession have urged that we recombine literature and composition, arguing that the two disciplines complement each other. However, if we recombine them without incorporating the knowledge we have gained since most composition/ literature courses were phased out, we will show that we have forgotten the reasons for which we did phase them out, and that we do not learn from the part of our discipline which is a science and not an art. Having taught in a composition/literature program that was wisely dismantled, and having listened to the arguments for and against comp/lit, I am convinced that there is a possibility that we will join them in an unenlightened reinvention. On the other hand, I am also convinced that with the benefit of new knowledge, the result of recent research, we can design and teach comp/lit courses more productively than before, though not necessarily more productively than alternative writing courses. Therefore, I would like to suggest three ways in which a reinvented comp/lit course can really be a writing course and can, at the same time, retain the benefits of literary exposure. These suggestions involve the framing of topics, the use of class time for writing activity, and the creation of a functioning sense of audience. Before I present these three suggestions, I would like to summarize several principles of teaching comp/lit offered by three teachers-Hart, Slack, and Woodruff-back in the fifties. These principles are the soundest I know from the days when comp/lit was thriving, and we will show progress by incorporating them into our reinvention. The comp/lit program that I helped dismantle would have been more successful and survivable if it had followed them. First, easy to say but hard to practice, the teacher must firmly resist the temptation to teach literature. The rationale for combining composition and literature is that they reinforce