This report presents the results of a national survey of a selected group of college and university teachers of writing considered to be the best by the directors of their writing programs. The first chapter explains how the sample of teachers was selected, examines the distribution of the sample across types and sizes of institutions, summarizes the teachers' workload with reference to teaching and other duties, reports on the respondents' preparation as composition teachers, and speculates on the relation of the sample to the national population of college and university writing teachers. The second chapter examines some of the conditions under which writing is taught in American colleges and universities and treats such matters as the types and curricular levels of the writing courses taught, the sizes of the writing classes, and the use of required syllabi. Chapter III examines curricular and instructional practices in college composition classrooms and reports on such things as the amount of actual writing done in different writing courses, how writing is used in those courses, and some specific curricular and instructional activities in different kinds of courses and different types of institutions. The fourth chapter looks at the way teachers evaluate students' performance, focusing primarily on the particular characteristics of students' texts that teachers say most influence their evaluation of them. The fifth chapter quotes teachers about the most successful aspects of their composition teaching, and the final chapter provides an overview of the results of the survey. Appended is a listing of participating institutions. (HOD)