Expository Writing: An Introduction, Not a Cure

As the only course at Harvard that every first-year student must take, Expository Writing (universally known as Expos) has a far-reaching impact on undergraduate education.

Professors, administrators and students agree that critical thinking and analytical writing rank among the most important skills undergraduates need to learn at Harvard--hence the creation of the first-year writing requirement in 1872 at the suggestion of University President Charles N. Eliot.

Because most concentrations and Core courses require students to write papers and analyze source materials, a standardized program which teaches first-years the basics of college-level writing is necessary.

However, in addition to ensuring that all first-year students have comparable instruction in writing, Expos provides a model for the small course with individualized instruction to which Faculty and students alike frequently point in debates over course size.

During the controversy over Core curriculum reform this year, former Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell suggested to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) that the Core begin to incorporate small, seminar-style courses instead of the traditionally huge lecture classes.

Buell's amendment to the Core reform legislation invites an examination of Expos, which already embodies most of the points in Buell's plan.

A Program With a Mission

Expos clearly has one objective: to teach students to write well. But preceptors and administrators differ on the program's other goals.

Gordon C. Harvey, a preceptor who served as Acting Director of Expos while director Nancy Sommers was on leave this year, says Expos is designed to teach students how to write a college-level essay, complete with instruction in "the process of planning, drafting and revising that one needs to go through to write good essays."

But Harvey cautions that Expos does not cure all writing problems.

"Obviously our mission isn't to teach students everything they'll ever need to know about writing," Harvey says. "That, since writing is really just a particularly careful form of thinking, is the mission of all four years of undergraduate education, or maybe the mission of a whole life."

Administrators tend to agree with Harvey's formulation of the goals of Expos.

"The mission of Expos is what it has always been at Harvard," says L. Fred Jewett '57, who served as Dean of the College until 1995. "It really is an attempt to ensure and to develop students' ability to express themselves in written form."

Dean of FAS Jeremy R. Knowles says the main goal of Expos is to emphasize the primacy of writing.

"The mission is to raise the level of writing skill and to heighten everyone's awareness of the importance of writing at the College," Knowles says.

Preceptors tend to focus on the analytical component of Expos.

"It's a course in argument," says preceptor Anne Fernald, who teaches "The Essay and the Modern World" in Expos 20. "It introduces students to college-level analytic writing."

According to preceptor David S. Gewanter, a published poet who is leaving Expos after six years to accept a tenured appointment at Georgetown University, Expos aims to teach not only writing, but also humility.

"Expos tries to give [first-years] a broad-based introduction to research and text-based analytic writing, which is the basis of a lot of the writing that they'll be required to do in subsequent courses at Harvard," Gewanter says. "It's also a way of students coming to terms with their writing strengths and writing challenges."

Students take a similar view of Expos' mission.

Alexander R. Gildengers '97, who took Gewanter's Expos class, says Expos is an important requirement for first-years who left high school thinking that they knew everything about writing.

"It's a good idea," Gildengers says. "Everyone is pretty high on themselves, and a little humility is a good thing."

In addition to the humbling aspects of Expos, however, students also say that Expos is useful to teach writing.

"The mission that I interpreted was to provide me with writing skills that I could use and build on during my time here," says Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, the president of the Undergraduate Council, who took "The Essay" with preceptor Stephen Donatelli.

But some undergraduates question the effectiveness of the Expos mission.

"I've actually learned more about writing in other classes, like Afro-American Studies 10," Rachel Shacham '97 says.

Shacham says her preceptor taught her more about his particular style of writing than he did about other, more important skills.

"I wouldn't say Expos is a bad class," she says. "I learned something about what a certain type of writing looked like, but that type of writing isn't useful for all classes."

What is Expos?

In its current incarnation, Expository Writing comprises three course components.

Expos 20, a semester of intensive writing, is the required portion of the Expos program. The 15 students in each section write four essays in a workshop setting, reading and commenting on each other's papers.

Expos 10, which is taught only in the fall semester, is a more basic course for students whom the Expos staff feels would benefit from additional instruction. Students place into Expos 10 on the basis of the Freshman Writing Test, given during orientation week, but they have the option of declining to take the course.

Those students who pass Expos 20 and want more practice in analytic writing can take Expos 52.

Currently, Expos employs about 40 preceptors, teachers with a rank below that of junior Faculty, who are mainly professional writers and academics.

Standardization

Because each Expos class appears to have different standards for assignment difficulty and grading, students often wonder if the Expos program issues overarching guidelines to preceptors.

Despite what students may believe about discrepancies between sections, preceptors say the program's administration provides teachers with a high degree of supervision.

"We get a lot of guidance and a lot of freedom," Fernald says. "All the courses have the same goal and the same amount of work."

Fernald and other preceptors say that the program's leaders use departmental meetings and discussions to make certain that all the classes are learning roughly the same lessons.

"We have a lot of freedom in how we distribute work, in what we read, in how we teach a lesson, in how to write an introduction," Fernald says. "There's no set pattern for that and yet there is a lot of discussion within the program of ways to do it."

Pat Cain, the head of Expos 10 who also teaches an Expos 20 course called "Law and Society," says the Expos program has grading meetings for new preceptors at which the group analyzes anonymous student essays.

"The purpose is to standardize as much as possible the grading values," Cain says. "For one thing, different assignments in different classes will demand different standards. There will always be some degree of subjectivity."

Harvey says the program tries to maintain a balance between control and freedom for preceptors, monitoring teachers to make sure all students receive as similar an Expos experience as possible.

"We try as much as possible to respect the academic independence of our teachers," he says.

Each preceptor also receives "Teaching Expos: A Guide for Preceptors," by Harvey.

A September 1996 version of Harvey's guide gives preceptors detailed instructions on how to run an Expos class, ranging from "Preparing Students to Write the Essays" to "Composing Your Schedule" to "Grades."

The guide tells preceptors that in Expos, "we focus on argument, rather than style, because good writing is above all good thinking."

Harvey's guide also outlines universal course policies and practices, such as the common procedure of giving students artificially low grades on their first essay so that they will feel accomplished when they score higher toward the end of the course.

"Students will expect to have their improved writing reflected in a grade, so you should be tough on the first essay," the guide reads. "Don't be afraid to give C's and even D's. If you start giving all B's and A's, your grades will have nowhere to rise to."

But the guide also tells preceptors how to approach assignments and how to phrase essay questions so that students know what is expected of them, defining a clear administrative and academic structure for Expos which every preceptor is expected to follow.

Rips in the Fabric

Several key aspects of the Expos program have changed since 1994, when Sommers took over for former director Richard C. Marius, who is now a senior lecturer in English.

In the fall of 1993, The Crimson explored problems with Marius' administration, including a lack of cohesiveness and applicability of Expos.

Today, preceptors say the Expos administration encourages discussion among teachers. Marius' rule preventing preceptors from staying at Expos for more than four years has also been revoked, allowing for a more congenial atmosphere within the program, staff say.

In addition, Gewanter says, Expos has also begun to integrate itself into the larger academic community.

Under Sommers, Expos launched the Harvard Writing Project, which uses preceptors to help Faculty members with their paper assignments and places preceptors in the undergraduate Houses.

Expos preceptors now work on designing departmental writing assignments with Faculty from several departments, including Classics, Celtic Studies, History, Government, Fine Arts and Sociology.

But preceptors say some aspects of Expos could still change.

Harvey says he hopes the Writing Project will continue.

"One weakness of the program, currently, is that it's too isolated from the rest of the College," he says. "There could be a lot more conversation between instructors in other disciplines and Expos."

For his part, Gewanter, who is leaving this month for Georgetown, says he wishes preceptors were allowed to take a semester off to pursue their own writing projects.

Small Classes for All

The Faculty voted against Buell's amendment to add smaller classes to the Core, ending the possibility that the College will soon institute a largescale program to create more seminar-type courses.

Will the curriculum eventually resemble Expos? Few think so. But it seems likely that writing will always be an integral part of the undergraduate requirements.

"I tell my students that whatever they're going to do, they're going to end up writing a bunch of things for somebody because they're a Harvard student," Gewanter says. "It's thought nationally that somebody from Harvard can write clearly and with grace."