When theses and papers in several courses were made optional this fall, many undergraduates discovered that they could coast through the year without preparing a single piece of written work. Course theses have been on the skids for ten years. Today, for example long papers are required is only four advanced courses in the in many liberal arts courses there is no written work of any kind.
Yet few members of the faculty would deny that a comprehensive paper, carefully done, is invaluable as a means of bringing a subject into clear focus. It also supplies experience in research and organization night of yawning over Widener tomes. In many courses, papers might well be substituted for hour exams, which are at best an unsatisfactory method of testing a student's knowledge. Not infrequently these mid-semester quizzes cover such a broad range of material that a student can get a better mark merely by reading over his lecture notes than by outlining the assigned reading. In other subjects an evening of work, even if a student has done little previous reading, will supply enough information to carry him through the exam. A required essay or thesis would require more individual thought and would give meaning and relevance to the material covered in the course.
"Administrative Difficulties" Blamed
College officials attribute the decline in course papers to "administrative difficulties." Few professors, they say, can afford the time necessary to assign original topics, assist students individually, and mark papers. But if hour exams, whenever practicable, were abolished, course staffs would be able to give more time to going over long essays. Opponents of the course thesis point out that 20 years ago Harvard went to extremes in demanding written work. Then every history course required either a thesis or essay, and much of the work submitted was more hastily thrown together than an English A assignment; many papers were stereotyped paraphrases of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. With students writing papers for three or four courses, the Faculty found it too difficult to keep the standards up. Today, worried by "administrative difficulties," heads of courses give few if any written assignments.
One Department chairman expects an even sharper decline in the amount of written work. To correct papers intelligently, and to give undergraduates valuable advice about their preparation, a rare brand of assistant is required. With departmental budgets declining and the College saddled with straight-jacket tenure rules, many would-be teachers probably will not stay here long enough to become expert and experienced instructors.
Despite these "administrative difficulties," the College should find a way to make sure that every undergraduate does some constructive written work. One solution would be to assign extra assistants to those courses which are best adapted for original research theses. Another remedy would be to tone up the tutorial system so that everyone, whether on Plan A or Plan B, would have to write at least one paper a year on a subject which would require analysis of source material. At present some tutors demand b1-weekly essays while others see their tutees no more often than twice a term. It is still possible to spend four years here without writing a single paper, whether for tutorial or for courses, and to bull through the blue books on hot air and a good vocabulary.
