Four hundred and fifty people have applied for three full-time supervisory and teaching positions open in Expository Writing next year, Richard C. Marius, director of Expository Writing, said Monday.

"We were inundated," Marius said, adding, "I didn't expect that we were going to spend about three and a half weeks reading dossiers all day long."

While most Expos teachers hold part-time positions, the full-time employees--preceptors--teach two classes each and supervise the other teachers.

The three additional preceptors, together with the five currently employed, will bring the number of full-time positions in the committee up to the eight for which it is authorized.

The available positions were advertised at a Modern Language Association conference in San Francisco, in the Harvard Gazette and in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marius said.

Reviewers have whittled the list of 450 applicants down to a list of 20, plus ten who have applied from within the Expository Writing Committee, Marius said. A final decision on the three appointments will be made in mid-April by Marius and the Expository Writing studying committee, in consultation with the present preceptors, Marius said.

Of the 20 finalists, half have doctorates, Marius said, adding that the other half are journalists and fiction writers.