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.