Expos 20, Rosenzweig says, was never designed to be a course to improve students’ style of prose. Rather, the course is meant to teach students the method of academic argument.
And in a mere 12 weeks, Rosenzweig says that it is difficult to incorporate instruction in both prose and argumentation, even if students come into the course with the expectation that it will focus on prose.
“The balance in one semester may not be enough towards prose style to suit [some students],” Rosenzweig says.
“We’ve got three essays and twelve weeks,” she says. “We just can’t do that.”
EXPOS 30
Students also criticize Expos 20 for bringing together students of dramatically varying writing abilities.
“In Expos 20, they had those specialty writers who were always going to have those answers,” says Regan. “It didn’t matter if anyone else pitched in because those who were experts at writing knew the answers they were looking for.”
As a result, Regan says she thinks the class remains an unequal plane—even for students like her who graduated from Expos 10.
“There are just brilliant writers at Harvard,” she says. “And there were quite a few people in my class that didn’t need to be there.”
For these writers, the Standing Committee on Writing and Speaking has moved to recommend establishing a new course, Expos 30.
Thomas R. Jehn, director of the Harvard College Writing Program, says the course, if established, will serve “the very, very top” writers at Harvard.
“The most skilled mathematicians go into Math 55 or higher, but all of our writers go into Expos 20,” Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris says.
But Expos 20 preceptor Joaquín S. Terrones says he thinks part of the strength of the class is the students’ diversity of writing abilities.
“It prepares students for the realities of what a lot of their academic life is going to be, which is having a dialogue not just with students in their concentration, but with students and professors across the university,” he says.
Gross says he would be hesitant to endorse Expos 30 due to the potential limitations of such a placement test.
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