“They come really equipped with the vocabulary to think about the elements of what makes good academic writing,” he says. “Expos 10 really prepares them to be very attentive to their own writing and to be very mindful of the revision process and what that brings to their own work.”
Regan echoes Terrones’ sentiments about Expos 10.
“I would say that I felt a lot more prepared than I would have been if I had taken Expos 20 right away,” she says.
Though Regan says she enjoyed Expos 10, she describes her experience in Expos 20 the following semester as unsatisfactory.
EDITING EXPOS 10
Pending the Standing Committee’s report, Expos 10 will continue to be modified in the future. Jehn stressed the program’s commitment to frequent revision of Expos 10’s course structure.
“Unless the assessment reveals something quite dramatic about what we need to change, I’m very interested right now in tweaking the current curriculum so that we can do a better job of responding to students on their response papers,” Jehn says. “We don’t want them to ever feel as though the response paper experience is random.”
Jehn says that one of his top priorities in refining the course is improving communication between preceptors and students at every point of the writing process.
“We want to make sure that how we are giving feedback to students on each of those steps really helps them towards the draft,” says Jehn.
Jane Rosenzweig, the director of the Writing Center, says that the two types of essays assigned in Expos 10 will likely stay constant, but the topics of the units may change.
“There are plenty of arguments that can be analyzed, and plenty of theories that can be tested, and they don’t have to be about education and art,” she says.
Rosenzweig adds that the decision of whether to change the content of the units will likely be discussed over the summer.
Jehn says that he hopes the Standing Committee’s evaluation of Expos 10 will improve the program.
“At its best, what assessment does ... is to make you think in vibrant ways about the curriculum and teaching methods,” he says.
—Hana N. Rouse contributed reporting to this story.
—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.