The Program in Expository Writing began with the millennium, in the academic year 2000-2001, bringing to Johns Hopkins a new approach to the teaching and learning of writing.  The mission of the Program is to encourage excellence in writing, across disciplines, through its support of the writing-intensive requirement, through the Writing Center, and through the teaching of Expository Writing.

Overview of Courses

Expository Writing courses teach students the principles of academic argument and guide their practice as they learn to embody those principles in their writing.  Each individual Expos seminar focuses on the strategies and techniques of college writing; all courses in Expository Writing help fulfill the university writing requirement.

Introduction to Expository Writing (060.100).  Offered only in the fall and open only to freshmen, this course is designed to help less experienced writers succeed with the demands of college writing at Johns Hopkins.  Classes are small, no more than 10 students, and are organized around three major sequences of instruction.  Students work closely with instructors on how to read and summarize texts, how to analyze texts, and how to organize their thinking in clearly written essays.  Introductory seminars do not specialize in a particular topic or theme; students gain experience in working with different kinds of evidence and a variety of texts.  Emphasis is on analysis and the skills that analysis depends upon.

Expository Writing (060.113/114).  Aimed at freshmen and sophomores, this course teaches students of all majors the concepts and strategies of academic argument.  Students learn to analyze and evaluate sources, to develop their thinking with evidence, and to use analysis to write clear and persuasive arguments.  Limited to 15 students, Expos seminars are organized around four major essay assignments, each of which guides students’ practice through pre-writing, drafting, and revising, and includes in-class discussion, workshops, and conferences with the instructor.  Students learn how to use and properly document sources, and how to navigate the university library.

In addition to its central focus on the strategies of argument, each seminar in Expository Writing offers its own intellectually stimulating topic, designed both to interest students and to provide a substantive occasion for writing.  Among the 20 to 25 unique topics offered each year are courses on compelling scientific and social questions, major historical movements and events, influential literary genres, figures, and trends, and important artistic traditions.  In all sections, however, the central subject is writing: using analysis to create arguments.

Advanced Expository Writing (060.215).  Designed for juniors and seniors with experience in using analysis to make clear and persuasive arguments, but open to any students who have taken Expository Writing (060.113/114), this course focuses on the advanced skills of argument.  Students learn to draw inferences from the evidence, use sources in a variety of ways to develop their thinking, and structure complex arguments.

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