This site is an archive. See the current website at www.extension.harvard.edu.

Courses

This page contains content from the 2008–09 academic year. For current information, visit the Harvard Extension School website at www.extension.harvard.edu.

Expository Writing

EXPO E-1 Introduction to Expository Writing (20788) (Syllabus) (Printable version)
Philip Gambone, MA, Instructor in English, Boston University Academy.
Course tuition: noncredit $450. Limited enrollment.
Spring term: Thursdays beginning Jan. 29, 5:30-7:30 pm, 51 Brattle Street, Grossman Common Room.

This course is designed specifically for students who do little writing, who find writing difficult, or who lack confidence when they write. Informal lectures, small group discussions, and weekly short writing or revision assignments allow students to reinforce their skills; deal with common writing problems of grammar, organization, and syntax; and develop various methods for presenting information.

EXPO E-5 Fundamentals of Grammar
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950. Limited enrollment.

Fall term, section 1 (13175) (Website) (Printable version): Naomi Stephen, MPhil, Coordinator, Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 207.

Fall term, section 2 (13006) (Website) (Printable version): James P. Herron, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Wednesdays beginning Sept. 17, 5:30-7:30 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 307.

Fall term, section 3 (11346) (Website) (Printable version): Judith A. Murciano, MA, Director of Fellowships, Harvard Law School.
Wednesdays beginning Sept. 17, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 302.

Spring term, section 1 (22060) (Website) (Printable version): Naomi Stephen, MPhil, Coordinator, Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Mondays beginning Jan. 26, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 109.

Spring term, section 2 (21627) (Website) (Printable version): Judith A. Murciano, MA, Director of Fellowships, Harvard Law School.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 302.

This course is a review of the elements of grammar. We examine sentence structure, correct verb forms, case of pronouns, agreement, punctuation, and restrictive and nonrestrictive (that/which) clauses. Short readings illustrate the basic elements of grammar and style. Short writing assignments offer students opportunities to practice the lessons of the course. (4 credits)

EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950. Limited enrollment.

Fall term, section 1 (12672) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Julie Anne McNary, EdM.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 204.

Fall term, section 2 (12294) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Donna Kaye, MA.
Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 302.

Fall term, section 3 (11546) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Christina Rarden Grenier, MA, Director of the Writing Center, Pingree School.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 112.

Fall term, section 4 (13257) (Website) (Printable version): Andrea L. Volpe, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 205.

Fall term, section 5 (13258) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Christina Rarden Grenier, MA, Director of the Writing Center, Pingree School.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 105.

Spring term, section 1 (22113) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Paul A. Thur, MA, Academic Specialist, College of General Studies, Boston University.
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 27, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 111.

Spring term, section 2 (21666) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Christina Rarden Grenier, MA, Director of the Writing Center, Pingree School.
Mondays beginning Jan. 26, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 212.

Spring term, section 3 (22356) (Website) (Printable version): Anthony B. Cashman III, PhD, Director of the Office of Distinguished Fellowships and Graduate Studies, College of the Holy Cross.
Thursdays beginning Jan. 29, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 104.

This course is designed for students seeking preparation for EXPO E-25 and for others wanting to review such basics of academic argument as thesis, evidence, and structure. Short writing assignments help students develop the skills essential for producing well-reasoned and substantiated academic essays. Students also learn strategies for reading and analyzing difficult texts. (4 credits)

EXPO E-25 Academic Writing and Critical Reading
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950. Limited enrollment.

Fall term, section 1 (12968) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Susan E. Carlisle, MFA, Lecturer on Writing and Humanistic Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 5:30-7:30 pm, 51 Brattle Street, Room 121.

Fall term, section 2 (13029) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Heather Fielding, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 304.

Fall term, section 3 (12964) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Thomas A. Underwood, PhD, Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University.
Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 105.

Fall term, section 4 (13042) (Website) (Printable version): Marlon Kuzmick, MA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Wednesdays beginning Sept. 17, 3-5 pm. Discussions, exercises, and workshops are conducted online using the conference program Elluminate. Students should complete the steps for first-time Elluminate users before they register.

Fall term, section 5 (12971) (Website) (Printable version): Lindsay Meredith Silver Cohen, PhD, Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard University.
Wednesdays beginning Sept. 17, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 101.

Fall term, section 6 (12969) (Website) (Printable version): Elizabeth A. Johnston, MFA, JD, Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University.
Wednesdays beginning Sept. 17, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 111.

Fall term, section 7 (13222) (Website) (Printable version): Michele Martinez, PhD.
Thursdays beginning Sept. 18, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 105.

Fall term, section 8 (12970) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Paul A. Thur, MA, Academic Specialist, College of General Studies, Boston University.
Thursdays beginning Sept. 18, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 204.

Fall term, section 9 (12965) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Geraldine A. Grimm, PhD, Lecturer on German, Tufts University.
Thursdays beginning Sept. 18, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 215.

Fall term, section 10 (11368) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Janet Sylvester, PhD, Faculty Mentor, MFA in Creative Writing Program, Lesley University.
Fridays beginning Sept. 19, 5:30-7:30 pm, 51 Brattle Street, Room 321.

Fall term, section 11 (13259) (Website) (Printable version): William Weitzel, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Thursdays beginning Sept. 18, 7:35-9:35 pm. Discussions, exercises, and workshops are conducted online using the conference program Elluminate. Students should complete the steps for first-time Elluminate users before they register.

Spring term, section 1 (22802) (Website) (Printable version): Marlon Kuzmick, MA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 27, 5:30-7:30 pm. Discussions, exercises, and workshops are conducted online using the conference program Elluminate. Students should complete the steps for first-time Elluminate users before they register.

Spring term, section 2 (22880) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Suzanne T. Lane, PhD, Associate Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mondays beginning Jan. 26, 5:30-7:30 pm. Discussions, exercises, and workshops are conducted online using the conference program Elluminate. Students should complete the steps for first-time Elluminate users before they register.

Spring term, section 3 (22803) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Christopher Walsh, PhD.
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 27, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 105.

Spring term, section 4 (22889) (Website) (Printable version): Heather Fielding, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, noon-2 pm. Discussions, exercises, and workshops are conducted online using the conference program Elluminate. Students should complete the steps for first-time Elluminate users before they register.

Spring term, section 5 (22799) (Website) (Printable version): Lindsay Meredith Silver Cohen, PhD, Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard University.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 104.

Spring term, section 6 (22801) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Jill McDonough, MA, Author.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 211.

Spring term, section 7 (22971) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Kristin Taylor Hennessy, MTS.
Thursdays beginning Jan. 29, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 205.

Spring term, section 8 (22798) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Geraldine A. Grimm, PhD, Lecturer on German, Tufts University.
Thursdays beginning Jan. 29, 7:35-9:35 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 307.

Spring term, section 9 (23113) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Elizabeth A. Johnston, MFA, JD, Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 212.

Spring term, section 10 (23118) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Donna Kaye, MA.
Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 5:30-7:30 pm, Sever Hall, Room 105.

This course introduces students to the demands and conventions of academic reading and writing. It focuses on analyzing texts, building effective arguments, and using evidence and secondary source material. Instruction on the stages of the writing process, from prewriting exercises through rough drafts and revisions, forms a key part of the curriculum. Students applying to the undergraduate program at the Extension School must complete this course, but it is open to any student interested in gaining an understanding of academic writing. Prerequisite: a B– or higher grade in EXPO E-15 or a satisfactory score on the test of critical reading and writing skills. (4 credits)

EXPO E-39 Advanced Essay Writing (13198) (Website) (Printable version)
Eric LeMay, PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University. Kristin Taylor Hennessy, MTS.
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950, graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.
Fall term: Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16, 7:35-9:35 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 307.

This workshop offers students the chance to write a variety of essays in a variety of forms used by a variety of writers—journalists, politicians, anthropologists, humorists, and poets—and to explore the connections among them. Online and on paper, students sample the travelogue, letter, audio-commentary, meditation, autobiography, profile, and multimedia essay. They discuss exemplary works by such authors as Abraham Lincoln, Virginia Woolf, Frederick Douglass, Oliver Sacks, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Pepys, Susan Orlean, and Mark Twain. As students emulate pieces published in The New Yorker, broadcast on NPR, and posted on Slate.com, they discover a variety of ways to persuade, inform, and delight readers. They also discover a sense of their possibilities as writers in the world outside the classroom. Prerequisite: a beginning writing course, or permission of the instructors. (4 credits)

EXPO E-46 Narrating Illness (22881) (Website) (Printable version)
Suzanne J. Koven, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950, graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.
Spring term: Wednesdays beginning Jan. 28, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 111.

Virginia Woolf wrote, "Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings...it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature." While there are, in fact, few novels, short stories, or poems devoted to illness, nonfiction about disease and about the experience of being sick have become popular in the past several years. This workshop offers an opportunity to write about illness from either a personal or journalist's or an essayist's point of view. We examine works by physician-writers William Carlos Williams, Oliver Sacks, Jerome Groopman, and Atul Gawande as well as accounts by patient-authors such as Joan Didion, Lorrie Moore, and Philip Roth. We also look at works dealing with the narrative aspects of illness by medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman, physician and literary critic Rita Charon, and essayist Susan Sontag. This course is appropriate for creative writing and journalism students as well as for premedical students, medical practitioners, and those interested in writing about their own illnesses. (4 credits)

EXPO E-55 Writing about Nature and the Environment (12624) (Syllabus) (Printable version)
John C. Brereton, PhD, Director, Calderwood Writing Initiative, Boston Athenaeum.
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950, graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.
Fall term: Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 111.

An advanced writing workshop for students with an interest in writing about the environment, the course is also appropriate for students in the field of environmental management who wish to strengthen their writing skills. Some of America's most interesting writing has addressed the issue of our place in nature, from Emerson and Thoreau to Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, and John McPhee. This course examines a range of writing about nature and the environment, all the time giving class members a chance to write about the subject themselves. (4 credits)

EXPO E-170 Principles of Editing
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950, graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.

Fall term, section 1 (11355) (Syllabus) (Printable version): Christina Thompson, PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library.
Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16, 5:30-7:30 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 106.

Fall term, section 2 (13212) (Website) (Printable version): Albert LaFarge, MA, Literary Agent, Albert LaFarge Literary Agency.
Thursdays beginning Sept. 18, 7:35-9:35 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 307.

Spring term (20967) (Website) (Printable version): Christina Thompson, PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library.
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 27, 5:30-7:30 pm, Emerson Hall, Room 106.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the roles of magazine and book editors. By using an editor's actual working materials—queries, manuscripts, contracts—we consider editors' responsibilities to author, publisher, and reader. We work our way through the production process, from acquisitions through developmental editing, copyediting, design, marketing, and publicity. (4 credits)

EXPO E-171 Writing and Editing for the Web (23051) (Syllabus) (Printable version)
David Beard, BS, Editor, Boston.com.
Course tuition: undergraduate credit $950, graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.
Spring term: Mondays beginning Jan. 26, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 104.

The Web is now an inescapable part of the publishing world—even the most traditional print publishers are hiring online staffs and developing original material for the Web. In this course we examine the ways in which online publishing differs from print and what makes Web content effective. We consider principles of Web usability and information design; style, voice, and audience; blogging; multimedia stories; user-generated content; and the role of the editor in a medium that often blurs distinctions between design, content, and marketing. Prerequisite: an introduction to editing and publishing course is preferred. (4 credits)

EXPO E-510 Editing Technical Prose (10100) (Syllabus) (Printable version)
Christine J. McCarthy, MA, Communications Manager, Bond Brothers.
Course tuition: graduate credit $1,725. Limited enrollment.
Fall term: Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16, 7:35-9:35 pm, Sever Hall, Room 205.

This course introduces students to all aspects of copyediting. While it focuses on technical and scientific prose, the course benefits students interested in editing or improving text regardless of technical background. Students evaluate and edit several types of computer, scientific, and other technical documents, including prose that appears on the Internet. Weekly editing assignments help students master editing principles, including proper word choice, consistency, and sentence structure. The course emphasizes prose style, audience, and purpose. (4 credits)