Expos

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Exposé

May 9, 2012 in Jeanie's Blog by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

On any given day of the year, I would take any pset (problem set, notorious in science classes) over any written assignments. Although I dread deriving equations that other, more brilliant scientists have already derived, I feel much more accomplished doing this compared to spending 10 minutes mentally drafting each meticulous sentence to eloquently express my semi-insightful ideas. However, if I swallow some of my scientific pride, I can definitely appreciate the beauty of the written word. No other class has catalyzed and reaffirmed this appreciation more than the Expository Writing 20 class I took last spring semester (2011).

The summer before your first semester at Harvard College, you take Placement Exams – I remember taking one for math, science (biology or something like that), a language one (if you’re interested in that), and a mandatory writing one. Although actual placement isn’t strictly forced (it’s just highly recommended by faculty, me and my peers!), the latter exam is suppose to determine your entrance into one of two essential Expository Writing classes.

Expository Writing 20 (colloquially termed Expos) is a mandatory class for all freshman and is definitely frequently spoken about. I’m truly being honest when I say most of my conversations about Expos are more like obsession-confessions since the classes are small and led my talented preceptors, but keep in mind that there will always be a handful of people that dislike Expos. The class serves to help transition students into writing in the college environment. There are many, MANY types of Expos 20 classes and this hefty selection not only makes it appealing to the normal student, but more so to students who aren’t inclined to writing (guilty). Students rank these Expos classes by interest and some fancy type of randomizing algorithm places students. Some classes may have multiple sections which increases your chances in the lottery process.

Last spring semester, one of my favorite things to boast about was my Expos 20 class. I was enrolled in Tales of Murder (my first choice was actually Darwinian Dating, but I’ve never been more happy to lose a lottery) and after announcing the title of my class, everyone becomes so intrigued!

The class was divided by three papers and each paper was devoted to a specific unit – this is a typical Expos 20 structure. Our first unit was murder ballads – the preceptor (Emily Shelton) provided a CD of old murder ballads with accompanying lyrics to analyze. The second unit (my absolute favorite unit in which I produced the best six pages I’ve ever (and will ever?) write!) was termed the “lens” unit because we read a variety of stories by Edgar Allan Poe along with literary critiques. We then had to synthesize these two sources to extract a theme about murder. My paper in the second unit argued that anyone who was literate was also capable of committing murder and getting away with it…a creepy thought considering my environment. Unit three was a film unit. I know this sounds like every student’s fantasy but I checked out one of the films from Lamont and since it was only loaned to me for ~5 hours, I returned it immediately after watching it. This means I walked ~1000 yards at like 4am in the dark right after a movie revolving around murder. Scariest thing ever! I had HUPD (Harvard University Police Department) pre-dialed on my phone just in case. Speaking of safety, there’s an escort service HUPD provides so you never have to walk alone if you feel even slightly uncomfortable. It’s always important to remember that Harvard is located in an urban environment; therefore, knowing both your surroundings and resources is crucial. Okay, the preaching is over.

Basically, Expos 20: Tales of Murder completely revamped my writing style. I remember in high school, for the most part, writing felt extremely formulaic. Your first sentence is a general statement, then you narrow your focus into your thesis which had to be the last sentence of your introductory paragraph or else it wasn’t really a thesis. Each body paragraph started with a supporting thesis, followed by a lead in to your quote/concrete evidence. I always felt so constrained and only started feeling like I was actually persuading my readers during my junior year of high school in Advanced Placement English Language (APEL) where my supporting theses didn’t have to be the first sentence of every body paragraph. My writing world really started rocking senior year of high school when a lot of the papers we wrote were promptless – my Advanced Placement English Literature (AP Lit) teacher would provide leading questions and ideas, but it was really up to us to extract an insightful message from the author. I guess you just have to earn freedom in your academic progression. This freedom was really epitomized in my Expos 20 class. When my preceptor told me that introductory paragraphs should really be introductory pages – this wasn’t just the best thing ever, but it just seemed too good to be real!!!!!

There were just so many revolutionary ideas about writing in Expos 20 that I still can’t hardly handle it. We talked about explaining motives which entails proving to readers why both the author and you as an author have a rhyme and reason to write. We talked about “standard readings” and although obvious, it’s important to include. More importantly, however, are the shocking twists and turns to these standard readings which drive the paper into its thesis.

The concepts I learned in Expos 20 still reverberate to this day. During Reading Period (when official classes stop for a week before Final Exams begin), I looked back through my Expos notes in preparation for my 12 page marathon paper for my Ethical Reasoning 24: Bioethics course. I know there are plenty of you out there that can crank out many more quality pages in a leisurely afternoon while dog-sitting, but I would literally rather run a marathon…twice.

That being said, Expos 20 was truly the arsenal of knowledge (and caffeine!) that got me through my final paper. I was so thankful that I even emailed my former preceptor to inform her of my boundless appreciation. I’m still stunned by her immediate (and of course eloquent) response where she basically summarized all three of my papers! Ah! She’s SO COOL! Is she still fair game to invite to my faculty dinners? TBD

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From 60 to 40: Spring Break in VT

March 15, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | Permalink

Hello!

Sorry this post is coming a few (umm…almost 12) hours later than normal, but here’s one anyways! While my friends are jetsetting or tanning in Bermuda/Cayman Islands/Mexico, I am just chillin’ (literally, look at the title) with my family and friends back home. In no way am I complaining; Vermont is totally awesome, and I absolutely love it here in March. (Plus, I was in LA over winter break, so that was enough sun to hold me over until the summahtime.) For those of you who are flatlanders (anyone not from Vermont, Northern New Hampshire or Upstate New York), you may not know that Vermont has more than four seasons. We have six, in fact: Spring, Summer, Fall, Stick Season, Winter, and Mud Season, in which we happen to be right now! Though people say you can’t wear white after Labor day, I say you can’t wear white during Mud Season; aptly named for its lovely driving conditions on our dirt roads, this span of a few weeks prepares you for spring by making you readjust your outfits and cars. (You’ll need a realignment on top of taking off your snow tires once May rolls around.) I’ve avoided nice clothing, donned my Muck Boots, and only driven my truck, because the roads are really bad, and you don’t want to bottom out on the ruts and ruin your car!

Luckily, the weather has been pretty nice. It’s been sunny, and today I did all of my French homework for the next few weeks outside on one of our Adirondack chairs and watched my goofy dog, Posey, attempt to catch a squeaky chipmunk as it hid in our stone wall. Here are a few prime photos from the little escapade, which hopefully will bring a smile to your face.

Also, I cut my hair today! Yay! Actually, my really good friend’s mom cut it for FREE, and she owns a salon so it was all professional and such! I also have done a lot of online shopping and research on DIY projects that I can do to create an EPIC dorm room next year…seriously, it’s going to be insane. Prepare yourselves. Think: awesome lighting and headboard.

So, back to Academia: there are a few things that I can assess, as this is the middle of the semester and I probably should crack down around now…not like I haven’t been, but I have to decide my concentration by next November, so I should at least decide whether or not I like my courses. And so I shall, right now, ranking my courses with some numbers, but mostly judgment…just like Flyby’s housing ranking. (Sadly, I won’t make a cool graphic.)

1. Italian Acd: Intensive Italian

This class is totally awesome. My prof (TF, actually) is incredible, and it’s her first semester teaching…ever! She’s wonderful, the camaraderie in my class is top-notch (we had an Italian party the other night where we made pasta carbonara and spoke Italian to one another), and we have learned so much. After having only taken 2 months of Italian, from knowing nothing, I now can form the future tense, both past tenses, and the present, not to mention all the vocab and culture we’ve picked up! Soon we’ll be covering the subjunctive and conditional…yippee! Overall, this class is an A+, which mightn’t be reflected in my final grade, but we’ll see (:

2. Freshman Seminar: Pressing the Page

This class is also totally awesome. The only reason it comes in second place is because I don’t have it every day at 10 am (we only meet for 2 hrs mon/wed), and so I think it hasn’t really been properly tested in the long-term, early-morning scheme of things, like Italian has. My prof is, again, incredible, and Adams’s Bow and Arrow Press is both historical and efficient, creating some gorgeous art. The only reason I’m bummed about  getting housed into Currier is that I’ll be rather far away from the press, but luckily (or unluckily) The Crimson is right next to Adams, so I’ll be spending a lot of my time in that area, anyways! I have no qualms about this course, and really love being able to show my creativity through another outlet (for credit, nonetheless). In conclusion, this class is an A; the only thing that stops it from being perfect is the lack of adequate time to create as much art as I’d like!

Okay, this is where it gets kind of tricky, as I only have 4 courses….so it’s not like the fourth spot is the worst spot, but rather, it is simply the last one, which doesn’t make it bad.

3. Expos 20: Contemporary Theatre

Two things I really like: theatre and writing. Sadly, I don’t like writing about theater all that much; I’d rather perform, and creative writing/poetry is my forté, not analytical writing. But, it’s Expos, and most people complain a lot about their courses. Mine is pretty interesting, and covers risqué topics, so it’s never boring during class…it’s just when I get in front of my computer and try to write my 6 page essay about something I’m not interested in…that’s when it gets pretty difficult. I do, however, want to be a better writer, and I trust that this course will help me to become more apt with my words. Overall, I’d give this course a B, which is probably higher than my current grade.

4. French 50: Liberty and Culture (or something)

J’adore le français, alors c’est un peu étrange que je n’aime pas ce course beaucoup. Also, I’ll be going to Paris this summer (hopefully), which might lend some insight about my sentiments towards French culture. (I love it.) This class is interesting, and our workbook clarifies the complexities of French grammar (which is honestly so ridiculous sometimes…SO MANY EXCEPTIONS), but it feels like a lecture, even though there are only 15 people in it. Language courses should be more interactive, at least for me, and this isn’t very interactive. Still, I am heavily considering a concentration in Romance Languages and Literatures, or at least Francophone studies, so I can’t dislike this class too much (: Final grade? B-. It’s not in the C range, because it is definitely above average, as all courses at Harvard are!

Soooo, that’s all for now. Time to go:

a) bake a cake?

b) clean my lil’ room?

c) record a new song?

You choose.

Until next time,

-Reid

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Wonderful Week

February 2, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 1 comment

Heyyyo!

I’ve been having the best week ever, and it’s been so busy that I haven’t had any time to post on this site, so sorry for the delay! This is going to be slightly shorter, because I have a meeting at 3 with my Peer Advising Fellow (PAF) to talk about blocking (aaahhrrggg, deciding on my suitemates is so complicated), classes, and my summer plans. Also, I just applied to be a PAF next year, so we’ll see how that goes, and maybe one of you class of ’16 readers will be my PAFee! (That’d be so exciting.)

Yay random picture I took of Harvard Hall yesterday!!

So: a quick synopsis of what has happened since last Thursday. On Friday, I passed in my official study card (yippee!) and had a meeting with my slam poetry team. Later,  my mom came to visit and we watched the Harvard-Yale men’s hockey game, which I covered for the Crimson. Harvard won 4-3, and we beat Yale in the women’s hockey, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball games. Woohoo! Then I went out to a really fun party with a few of my friends and saw some a cappella people whom I hadn’t seen in a while, which was great. The next morning, my mom swung by for a little bit in between my auditions of common casting through the HRDC. Basically I tried out for  a lot of musicals and got some minor roles that I decided to drop, because I have a million things happening already. (Check out the link above for more information about theater, another addition to my Quest for the Arts!)

 

Go Harvard!

Sunday wasn’t too busy, but I ended the day with great news: I was appointed Arts Photography Exec with my friend Dean for The Crimson! Now I get first “pitches” (really cool events to cover) and I lead a crew of Junior Editors and Compers in their journey of photography this semester. I couldn’t be more excited.

Monday was my first Photo Exec meeting, in the newly designed photo-lounge of the basement. The basement holds design, video, and photography (really, the best part of a newspaper in both online and digital editions), and within that group there’s a great sense of community. I was alerted on Monday that I needed to give a gift to the Exec I am replacing, so that’s been my weekly project (keep reading).

 

Cast Lists are Posted!

Tuesday was my first day of Expos! I was sectioned into Contemporary American Theatre, a course with a very high Q Score and an amazing prof. I’m really looking forward to it, though it’s going to definitely be a difficult course. Later, I had an all-photo meeting with the Junior Editors and Execs, which was great. I pitched The Arts as a beat (translation: I gave reasons to people for why they should take pictures primarily for Arts), in the form of a song! It was very classy and very fun. Later that night, I started drawing up sketches for my gift to the ex-Arts Photo Exec (who is now the Editor-At-Large of Photography), having decided on a shirt as a gift. The design is of a pug puppy (the cutest, obviously… and photo has a bit of an obsession with baby animals) reaching for a soda bottle with the word “AHT” on it. (The ex-exec has a thick Boston accent.) Then, I had a few more late-night meetings and finally went to bed.

 

Oh So Cute

Wednesday, I interviewed Dean from Dean & Britta, an alternative music duo, for the Office of the Arts. Now all I have to do is write up the article, and I will post the link next week! I had my printmaking seminar again, which was amazing, per usual, and continued to work on the project I’d started on Monday. We were asked to create a visual representation of our favorite word, and I chose “noodle.” Okay, I’m not sure if that’s my favorite word, but there were so many to choose from…so I just chose my favorite food-word. Also, there are tons of alternative definitions for noodle (such as brain, or fool, or Mr. Noodle from Elmo’s World), which means I can be very creative. Next week I’ll be pressing my page, framing that bad boy, and maybe gifting it (or keeping a copy for myself). This has definitely been one of the best artistic outlets I’ve found here at Harvard.

Later that day, I met up with my friend Cynthia to work on a few songs for Freshman Formal, which is tomorrow night. Of course I’ll be going, but we’ll also be playing music during dinner, so we met up in Wigglesworth basement to practice. The practice rooms are really big in Wigg, so we had enough space for her piano and my guitar/uke. We’ll be playing some sweet songs (such as Janelle Monae and Adele), and afterwards we’ll be dancing it up in the Night Under the Stars, as it is so aptly named. Yippee!

No Stars in the Sky Yet

 

Then I had to cover a Flashmob for The Crimson. CityStep, a program that teaches children to dance and other valuable skills, went into Ticknor Lounge (a gorgeous room) and busted out some moves. I was lucky enough to experience it, in all of its cuteness/awesomeness.

Haha, Flashmob!

A few hours later, I realized that couldn’t stop working on my gift for my friend, so I went to Urban Outfitters to buy a blank T-shirt ($5), then to Utrecht Arts to buy some fabric paint ($8). I cut out the stencils I’d created in record time (okay, like two hours), ironed them onto the shirt, and painted away. Today, I finished it up, and I couldn’t be happier with the final product! It turned out infinitely better than I had expected, and I’m sure the gift will be well-received.

 

Yay Puppies and Pop!

Now I’m off to my meeting, then some more practice for Formal, homework, dinner somewhere in there, a run-through of some spoken word that I’ll be performing with a group next monday for a belated MLK celebration, and finally an Exec event later tonight. Wow! This semester is going to be awesome. (Plus, it’s cold today–bonus!)

Happy Thursday!

-Reid

 

Squirrel<Pug

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End of Classes/Reading Period

December 15, 2011 in Shaun's Blog by Shaun | Permalink

Hey, everyone!  We just finished with reading period, which is a week free of classes given to students to help with studying for exams. While this week encourages students to study hard, there are always events to compensate for the hard days of studying.

Last week marked the end of classes for the semester. While it was easy for me to part with a couple of my classes, there were two classes I was sad to leave. The first class was my expository writing class, what Harvard students call “Expos.” As freshmen, students are required to take an expository writing class, which is a writing-intensive course taught in sections of about 15 students.  There are many different expository writing classes, such as Family Matters, Darwinian Dating, Voice of Authority, etc. I picked the class HIV/AIDS in Culture. At first, I had some contrasting opinions about the class, but as we started to progress and look deeper into the texts, I began to appreciate the different works we studied.  In addition to enjoying the art and literature in the class, I’ve learned a lot from my teacher, who is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. Having been diagnosed with HIV for the past 15 years, he has played an active role in spreading awareness and fighting for public acknowledgement. My conversations with him were extremely interesting, and I feel privileged to have taken this class.

The second class I will miss is Math 1B. Similar to Expos, this class was memorable because of my professor. He has received countless awards for his research in this field, and is well-known for his work in gauge field theory. Despite being this world-renowned math mathematician, he was one of the most downto-earth and humble people I have ever met. Before coming to Harvard, I had a stereotypical idea of what Harvard professors were like, but Professor Taubes broke every misconception I had. Constantly cracking jokes about himself, and engaging in one-on-one conversations with all of his students, he was a very approachable person. On the last day of classes, he did a magic card trick that left our class speechless.

 

 

Camille, Hannah, Kelly, Professor Taubes, and me on the last day of math class.

I have been studying pretty hard for finals, but I’ve still had time to attend some social events. This week, the Harvard Varsity Club hosted the 2nd Annual Winter Charity Ball. I attended the Ball with a couple of members from the Women’s Tennis Team, and we had a great time! It was held at the Sheraton Commander Hotel, and all the proceeds went to benefit a nonprofit organization that uses coaching and sports to promote social change.

 

 

Kelly, Sylvia and me getting ready to head to the Winter Charity Ball

 

This week, I also had the honor of co-hosting a puja for the Dharma Club. A puja is a religious ritual performed as an offering to various deities. This prayer was for the celebration of the goddess of knowledge, music and creative art. In the puja, we said opening prayers, saraswati slokas, and sang bhajans. About thirty people attended the puja, and it was a great way to receive blessings for our upcoming exams!

Co-hosting a Puja in the Indian Prayer Space

 

Later in the week, the First Year Social Committee hosted “Frost Fest” in Annenberg, the freshman dining hall. At the event, students built gingerbread houses and decorated sugar cookies, and great holiday music courtesy of Harvard’s acapella groups helped to spread the holiday spirit.

 

Students building Gingerbread houses at Annenberg to alleviate stress


That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading this entry, and I’ll post again next week!

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