Gen Ed Writes is maintained by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and was funded by a generous grant from the Davis Educational Foundation established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis's retirement as chairman of Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc.
Please contact Jonah Johnson, Assistant Director for Writing Pedagogy at the Derek Bok Center, with questions or suggestions.
The site emerged out of several years of workshops and consultations aimed at improving the alignment between a) required first-year expository writing courses and b) the writing experiences that students were likely to have beyond those introductory seminars. At Harvard, most students meet their expository writing requirement through Expos 20 or Expos Studio 20, courses offered by the Harvard College Writing Program that introduce students to the fundamentals of analytical argument. From that standpoint, the approach to writing and teaching writing that informs this site is primarily drawn from (and meant to be consistent with) the Writing Program’s pedagogy, i.e., what first-year students at Harvard learn in their Expos courses about the different purposes of expository writing and how to approach different kinds of writing assignments.
In terms of its orientation beyond Expos, specifically toward writing in a General Education program, this site has taken shape in the context of several voices and resources. To name but a few:
In addition, this site would not be possible without the contributions of the following colleagues:
