An examination of the written products and writing situations of a university reveals that virtually all of these writing tasks call for exposition, which further breaks down into the five components of seriation, classification, synthesis, compare/contrast, and analysis. These five components of expositional discourse form a set of investigative/communicative tools for use in all disciplines, each of which has its own way to systematically examine phenomena, evaluate evidence, and present results. Since undergraduates are required to write in certain forms, the freshman composition course must bridge faculty expectations and student skill. Composition curricula need to reflect a careful sequence, taking full advantage of the human affinity for the sequential and hierarchical, while introducing students to the various styles of academic prose. (An outline for a ten-week freshman writing curriculum is included, describing sessions on the following aspects of university writing: sensitivity to audiences, formal and stylistic conventions in academic exposition, and each of the five components.) (DF)