Blog 9: My Experience in Pollett's English 2010

When I enrolled here at Weber State, My ACT score was high enough that I did not have to take English 1010, and although I had taken an AP English Literature class during my senior year of high school, apparently that counted as credit toward ENGL2200 ‘Intro to Literature’, but did not count for ENGL2010. Overall, I had a very good experience in my English 2010 class. I remember the first day of class, all of us were sitting there waiting for the professor to show up. We were getting fidgety and wondering if he was coming at all, when one of the “students” sitting in the back row jumped out of his seat with a loud whoop, walked to the front of the class and introduced himself as Professor Pollett. He always made the class interesting, so I really enjoyed it. It was not a hard class for me. I was (and still am) a complete bookworm. Having been such an avid reader as a kid, writing just seemed to come naturally to me, maybe because I had picked up patterns of different writing styles during my literary adventures. Pollett had us do a few essays every week, in addition to two large research papers during the semester. I have always had an intense fear of public speaking, so you could say I was less than pleased when Professor Pollett told us we would each be doing two fifteen minute presentations based on our research papers. I think the fear led me to prepare more than I had for past presentations. I kept practicing breath control, watching my vocal speed, and rehearsing the presentation a couple of times in front of an imaginary audience. My first research presentation was on the architecture of Gothic cathedrals, and I was surprised at how well it was received by the other students in class. They  expressed that they never knew so much went into building a cathedral and that I didn’t seem nervous at all. Thinking back, to my own ears I remember sounding almost like an architecture professor. I was pretty proud of myself for somehow acting so calm even with my heart hammering in my chest all the while. It was probably during this class when I finally mastered MLA research citations, but in general, I would not say that the class helped me become that much better of a writer. But more importantly, it vastly helped me to increase my confidence as a speaker.