These two courses, both ENGL 301 and ENGL 297, were the gateway courses required before one could declare an English major. I took these courses concurrently in the Winter Quarter of my first year. 301 was a larger lecture-based course and 297 was a writing link, taught by a graduate student. 

 

When I was in high school, I had always loved my literature classes. I had loved reading and writing since I was a kid and had spent all of my free time with my nose buried in a book. So, when I got to college, an English major was sort of an obvious choice for me. Reading books for homework? Sign me up!

 

Ambitious and eager, I enrolled in 301 and 297 as soon as I possibly could. I had no idea how informative these two courses would be to the rest of my undergraduate career. 

 

First, I earned my lowest grade to date in ENGL 297. It was one of my first encounters with the English department, and the first class I had taken that was taught entirely by a graduate student. Despite receiving mixed feedback on my papers, I did not feel deterred in pursuing my interest in English. Looking back, I would have thought that this experience should have caused more existential duress, but at that point in my studies, that kind of criticism helped me understand how to better ask for help. Rather than throwing up my hands and saying No way! This English major stuff isn't for me, I was even more determined to improve. And at the end of the quarter, I felt that I really had improved, that I really had learned something - new strategies, new techniques, and an entirely new respect for the rigor of my department. 

 

But, most signficantly, these two courses were the first to bring language to my attention. Language as a mediating and mediated experience. Sausserian linguistics. The absurdity of signifiers and signified. The arbitrariness of language and representation. The slipperiness of language. The distance from reality at the hands of metaphor. The numerous ways to be a reader, or a writer. After these two courses, I realized that language was not a neutral nomenclature, like I might have assumed, but rather a powerful force at work in the world that complicated my understanding of common sense. 301 was also the first time I had been exposed to the term "ideology" in Catherine Belsey's Critical Practice (shown at right). This concept has come up in nearly every single course I have taken since 301, and I am grateful to have had that foundation in my early exposure to critical theory. Without this timely introduction to theory, I would have had a less profound experience in the rest of my coursework which has been characterized by complex critical theory.