After being out of school for over thirty years, most of my expectations for any course were based on fear of the unknown. Hell, I probably couldn't remember the difference between a verb and a noun, let alone have to write an article more than a page long—those were two of my fears when I walked into room 268 of the Fisher Building on the first day of English 111 class. Those fears quickly subsided, not so much because my fears were unfounded but because Dr. Matuka opened the first lesson by asking us to interview a classmate, then recite the interview to the entire class. This exercise alone made me feel more comfortable with the class, with my instructor, and with my classmates, as many classmates were similar to me, grown adults. Our second assignment was to write a diagnostic essay that would be graded, however, not counted towards the class grade. I believe this strategy by Dr. Matuka was to give us confidence in our abilities as writers, without any pressure to perform for a counted vote. In my case I think it worked, if I remember correctly I received an 87%, higher than I could have ever achieved...