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Gerard Passannante ENGL478J Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2025	This was my favorite course I've taken at UMD. The readings weren't super long and they were all fantastic. It is a discussion-based class, so we would just read, write 1 weekly discussion post and then get into our room and talk about things that matter. We spoke on humanness, attention, presence, AI, privilege, and so much more. The main assignments are to lead one discussion and write two essays. For the first you do two pages in the style of Michel de Montaigne, which gives you a lot of freedom. The final essay was longer, 8 pages, but you still had the freedom to write about whatever you wanted. They are creative essays, and all he wants you to do is show him how your thoughts work and that you were present while writing. To essay, in French, means "to try," so essaying is an honest observation of thoughts. It's not easy, there are definitely aspects of style that are hard to grasp as it's so different from academic writing, but it was an incredible practice as a writer.