English 101: No One Did the Reading.

By SAMUEL ALTMAN ‘26

If you’ve been in Exeter English long enough, you know that eerie silence that sometimes sneaks up on the class. It’s one thing for there to be a momentary pause, a lapse in conversation, but as the seconds tick by, pages keep turning, but no sound leaves anyone’s mouth, the situation becomes abundantly clear: no one else did the reading. 

Courtesy of Deposit Photos

Normally, you’d expect abundant references to different page numbers and plotlines. But now you turn to the person sitting on your left and you see them clutching their book below the table, making rushed annotations for the first time. The same is happening to your right. None of them are particularly insightful: a “very interesting” in the margins here, and a “huh?” there. 

“So, what did everyone think of the reading?” you ask. The page-turning intensifies. You receive a few blank stares, and one or two people give an awkward cough. 

“Well,” one brave soul begins nervously, “I thought this quote was interesting: [reads a random entire paragraph].” Suddenly, a flurry of agreement proliferates around the table and heads begin to nod enthusiastically. The rest of the table rushes to get a word in, trying desperately to give a vague support to the quote. After a few comments, the buzz dies down, and the process starts all over again. 

The only variation you’ll find is in the confidence of different students. Some, even if having only skimmed the reading, will make strong assertions about overarching themes in the reading, often quoting to a suspicious extent passages previously read. Others sit still the entire class, not daring to accidentally mispronounce a name or show that they completely misunderstand the storyline. 

By the end of 50 minutes, everyone is absolutely drained from trying to keep the conversation going with tangential theories, random fact-drops, and “let’s google it” moments. And as you leave the class and your classmates breathe a sigh of relief, you begin to realize that the only unique points brought up the whole time were courtesy of SparkNotes.