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Introduction

A difficult task writers of essays in a foreign language have to face is to draft their thoughts and ideas precisely. After they succeeded in outlining the writing they still must carry out another fundamental duty: to note down the text. At such times several questions arise which seem to be natural while writing a composition in the native language: the grammatical structures, the appropriate translation of words, and the special phrases. That's why the knowledge of indispensable rules also contributes to the final form of the essay.

A more difficult task writers of miniature essays have to face is not only to draft their thoughts precisely, but to pay attention to other requirements as well. If the number of words is previously determined, the restriction influences the whole process of writing, because the author also gives heed not to exceed the numerical limits. We mostly consider the task easy until we set about implementing it. At the Janus Pannonius University, in the second term of 1998, Horváth József started a course on Writing and Research Skills. During this seminar students had to fulfil various requirements, and writing a short essay belonged to them. Many of the participants had to draw the lesson from this task that we overestimated our intellectual power and our knowledge of English. Being one of the students who attented this course I discovered many new features of essay writing, and I also noticed that I still have to improve my abilities. In any case, it helped us to discover the defects and improve our skills in writing. In this research paper I tried to collect the characteristics of short essays and reveal the process of preparing them. I was also interested in the decisions of the students, why and how they selected their themes of essays.

Method

While writing a mini essay we have to pay attention to several details. If we only use for example a hundred words, the importance of every single one grows more than in an ordinary composition. In my research I tried to make groups of the essays according to their themes and the number of words. With the accurate analysis I found out how students used their imagination and the new ideas during their task. I realized that the topics of the essays were many-sided, the authors wrote about very different subjects. I also counted the number of words in the writings to become aware of how they succeeded in keeping the restrictions. Although it did not matter how many words students had to use, in our case Horváth József suggested, that we should write a 100-word mini essay. The numeric bounds only helped us to form our thoughts precisely and avoid the unnecessary details.

The reason for my interest in the choice of subjects was that despite their length these mini writings concentrated the feelings, images and world-view of the authors. They revealed more from the writers personality than the compositions of ordinary length. The arrangement of words, the title, the last sentence, every single constituent was a fragment from the writer.
I classified the essays according to the themes, because I wanted to find connection between the topics and the personality of the writers.

Results and Discussion

While analyzing 8 essays I discovered that only one of them dealt with tasting. The choice was surprising as the eating rituals form part of our weekdays and still we don't attach importance to them. The flavour of foods only becomes significant when they're completely different from the ones we have had before. Kamahari Yuki, a Japanese student, who spent a year in Hungary, wrote about the taste of Hungarian bread. She liked it very much: in her mind the picture of Hungary will always be connected with the special flavour of Hungarian bread.

Three essays from the collection discussed concrete physical experiences. One of them handled with a pleasant observation: with the feeling of sleepiness. Everyone undergoes the same procedure daily, when we "feel our body floating in nothing and our limbs go numb". (Sándor Bernadett) The state between wakefulness and sleep evokes strange feelings and the essay transmits this.

Two of the short writings recall old memories, which happened long years ago. "Physical Experience" which was written by Renkó Zsuzsanna tells the story of a jump, which ended in death. The imaginary tale describes the paralyzing consciousness which spread over her body, and she knew she would die. At the end she calmed down and "there was no pain" any more. The other writing gives account of a touch which left its mark on Hajdú Anett. It was the skin of a ray which was like "petting a wet fish" (Hajdú Anett). In the common knowledge rays belong to the dangerous species of animals, but according to the author "they only give people electric shock, when they step on them".

Two texts belong to the group which discuss various impressions. Szarka Brigitta wrote about a "Little Singer" which preached the freshness of the awakening morning. It happened in summer, early in the morning, when all the beauty of nature induced a little bird to express his thanks for living. Not the various melodies, nor the voice of the bird, but his joy, the unclouded happiness impressed the author. I appreciated this essay the best, as I realized that because of tiredness or depression in the mornings all these experiences were left out of consideration, and we missed a lot. Everybody did, except for Brigitta. The choice of topic refers to the joy of life, and shows that Brigitta belongs to those who could notice the beauty of nature regardless of the problems and events which happen around them. The second essay entitled "Dream" was written by Tánczos Balázs. It describes a situation of being entirely alone. The author must have experienced the desperate and helpless feeling when he does not have anybody to turn to. The remaining two mini essays are connected with one of our most significant organs of sense: sight. The essay entitled "Rain" deals with the sight and sound of the falling raindrops. This view reminds the author of "the completion of an endless cycle that once was started by an unknown, supernatural force" (Vadon Balázs). With the help of the scientific approach we can accompany the long journey of water till it "gets back to where it started from" (Vadon Balázs). The text suggests that we can't influence nature as its eternal existence goes beyond our power. The last mini essay critisizes the nowadays general social habits: the "Friday night rituals" (Bacskay Katalin). The effects of soap operas and series often exceed the normal limit and they became the primary aim of one's life. The writing describes the process of preparing for the evening films, as the family interrupts the usual activities and gets ready for the next part of their favourite film. They sacrifice the pleasure of being together in order to "forget all their problems". "They do not talk and they do not care what is happening around them" (Bacskay Katalin).

The most conspicuous characteristic of mini essays was that nobody could exactly reach the numeric bounds. The task was to get as close to the prescribed length as possible. Most of the authors wrote less words and only two of them used more than a hundred. After asking the writers it turned out that they succeeded in keeping the restrictions only after some unsuccessful attempts: they rewrote the essays several times. After finding out the main theme and drafting the outline the most difficult duty still waited for them: they had to select the needless sentences. And although at the first sight every word seemed to be equivalent to the others, they carried out the task. The essays became the extracts of different experiences, adventures or impressions and they didn't contain redundant sentences any more. They adopted the advices written in ''Bits and Pieces'' (William Zinsser) and they left out the redundant adjectives, adverbs, passive structures and exaggerations.

Conclusion

As I analysed the content of mini writings I discovered several details, which escaped my attention previously. I'm sure these are the most personal and also the most complex essays from all students had to write during this course. In my research paper I tried to picture the numerous different subjects of the compositions and the process of preparing for them. The research can be instructive for students who will ever face the requirement of completing a mini essay. As the short form reveals every mistake more clearly than in a longer writing, students should know the steps of carrying out their plans in writing while keeping the instructions in view as well.