W 033 F

Introduction
What is exactly a portfolio? I am sure that almost everybody has an image in their mind about this word, but I would take it granted that those who belong to the English Department of Janus Pannonius University at Pécs have a specific object in their mind.

To remind the ' insiders ' and to inform the ' outsiders ': a portfolio is a simple note book. Each student who attends to the Writing and Research Skills (WRS) course has to have one. In the timetable there are three WRS courses. Basically, they are the same. They are held by the same tutor, only their code number, date and the number of students in them are different. The WRS course with the code 1601 is from 9 to 10.30 a.m. , the 1602 is from 11 to 12.30 p.m. and the 1603 course is from 1 to 2.30 p.m. on Mondays. In the first group there are 10 students, in the second one there are 8 and in the third one there are 21. Students have the whole semester to write compositions in these portfolios. They hand them in from time to time with some new pieces, and they get them back corrected.

The tutor, Horváth József conceived this method at this department. He gave the students 15 topics from which they had to select at least 8.

The lyrics of a rap song
An introduction to a favourite novel, poem, short story, play or other text
An afterword for the same text
Three in one
A high school graduation ceremony speech
A travel guide to your home town
A travel guide to JPU campus
A travel guide to a Pécs site
A travel guide to any place you 've been to
Profile of a person, based on interview
A description of how you make coffee, shave, or apply make-up
A description of how a house, a bridge, a television set, a book, a pen, a pullover, or some other or construction is made
The revised news story
Truncate it: make each word longer than two syllables one syllable shorter in any text you choose
A learning experience: personal essay on tape

Later 12 more topics were introduced, based on the students suggestions.

A description of an unpleasant experience I have had (in four paragraphs maximum)
A significant experience (or day or event) in my life
A hobby that annoys me
Why I don 't like doing something that otherwise I would like to do
Change the end (or the beginning and the end) of a short descriptive essay
JPU by night (to be published in the university yearbook)
A personal account of one of my holidays at Lake Balaton
An essay about any subject with a narrative in it
My pet (or domestic animal)
My experiences with a royal family
A description of environmental problems in the place (street, village, or town) where I live
A description of the interior of a shop
Besides these topics, students can write about other issues, as well. The length, the form and the style of these compositions were not regulated. Horváth offered a task: students could leave out the introductory paragraph of one of their compositions which he completed, using the different types of introductions.

Method
First, I asked five people for their portfolios on the 27th of November, so I am going to analyse compositions written until this date. I chose a female student, Hegedûs Éva, and a male student, Úz Márk, from the group 1601. From the group 1602 I have only one girl 's, Harmath Virág 's, portfolio because the number of students here was the lowest. From the group 1603 I selected again a woman student, Makra Melinda, and a man student, Schlõgl Krisztián. My choice fell on this division because I wanted to analyse and show whether there were similarities or differences between the topic selection, the number and the length of compositions, and between the type and the length of the tutor 's comments of the different groups and different genders.
I am going to analyse the number of compositions in each portfolio, the number of paragraphs and words in each composition. I will take the mean and will indicate the extremes.

I try to find similarities and differences between the topics selected by the students.

I am also going to analyse Horváth 's introductions. I will analyse his comments: the number of comments, the number of words in them, and whether those comments are positive or negative. Positive means that he liked words, ideas or the punctuation in the compositions. Negative can also mean corrections, suggestions or questions; usually they overlap one another. The number of smiling faces ( ) is also important: Horváth uses this sign when he especially likes something in the text.

Statistically my selection is not a good choice. I chose people at random; I did not consider how much they had written in their portfolios and how much the tutor had already corrected. That is why those comments are my conclusions according only to these portfolios. If I took a look at all the portfolios, the results might would be different.

Results and Discussion

Number of compositions

I read 37 compositions in those five portfolios. Figure 1 shows the distribution among the groups and the students.

Figure 1. Statistics on compositions

Hegedûs wrote the smallest number of composition, Úz has the most pieces of writing. They are in the same group, so the biggest difference between the number of compositions is here.
An average number of compositions for the WRS courses is 8. Female and male students wrote approximately the same number of compositions so there is no point in making differentiation between them. There is not much difference between the groups, either.

Number of paragraphs

I found 216 paragraphs, written by the students. The group 1601 has 66, Harmath in the second group has 48, and the group 1603 wrote 102 paragraphs. Figure 2 indicates the distribution of paragraphs.

Figure 2. Statistics on paragraphs

The highest figure among the average number of paragraphs in one composition is Harmath 's, 7. The biggest difference between the two extremes is in Schlogl 's paragraphs, 2 and 15. An average number of paragraphs in one composition is 6.

According to these facts about the number of paragraphs, it seems that the most balanced group is the 1603.

Number of words

I counted 12.372 words, written by the students. The group 1601 produced 3.920 , Harmath in the second group 2.215 words and the group 1603 wrote 6.237 words. Figure 3 represents the distribution among the groups and the students.

Figure 3. Statistics on words

Hegedus 's shortest composition is also the shortest and Makra 's longest writing is also the longest among the compositions analyzed. The most words were written by Makra, so it can confirm the statement that women have a lot to say. The members of group 1603 have the most words; it confirms the balance.

Topic selection

The most popular topic was ' Three in one '; four people chose it. The members of group 1603 selected it as their first writing in their portfolios. This composition was in the third place in the two other females' portfolios.

Both members of the group 1601 wrote extra compositions. Hegedûs wrote 1, Úz wrote 3. Nobody from the other groups wrote extra essays.

Only the two male students wrote the lyrics of a rap song.

The title 'A description of how you make coffee ' inspired all the groups; one in each group wrote about it.

Two chose to describe house building. A female and a male student wrote about it, and which is intriguing about them is that among the girl 's composition it is the shortest, among the boy 's composition it is the longest.

Only one male student did not write a guide to a place he has been to, while a female student wrote about it twice. Three wrote about in on the fifth place.

One male student chose to describe how to shave, and one female student wrote about how to apply make-up.

A male and a female student wrote high school graduation ceremony speech.

The female students in the groups 1602 and 1603 chose to write the profile of a person.
Three wrote introduction to their favourite books. Both members of group 1603 wrote about it on the fifth place.

Only one male student wrote afterword for the same book, only the members of group 1601 did not write about their hometown and only one male student selected a topic from the new list.
The tutor 's introduction

The female students in group 1601 and 1602 took the advantage of writing a composition without the first paragraph. Horváth wrote it for them. One of the introductions contains 60 , the other 47 words.

The tutor 's comments

Horváth wrote 141 comments, containing 1538 words. From these 47 were positive, 94 were negative comments. The tutor used editorial marks. He indicated mistakes such as run-ons, comma splices, clichés, pronoun shifts, spelling mistakes or clutter. There were two times more negative comments than positive ones.

Horváth drew 38 smiling faces and 3 sad faces.

Conclusion

My aim was to give an overall view about the contents of portfolios, giving details about the compositions, mentioning some similarities and differences between them. Although I had thought that there would be bigger difference between the portfolios of different groups and of the male and female students, I was able to present the colourfulness of portfolio materials.