W 062 F

INTRODUCTION:
According to Harris (1993, p. 81.), a general point about writing is that it cannot be seen in isolation from other modes of language use--it requires attention to reading and to talking as well, by which it can be fostered. If it is true, we have to concede that it is not enough to learn only how to write but we should also pay attention to the other language skills, namely reading, speaking and even listening. The Writing and Research Skills Course announced by the English Department of Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, in the spring semester in 1997 has met this requirement and provided our group with a wide range of readings, discussion about different topics and writing tasks, which will be scrutinized in what follows.

Looking at the characteristics of the reading and writing tasks completed in this course, I can state that these techniques of language practice are really well- organized, detailed and thorough both in their function and structure.

METHODS:
We decided on starting to study reading styles with the aid of an excellent book under the title Seventy-five readings ( Hurtt and Boylan, 1989 ). Students interested could find fantastic essays in it. I especially liked " Why I want a wife " by Judy Syfers, " Salvation " by Langston Hughes and " What is poverty? " by Jo Goodwin Parker. They were really worth reading: they gave us not only the pleasure of reading, but had an instructional intention, too. They helped us increase our general knowledge, learn to observe and use appropriate language forms and understand the procedures of writing better.

In tandem with reading we could keep our eye on writing well by means of another essay called " Transaction " by William Zinsser in the volume introduced earlier. We had an opportunity to examine the difference between professional writing and hobby writing in detail by scrutinizing the characteristics of them and this way comparing the two. It is highly interesting to see the two sort of writers contrasted so appositely on a few pages. While observing writing styles of different kind in these essays, we could develop our own style, since we were given several chances to write something original coming from our personality. We had to learn a significant point about essay writing: it is not throwing ideas together that makes an essay but systematic expounding of consistent thoughts and chains of ideas. To achieve this, the group had to learn to develop a topic sentence and build a logical chain of thoughts up. It was important during the whole course to practise writing in reality, not only to learn something about it in theory. All the writing tasks aimed at practising writing either in group or individually.

Group writing was useful and edifying from the point of view of cooperation. We could help one another by doing our best: if someone did not have any idea, somebody else may have had one about how to go on with writing, that is why work never got stuck. One of the great benefits of this type of group work was the opportunities that it provided for encouraging positive attitudes to the process of writing--discussing choices, making changes, reading back over the text as it developed; it also set up opportunities for reflecting on both the process and the text itself. A group can achieve anything with the aid of mutual understanding and cooperation. This was proved in the lesson while writing together and getting a result to everyone's satisfaction. It proved to be most fruitful that all of us were involved in this activity and this way could contribute to the success to some extent. Cooperation could definitely enhance the efficiency of work, help us get closer to one another and teach us how to work together.
It was of key-importance to check our work after finishing it. While writing we may not have had enough time to care about all the details and may have ignored mistakes in our paper. Each time it was useful for us to go back to the beginning of the text and proof-read it in order to check spelling, style and grammar. It made us sure that our work was at least grammatically correct.

Peer editing was in connection with helping one another again. We, peers corrected the works of one another's like our teacher would have done it--we tried to help one another with criticism and correction and give useful ideas and advice about how to change something in the writing style in the future, what mistakes to pay more attention to or what structures to avoid. This technique developed not only the author of a certain work but also the one who corrected it. Peer editing was also useful because it improved our ability to recognize and correct errors, which helped us not make the same mistakes again in the future.

RESULTS:
The techniques of group writing, revision, peer editing and individual essay writing tried to involve us in more and more writing activities during the course in order to develop our ability to self-express, correct mistakes, learn the process of writing, enhance our cognition and perception of events and make us independent writers. These techniques worked well and were successful in the course if we now can write papers better than before. Everyone has to know about herself to what extent she succeded in achieving this goal. Not only writing activities played a crucial role in the course but also reading activities. Reading was connected to writing indirectly, which meant that we could utilize what we read in writing by learning plenty of words and expressions, and the notion of how to write at all, what structures to use or what style to follow in different language situations.

DISCUSSION:
According to Harris(1993, p.65.), there are four main purposes being present in a writing activity: (1) communicating and sharing experiences, (2) constructing meanings through ways of thinking not usually available through speaking, (3) discovering and clarifying thoughts, and (4) providing a record of ideas, facts and experiences in a form that allows them to be worked on, organized, referred back to and developed subsequently. Harris(1993, p. 10-11.) regards writing as a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft. Even in the stage of constructing a text writers pause, think, write, pause, think, revise and so on. This halting progress reveals the number of decisions that have to be made by the writer alone and also the extent to which reflection is an essential part of the process. These decisions and the reflection together both require and develop ways of thinking. Harris is really right here: we all could experience the feeling of having difficulties in the writing process, the halting progress, the need of reflection and decisions. All of us underwent this experience and learnt a lesson from it, which will be hopefully reflected in our writing style in the future.

Harris has another significant and interesting idea about development in writing(1993,p.78-8o.): " Writing development can be seen in part as an aspect of generally increasing knowledge and cognitive ability. Development in writing means the ability to use appropriate types of clauses to make explicit the relationships between events, and to become more and more self-reliant and independent as a writer. It needs to be related to the overall understanding of the processes of creating texts conveying meaning with clarity and economy. “Several writing techniques serve for expressing meaning plenty of which are undertaken in class. Before undertaking a writing task it must be set by the teacher. It is the initiative to create something original with the intention of conveying our feelings, attitudes or opinions. Harris writes about that classroom activity in this way (1993, p. 64., 96.): " Writing in the classroom must have a clearly perceived and explicitly formulated purpose, and should be closely integrated together with the other language skills. It is needed to see whether some area of knowledge has been understood; to practise and develop the ability to create texts of different length and to discover through the act of writing something more of our individuality and social identity."

CONCLUSION:
We always had opportunities to do this in practice and to improve our writing skill during the course. On the whole, the course was dedicated to meet this requirement and it was successful if we learnt to write just a bit better. What we needed to do by all means was practising writing, to which the course gave us all necessary help, as it realized that everything could be learnt only in a practical way.