W 113 M

Introduction

Each English major student arrives at the University having experience in writing in English. However, they may not have attended a formal writing course, and since having little experience in essay writing, they may have not put their writing habits and style into shape yet. In the second year, everyone has completed a writing course and written sufficient papers to evolve their attitudes. Therefore, the step between these stages must be the greatest one. In this piece of work these differences will be examined closely.

Method

As a starting point, I handed out questionnaires to fifteen first-year and fifteen second-year students at Kodolányi János College in Székesfehérvár. I asked them to mark only one answer and try to be as honest as possible. They filled out the questionnaires in the first ten minutes during their seminar, on the 7th of May, 1997. Then, I collected and analysed the data. I found that all second-year students had passed a writing course during their previous studies, and the first- year students were just attending one. The first part of the questionnaire(questions 1-7) referred to their writing process, the second part (questions 8-11) referred to their revising process, and the third part (questions 12-14) consisted of miscellaneous questions. I examined each answer from the following points of view: how many students marked it, and how many of them were first-year and second year students. Therefore, each answer has two numbers, ranging from one to fifteen. Because of the limited number of students, I considered the difference significant if one number of the given answers was higher at least four more than any other.

Results and Discussion

Part One

1. Do you write your essay using a word processor?
1st- year students 2nd- year students
No 7 2
Yes 8 13

First of all, let me take a look at what William Zinsser tells about the role of the computer in writing. “What does the word processor do that’s so helpful? It puts your words right in front of your eyes for your instant consideration - and reconsideration.” (Zinsser, 1988 p.209). Later in his book he says, “with a word processor you can play with your writing on the screen until you get it right, and the paragraphs will keep rearranging themselves, no matter how many words you change or add or cut, and you don’t have to print it until it’s just the way you want it.” (Zinsser, 1988 p.209). We can see from the figures that more second-year students took these advantages than first-year students. Only eight first-year students worked with computers, in contrast with thirteen second-year students. The reason for this can be the first-year students’ lack of computer knowledge. By the time they reach the second year in their studies, they have become familiar with the word processor and get used to working with it.

2. Do you follow the rules of American or British English?
1st 2nd
American 0 0
British 12 8
It depends... 3 7

The most striking finding is that none of the thirty students examined used consistently American English in formal writing. In spite of the fact that the influence of the American culture is much stronger on our society than that of the British culture, many first-year students maintained British English. In the second year, some of them gave up writing only in British English, and turned to using either one. However, no one went for exclusively American English.

3. Do you brainstorm before you start writing your essay?
1st 2nd
Always 7 8
Often 4 7
Sometimes 3 0
Never 1 0

The sign of improvement can be seen in the second year. Students at this stage either always or often brainstorm before starting to write an essay, whereas some first-year students fall into the ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’ category. They do not have their writing style developed enough yet.

4. What does your draft consist of?
1st 2nd
I don’t write drafts. 2 1
Some words. 0 1
Some thoughts. 10 9
Some complete sentences. 3 4

In many advanced coursebooks one can find some hints on how to plan a composition. These books include pieces of advice such as “write notes of the main points you wish to make; work out what order you wish to put these points in; a plan is just a note or reminder to yourself, so it only needs to include the main points which you will then expand upon in the composition itself.” (Kingsbury, 1984 p.14). I wanted to find out the features of students’ drafts, and, I can see now, they were quite close to the hints of the coursebooks: most students preferred having thoughts in their drafts to complete sentences or only words. Since there was no major difference between the two tested groups, I can claim that the habit of writing only thoughts in drafts is brought to the University. Fortunately, few students do not write drafts.

5. Do you write anything in Hungarian in your draft?
1st 2nd
No 13 10
Yes 2 5

Another remarkable finding is that there were both first-year and second-year students who wrote something in Hungarian in their draft. I was inspired to include this point in the questionnaire by a classmate who admitted that she would write essays first in Hungarian. Although I do not know what extent the students used their mother tongue (only a few words or the whole essay?), I think that one should avoid including many words in another language when writing drafts.

6. Have you ever used someone else’s idea or work in your essay, which remained unrevealed to your reader?
1st 2nd
Never 5 4
Once 3 1
A few times 7 7
Several times 0 3

At first, I intended to include the word ‘plagiarism’ in this question but I changed my mind and used a dictionary definition (Sinclair, 1995 p. 1254) to avoid making them feel uncomfortable. However, it was not a big discovery that students did commit some plagiarism. Twenty-one out of thirty were not innocent: at least once, they broke the rule of copyright. If we consider those who did not dare answer honestly to the question, this number could be even higher. Three second-year students used someone else’s idea several times, but there were no first-year students in this category. The more essays students wrote the more plagiarism they committed.

7. If the number of words is given, what do you do?
1st 2nd
a) I plan the length in advance. 6 4
b) I start writing, and I will see later how many more words I need. 9 11

The number of students who plan the length of their essay in advance was smaller than of those who did not. There seemed to be no major change in the second year.

Part Two

8. When revising, you change or omit...

1st 2nd
...nearly nothing. 1 3
...some words. 1 1
...a few sentences and some words. 11 7
...a few sentences and several words. 2 0
...several sentences and several words. 4 0

Zinsser says the following about revision: “What do I mean by rewriting,? I don’t mean writing one version and then writing a whole new version from scratch, and then a third. Most writing consists of reshaping and polishing the raw material you wrote on your first try.... Most writers don’t initially say what they want to say, or say it as well as they could.” (Zinsser, 1988 p. 211). The figures indicate that the most frequent type of revision was changing or omitting a few sentences and some words. However, only second-year students revised several sentences and several words, which means their revision must be more thorough. This consequence can also be detected from the twelfth question, which I will discuss in more detail later in my paper.

9. How do you check spelling and grammar?
1st 2nd
By the word processor. 2 1
Not only by the word processor but also myself. 4 6
Only myself. 6 6
I show it to someone. 3 2

The word processor is quite useful to check spelling and grammar, but it is not capable of revealing all typing mistakes. For instance, if one types the word ‘bit’ instead of ‘bite’, the computer will not correct it. Therefore, it is important not to rely solely on the word processor. Out of thirty only three students did not care about checking spelling after the computer, which is, I think, a good ratio. There was no major difference between the two groups.

10. Do you show your essay to a native speaker before submitting it ?
1st 2nd
Always 0 0
Often 0 0
Sometimes 3 9
Never 12 6

Second-year students showed their essays to a native speaker more often than first year-students did. Second-year students may have developed closer friendship to native speakers on the campus; thus, they may have more chance to show their work to them.

11. Do you show your essay to your peer before submitting it?
1st 2nd
Always 0 0
Often 2 1
Sometimes 6 5
Never 7 9

The frequency of peer editing did not differ much in the two groups. It is good to know that some students, at least sometimes, practise it.

Part Three

12. How many hours do you usually need for a 1000-word essay ?
1st 2nd
on average 3 hours and 3 minutes 5 hours and 31 minutes

Another striking fact is that the firs-year students spent far less time to complete a 1,000-word essay than second-year students. One reason has been suggested in the eighth answers: they revised fewer parts of their essays. Another reason can be discovered in the third answers: brainstorming occurred less frequently among first-year students. In my opinion, writing an 1000-word essay in three hours is a hurry.

13. Do you prefer being alone during writing?
1st 2nd
Yes 13 2
Others’ presence doesn’t really bother me. 14 1

Both groups liked to work alone when writing, and this attitude did not change in the second year either.

14. How do you feel when you start to work on your essay?
1st 2nd
a)‘ If only I did not attend this course’. 1 0
b) ‘It’s a tremendous work’. 5 2
c) ‘It takes a few hours but it’s not an awful task’. 2 6
d) ‘I don’t mind. I sometimes enjoy it.’ 6 7
e) ‘I’m glad because I like writing essays.’ 1 0

Though second-year students spent more time on an essay, not so many of them found writing ‘tremendous work’. Twenty-one students fell into the two slightly positive category (c, d).

Conclusion

A second-year student does more brainstorming, sometimes writes in American English, uses a word processor, commits more plagiarism, revises many parts of the essay, shows his or her work to a native speaker more often, needs more time to complete an essay, and finds writing less tiresome. However, one might raise the question whether all phenomena revealed in this research can be considered as an improvement.

Zinsser also has some thoughts about improvement: “Add a few percentage for such natural gifts as good ear, a sense of rhythm and a feeling of words. But the final advantage is the same one that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everybody else you have to want to write better than everybody else.” (Zinsser, 1988 p.233).

Being a first-year student, I am looking forward to the changes in my own essay writing attitude in the second-year. I wonder how many findings will apply to me and my peers in the future.