In this research paper I concentrated my analysis on the conclusions of miniature essays. I chose this topic because with miniature essays the author can express more feelings, internal, mental events. I did not strive to analyze the miniature essays themselves, but I focused on the conclusions. I examined how the ending connected to the text, so I searched for cohesion. I also audited, that how the end compared to the title of the essays. The conclusion of the miniature essays contained mostly one sentence, sometimes two, but they had often more information than the text itself.
Methods
The conclusion, as one of the basic elements of the text, "does what its name suggest" (Horváth- Nikolov- Turner, p. 22). It concludes the whole text, refers to its information. In many cases we read only the end of the text to know what it is all about, which rises the significance of the conclusion.
Discussion
The conclusion, as one of the basic elements of the text, "does what its name suggest" (Horváth- Nikolov- Turner, p. 22). It concludes the whole text, refers to its information. In many cases we read only the end of the text to know what it is all about, which rises the significance of the conclusion.
The conclusions of the miniature essays belong to more difficult texts. These sentences win their sense after reading the whole text. Students wrote these "mini" essays about concrete, specific feelings, so their endings describe the whole essay with one referring word, like "black" (Földesi).
This word, "black" ended the last sentence of my favorite essay. Földesi Virág wrote this and she titled it "Drowned." Three sentences made up the whole conclusion: "I gave up the fight. Water filled up my chest. Everything went black." (Földesi). The last sentence connects close to the title and it rules the whole text. The word "drowned" and the last sentence relate to each other real close. The last word cut a process that had begun with falling into the water and ended with dying because the lack of oxygen.
This last sentence tells us extra information as well. We cannot find any personal pronouns in it: "Everything went black." (Földesi). It may be a statement, while the other part of the text is a process: how the heroine died into the water, what she felt while fighting for air. In the last sentence, in the conclusion her soul gave up the fight too.
Another miniature essay, the one of Tánczos Balázs, who titled his writing "Dream" resembles Földesi essay, because Tánczos wrote about a process too. He described a dream, and his conclusion, the last two sentences told us that he woke up: "Light breeze, twitter of birds, morning sunshine. I have escaped." (Tánczos).The atmosphere, the content of the text does not fit this ending. The distance between the text and the conclusion seems too wide for me, Because the dream Tánczos wrote about looks too dark, too frightening- he dreamt that he got lost in the space far away from the Earth. Then a fissure, a big jumping followed, and he wrote that he woke up. I did not feel coherent the relationship between the title and the conclusion as well. The waking as an event follows dreaming, and I could imagine them as a close unit, but not the way that Tánczos did. I found the essay itself perfect, just as the conclusion, but the two together did not fit together for me.
I found Billege Virág's essay, „Pécs by Night" a special one, and I found its specialty in the conclusion. The task (to write a 100-words-essay about a specific feeling), the essay, the conclusion create a special unity. The text tells us what Pécs looks like in the evening from a higher point, from a hill, or from somewhere else, we do not know exactly. The conclusion, the last two sentences, "When I admire the stars. I always wish I could fly. It could be a wonderful feeling." (Billege) enlighten us, that the sight of the city evokes feelings in the author. In this context the conclusion gets in closer connection with the text and the title.
The essay of Hajdú Anett, the "Shocking Rays" was one of the essays which I found models. In the text she wrote about a feeling, and the conclusion, "Amazement of the new and fear from the unfamiliar." (Hajdú) summarizes the feeling of meeting a ray. The cohesion and coherence with the other part of the text looks close and it really ends the story, it produces, completes a unit.
Bacskay Katalin wrote the last but one essay I would like to analyze, she titled it "Friday Night Rituals." The conclusion of this writing separates a little bit from the others, it begins with a question, which refers back to the whole text: "Why should they?" (Bacskay). This question summarizes the message of the former sentences in three words. This question drives the mind of the reader back to the beginning first, to think about the content. The following sentence, the last one has two roles, but these roles relate to each other. "There's nothing more thrilling than watching their favorite soap opera." (Bacskay), first closes the text with answering the question of the first part. On the other hand it makes the theme of the text final with the last word, "soap-opera," and cuts the line of the text.
The conclusion of the essay of Hatta Diána, "My favorite Object" is the last one I analyzed, but I liked this ending the best. I found it easy to quote as well: "It's a mug." (Hatta). This conclusion is really what it should be: it summarizes the story and finishes with the result of the stated description (Horváth- Nikolov- Turner). In this essay I found some similarities with Bacskay's essay. Both essays' conclusions give an answer or act as a result of the statement of the first part of the text. In the essay of Hatta we do not really know what her favorite object was, but we know how it looked like. And then in the conclusion, which is in close relation with the text (and the title) the author enlightens us, gives an answer: „It is a mug." (Hatta), I consider it a perfect ending.
My experiences showed me, that the task of ending a miniature essay is more difficult than to write a conclusion of a longer essay or a research paper. Authors have to reduce the conclusion of the hundred-word-essay to the smallest unit. In this small extension the author has a hard task to make the conclusion coherent and cohesive. In my research I also realized, that shorter conclusions of miniature essays are more profitable: one or a pair of words can express much more feelings or other contents than a chain of long sentences.
No comments:
Post a Comment