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.
Showing posts with label mini essays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mini essays. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
W 102 F
Introduction
Konkrete Sprache, certus oratius, concreto estilo, concret diction -- all of them have the same meaning: concrete language. Concrete language is an essential element of writing skills; it is supposed to be specific, adequate, entire and light but it is difficult to produce one in any language.
In a descriptive or analytic essay, the problem is more complicated, and the case is just getting more difficult when students have to write the essay in a foreign language. The phrases, expressions and sayings are learnt and not automatic as in their first language.
In this paper I will present a few features of concrete language in writing by giving a survey on this specific problem so that the reader will develop how to avoid it.
Method
I collected nine miniature essays because -- according to my previous experiences -- I found this task really expedient and crucial. I chose the essays randomly from students of Janus Pannonius University’s English Department, in April, 1998. All of the students attend the same course, called Writing and Research Skills, which supervised Horváth József whose aim was "to enable [students] to write in fluent, accurate, and plain English and [improve their] planning, sequencing, presenting, packaging and editing skills.”
Till the end of the semester students had to present a portfolio including a minimum of five essays from their collection. One of these essays had to be a miniature, expressing an emotion, feeling, state, thought or physical experience that is unforgettable or significant in their lives. Moreover, the writer had to prove and develop descriptive skills in an essay which contains a maximum of 100 words.
After the selection of the miniature collection I started analysing their concrete language, focusing on titles, the length of the essays, the first and last words, special meanings of each word (such as iconic, symbolic, cultural and hermeneutic æ according to Sári László’s analysis), poetical images, use of verbs and adjectives, personal voice and the description of the inside and outside world.
Results and Discussion
Giving name to a new-born child is not easy; title-giving is similar to this experience. A well-chosen title always predicts the topic to the reader: it has to be short and adequate in connection with the writing, carrying the overall image of itself. Many writer of the miniatures solved this problem by choosing titles which referred precisely to the experience or feeling. For example, Pintér Katalin’s "Feeling Dejected"; Fónai Annamária’s "A Terrible Fever"; Bokodi Judit’s "Fatigue"; Sándor Bernadett’s "The Feeling Of Sleepiness" and Dózsa Éva’s "Feeling Cold".
But the real challenge for the writers was to keep their say within certain boundaries, that is the extension had to stay 100 word. The reduction of the number of words made the whole text captious; this length seemed to be too short and nearly all of the writers overstepped this limit by using 157 words in Dózsa Éva's essay or 148 words in Pintér Katalin’s case. Probably one of the reasons was that the writers wrote an introduction and a conclusion instead of considering their chosen theme closely.
Observing the words which built up the miniatures, I think that reducing the number of words helps to pay more attention to the function of them. Looking at the essays I found an intriguing feature of drafts: the emphasis of the first and last word in the context. In most of the essays they are the alpha and the omega of the meanings. The best example for this is Bakonyi Berta’s essay that starts with the pronoun ‘I’ and ends with ‘ONE’, and these two words carry the meaning of the whole essay which is about being a part of nature.
To make an essay colourful and remarkable we can use the special meanings what words contain. All words are to signify something which can be a different representation, a so-called code.
In some texts when a sign refers to something as a constituent of the possible world, we call it iconic sign, although, at the same time it represents itself. The words trap, bridge, butterfly from Pintér Katalin’s, Vajda Violetta’s and Kaszás Henrietta’s essays give perfect examples. These words stand for not only for themselves, but they help to the reader to imagine them in iconic context.
But there are words which refer to something else than they denote. The connection between the signifier and the object determined by the conventions of cultures or subcultures around. There are a few examples: reminiscence, nothing or passion in Kaszás Henrietta’s miniature, where the sign itself occurs as a reference.
Going further in the explanation of the words we arrive at the cultural signs where symbolic signs are stated within prescribed rules and prohibitions of a culture, and this makes them more specific. For example Kárpáti Andrea’s essay which refers to a funeral and this word carries symbolic as well as cultural meaning.
Hermeneutic signs can include the iconic, symbolic and the cultural layers of representation. Somehow they transcend this world and enter into a mysterious and uncanny one. I chose a few examples from Kaszás Henrietta’s miniature, such as sense, time, soul. All of them represent something untouchable, they carry an enigma within their inner part, what you can approach by opening, understanding the hiding layers but the mystery will be still there at the end.
Going further on this field, I would like to direct attention to the poetical images in miniatures. Metaphors, similes, repetitions and rhyming words can refresh the whole text. Unfortunately, only one writer used this opportunity to make her essay more colourful and satisfactory (Kaszás Henrietta).
Use of specific verbs and many adjectives help to emphasise the expression of the experience; they make the texts more visual, audible and experimental, for example in Fónai Annamária’s essay: roam, collapse, drip, suffer, fall.
Writing an essay about one's feeling or experience must be private and confidential in a way. To achieve this target, the writer may use a personal voice aiming and maintaining the reader's intimate feeling and this would make the essay more realistic, experimental and believable.
From the aspect of the readers' reactions the writers often managed to make every moment special and omnipresent. The two-folded delineation of the inside and outside world's description in parallel happened in many mini essays. An outstanding example is Fónai Annamária’s in which she emphasised her physical experience with her environment's changing.
Conclusion
Making a research paper on concrete language did not seem to be an easy task but I tried to find some helping tips for everyone who might need it. I had the pleasure to select some miniatures and provide typical examples for various cases with the help of them.
I can only hope that I satisfied the expectations and the readers find a direct way to concrete language.
Konkrete Sprache, certus oratius, concreto estilo, concret diction -- all of them have the same meaning: concrete language. Concrete language is an essential element of writing skills; it is supposed to be specific, adequate, entire and light but it is difficult to produce one in any language.
In a descriptive or analytic essay, the problem is more complicated, and the case is just getting more difficult when students have to write the essay in a foreign language. The phrases, expressions and sayings are learnt and not automatic as in their first language.
In this paper I will present a few features of concrete language in writing by giving a survey on this specific problem so that the reader will develop how to avoid it.
Method
I collected nine miniature essays because -- according to my previous experiences -- I found this task really expedient and crucial. I chose the essays randomly from students of Janus Pannonius University’s English Department, in April, 1998. All of the students attend the same course, called Writing and Research Skills, which supervised Horváth József whose aim was "to enable [students] to write in fluent, accurate, and plain English and [improve their] planning, sequencing, presenting, packaging and editing skills.”
Till the end of the semester students had to present a portfolio including a minimum of five essays from their collection. One of these essays had to be a miniature, expressing an emotion, feeling, state, thought or physical experience that is unforgettable or significant in their lives. Moreover, the writer had to prove and develop descriptive skills in an essay which contains a maximum of 100 words.
After the selection of the miniature collection I started analysing their concrete language, focusing on titles, the length of the essays, the first and last words, special meanings of each word (such as iconic, symbolic, cultural and hermeneutic æ according to Sári László’s analysis), poetical images, use of verbs and adjectives, personal voice and the description of the inside and outside world.
Results and Discussion
Giving name to a new-born child is not easy; title-giving is similar to this experience. A well-chosen title always predicts the topic to the reader: it has to be short and adequate in connection with the writing, carrying the overall image of itself. Many writer of the miniatures solved this problem by choosing titles which referred precisely to the experience or feeling. For example, Pintér Katalin’s "Feeling Dejected"; Fónai Annamária’s "A Terrible Fever"; Bokodi Judit’s "Fatigue"; Sándor Bernadett’s "The Feeling Of Sleepiness" and Dózsa Éva’s "Feeling Cold".
But the real challenge for the writers was to keep their say within certain boundaries, that is the extension had to stay 100 word. The reduction of the number of words made the whole text captious; this length seemed to be too short and nearly all of the writers overstepped this limit by using 157 words in Dózsa Éva's essay or 148 words in Pintér Katalin’s case. Probably one of the reasons was that the writers wrote an introduction and a conclusion instead of considering their chosen theme closely.
Observing the words which built up the miniatures, I think that reducing the number of words helps to pay more attention to the function of them. Looking at the essays I found an intriguing feature of drafts: the emphasis of the first and last word in the context. In most of the essays they are the alpha and the omega of the meanings. The best example for this is Bakonyi Berta’s essay that starts with the pronoun ‘I’ and ends with ‘ONE’, and these two words carry the meaning of the whole essay which is about being a part of nature.
To make an essay colourful and remarkable we can use the special meanings what words contain. All words are to signify something which can be a different representation, a so-called code.
In some texts when a sign refers to something as a constituent of the possible world, we call it iconic sign, although, at the same time it represents itself. The words trap, bridge, butterfly from Pintér Katalin’s, Vajda Violetta’s and Kaszás Henrietta’s essays give perfect examples. These words stand for not only for themselves, but they help to the reader to imagine them in iconic context.
But there are words which refer to something else than they denote. The connection between the signifier and the object determined by the conventions of cultures or subcultures around. There are a few examples: reminiscence, nothing or passion in Kaszás Henrietta’s miniature, where the sign itself occurs as a reference.
Going further in the explanation of the words we arrive at the cultural signs where symbolic signs are stated within prescribed rules and prohibitions of a culture, and this makes them more specific. For example Kárpáti Andrea’s essay which refers to a funeral and this word carries symbolic as well as cultural meaning.
Hermeneutic signs can include the iconic, symbolic and the cultural layers of representation. Somehow they transcend this world and enter into a mysterious and uncanny one. I chose a few examples from Kaszás Henrietta’s miniature, such as sense, time, soul. All of them represent something untouchable, they carry an enigma within their inner part, what you can approach by opening, understanding the hiding layers but the mystery will be still there at the end.
Going further on this field, I would like to direct attention to the poetical images in miniatures. Metaphors, similes, repetitions and rhyming words can refresh the whole text. Unfortunately, only one writer used this opportunity to make her essay more colourful and satisfactory (Kaszás Henrietta).
Use of specific verbs and many adjectives help to emphasise the expression of the experience; they make the texts more visual, audible and experimental, for example in Fónai Annamária’s essay: roam, collapse, drip, suffer, fall.
Writing an essay about one's feeling or experience must be private and confidential in a way. To achieve this target, the writer may use a personal voice aiming and maintaining the reader's intimate feeling and this would make the essay more realistic, experimental and believable.
From the aspect of the readers' reactions the writers often managed to make every moment special and omnipresent. The two-folded delineation of the inside and outside world's description in parallel happened in many mini essays. An outstanding example is Fónai Annamária’s in which she emphasised her physical experience with her environment's changing.
Conclusion
Making a research paper on concrete language did not seem to be an easy task but I tried to find some helping tips for everyone who might need it. I had the pleasure to select some miniatures and provide typical examples for various cases with the help of them.
I can only hope that I satisfied the expectations and the readers find a direct way to concrete language.
W 027 F
Introduction
The English department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU) announces and starts the Writing and Research Skills courses every semester to its students. These courses help them learn how to write essays for the classes they attend. The courses go on under the tutorial guidance of Horváth József.
For improving their writing skills, the students have to keep a portfolio, which is a collection of essays that students write throughout the semester, that includes both given and free choice topics. This semester Horváth named the miniature essay as one of the six topics of the given category.
By analysing the miniature essays of my survey’s participants I intended to gather information about the main characteristics that made the task so special.
Method
I analysed nine miniature essays. To complete this task I had asked five students -- Bacskay Katalin, Billege Virág, Hajdú Anett, Hatta Diána and Kamahari Yuki-- to share their miniature essays with me. They attended the Writing and Research Skills course under the code of ANG 1601 in the spring semester of 1998. At my request the tutor gave me one more essay whose author was Kárpáti Ildikó. Altogether, six students shared their scripts with me, of which four belonged to the same student, Bacskay Katalin. I focused on her Friday Night Rituals essays because in two of them the tutor appeared as editor and co-author, and I wanted to see if the co-operation changed the essays radically or not. Except for Kamahari all of the participants were attending JPU. Kamahari came from Japan as a guest student.
Writing the miniature essays students had to meet the requirements of the tutor who had asked them to describe a concrete sensual experience in a maximum of 100 words.
Students gave the following titles to their essays:
Bacskay Katalin: Total Rest (later referred to as Bacskay 1)
Bacskay Katalin: Friday Night Rituals - original version (later referred to as Bacskay 2a)
- edited version by Horváth József (later referred to as Bacskay 2b) - co-authored version with Horváth József (later referred to as Bacskay 2c)
Billege Virág: Pécs by Night
Hajdú Anett: Shocking Rays
Hatta Diána: My Favourite Object
Kamahari Yuki: Lovely Hungarian Breads
Kárpáti Ildikó: Spanish Scents
Analysing these scripts I looked into eight main features:
the sensual experience described
title-content relationship
the number of words
the number of sentences
the number of paragraphs
the number of passive forms
first word
last word
Results and discussion
To get a clear picture of the main features examined, I tabulated the data collected in Table 1.
Table 1 of the qualitative and the quantitative features examined
1 I couldn’t decide whether the essays described a sensual experience or not because the experience described in the essays did not belong to any of the five senses.
2 I counted the words including the titles.
Sensual experience described - the title-content relationship
A few times, just by reading the titles, I could guess what sensation the author would describe. Billege described the glitter of nightly Pécs. Hajdú described the feeling of touching rays. Kamahari told us about eating Hungarian bread. Kárpáti let us experience the smells of Spain. But in Bacskay’s essays I couldn’t guess what the essays would describe. In these cases I was also in trouble to define the nature of the sensation. In Hatta’s essay the title told me about the content, but it was rather a description of an object.
Length of essays
Although the tutor asked the students not to surpass the 100 word-limit, two of them did so: Billege by one and Hajdú by two words. The word number of the other four students’ essays varied between 93 and 100.
Students covered the topic in five to nine sentences. Eight appeared as the most frequent number of sentences.
Paragraphs
All of the participants intended the beginning of the paragraphs. Kárpáti and Billege did not divide their essays into more paragraphs, but the others did. Bacskay, Hatta and Kamahari paragraphed their essays into introduction, discussion and conclusion.
Passive form
They verbs push the sentence forward and give it a momentum. Active verbs push hard passive verbs tug fitfully. Most verbs also carry somewhere in their imagery or in their sound a suggestion of what they mean (Zinsser 111). Reading the participants’ essays I wanted to know how they had applied Zinsser’s tip-- avoiding the passive form. I found that all but two students took the advice. In writing about a sensual experience the active verbs made the images more vivid.
The first and last words of the essays
The first and last words of an essay are significant because they contribute the basic mood to the script. Bacskay’s and Kamahari’s first word was I. It personalised the essay and showed that the authors talked about a real experience. Kárpáti chose what, Billege the and Hatta this as for first words. These beginnings seemed more general, and they weakened the essays. Bacskay’s 2a began with the word finally which the tutor changed to when in 2b. But finally it remained finally in 2c. This word carried more tension than the word when. The word finally contained the state of excitement and waiting Bacskay wanted to express. Hajdú’s touching was also a strong beginning as it is one of the five senses itself.
Many participants closed their essays with key words, such as feeling (Billege), taste (Kamahari), soap-opera (Bacskay 2a, 2b and 2c) and rest (Bacskay 1). Hatta’s last word, mug, solved the mystery of the essay because the author played a guessing game by not revealing it till the end.
Conclusion
When I started the research I expected that the miniature essay had meant a special task to the students. The task proved to be special in that they had to describe a sensual experience in the most concrete way they could. This helped them to practise concrete language, and it also aimed to encourage them to use more active verbs that could push harder (Zinsser 111). Writing the mini essays also taught them to economise on words and to avoid clutter. But the task did not prove to be special in the way that they had to apply all the tips and rules they had had learned. The main idea in writing essays in small size was to give an overview to students of their writings. Analysing the essays I learnt about other students’ writing styles and their vocabularies, and profited from the strengths and weaknesses discovered in the essays.
The English department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU) announces and starts the Writing and Research Skills courses every semester to its students. These courses help them learn how to write essays for the classes they attend. The courses go on under the tutorial guidance of Horváth József.
For improving their writing skills, the students have to keep a portfolio, which is a collection of essays that students write throughout the semester, that includes both given and free choice topics. This semester Horváth named the miniature essay as one of the six topics of the given category.
By analysing the miniature essays of my survey’s participants I intended to gather information about the main characteristics that made the task so special.
Method
I analysed nine miniature essays. To complete this task I had asked five students -- Bacskay Katalin, Billege Virág, Hajdú Anett, Hatta Diána and Kamahari Yuki-- to share their miniature essays with me. They attended the Writing and Research Skills course under the code of ANG 1601 in the spring semester of 1998. At my request the tutor gave me one more essay whose author was Kárpáti Ildikó. Altogether, six students shared their scripts with me, of which four belonged to the same student, Bacskay Katalin. I focused on her Friday Night Rituals essays because in two of them the tutor appeared as editor and co-author, and I wanted to see if the co-operation changed the essays radically or not. Except for Kamahari all of the participants were attending JPU. Kamahari came from Japan as a guest student.
Writing the miniature essays students had to meet the requirements of the tutor who had asked them to describe a concrete sensual experience in a maximum of 100 words.
Students gave the following titles to their essays:
Bacskay Katalin: Total Rest (later referred to as Bacskay 1)
Bacskay Katalin: Friday Night Rituals - original version (later referred to as Bacskay 2a)
- edited version by Horváth József (later referred to as Bacskay 2b) - co-authored version with Horváth József (later referred to as Bacskay 2c)
Billege Virág: Pécs by Night
Hajdú Anett: Shocking Rays
Hatta Diána: My Favourite Object
Kamahari Yuki: Lovely Hungarian Breads
Kárpáti Ildikó: Spanish Scents
Analysing these scripts I looked into eight main features:
the sensual experience described
title-content relationship
the number of words
the number of sentences
the number of paragraphs
the number of passive forms
first word
last word
Results and discussion
To get a clear picture of the main features examined, I tabulated the data collected in Table 1.
Table 1 of the qualitative and the quantitative features examined
1 I couldn’t decide whether the essays described a sensual experience or not because the experience described in the essays did not belong to any of the five senses.
2 I counted the words including the titles.
Sensual experience described - the title-content relationship
A few times, just by reading the titles, I could guess what sensation the author would describe. Billege described the glitter of nightly Pécs. Hajdú described the feeling of touching rays. Kamahari told us about eating Hungarian bread. Kárpáti let us experience the smells of Spain. But in Bacskay’s essays I couldn’t guess what the essays would describe. In these cases I was also in trouble to define the nature of the sensation. In Hatta’s essay the title told me about the content, but it was rather a description of an object.
Length of essays
Although the tutor asked the students not to surpass the 100 word-limit, two of them did so: Billege by one and Hajdú by two words. The word number of the other four students’ essays varied between 93 and 100.
Students covered the topic in five to nine sentences. Eight appeared as the most frequent number of sentences.
Paragraphs
All of the participants intended the beginning of the paragraphs. Kárpáti and Billege did not divide their essays into more paragraphs, but the others did. Bacskay, Hatta and Kamahari paragraphed their essays into introduction, discussion and conclusion.
Passive form
They verbs push the sentence forward and give it a momentum. Active verbs push hard passive verbs tug fitfully. Most verbs also carry somewhere in their imagery or in their sound a suggestion of what they mean (Zinsser 111). Reading the participants’ essays I wanted to know how they had applied Zinsser’s tip-- avoiding the passive form. I found that all but two students took the advice. In writing about a sensual experience the active verbs made the images more vivid.
The first and last words of the essays
The first and last words of an essay are significant because they contribute the basic mood to the script. Bacskay’s and Kamahari’s first word was I. It personalised the essay and showed that the authors talked about a real experience. Kárpáti chose what, Billege the and Hatta this as for first words. These beginnings seemed more general, and they weakened the essays. Bacskay’s 2a began with the word finally which the tutor changed to when in 2b. But finally it remained finally in 2c. This word carried more tension than the word when. The word finally contained the state of excitement and waiting Bacskay wanted to express. Hajdú’s touching was also a strong beginning as it is one of the five senses itself.
Many participants closed their essays with key words, such as feeling (Billege), taste (Kamahari), soap-opera (Bacskay 2a, 2b and 2c) and rest (Bacskay 1). Hatta’s last word, mug, solved the mystery of the essay because the author played a guessing game by not revealing it till the end.
Conclusion
When I started the research I expected that the miniature essay had meant a special task to the students. The task proved to be special in that they had to describe a sensual experience in the most concrete way they could. This helped them to practise concrete language, and it also aimed to encourage them to use more active verbs that could push harder (Zinsser 111). Writing the mini essays also taught them to economise on words and to avoid clutter. But the task did not prove to be special in the way that they had to apply all the tips and rules they had had learned. The main idea in writing essays in small size was to give an overview to students of their writings. Analysing the essays I learnt about other students’ writing styles and their vocabularies, and profited from the strengths and weaknesses discovered in the essays.
W 012 F
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.
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.
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