Introduction
The McGraw-Hill College Handbook says that "your opening paragraph should announce a general topic of your essay and be interesting enough to make people want to read on" (Marius and Wiener 117). An introductory paragraph usually announces the writer's subject, and orients the reader to what will follow. It creates an initial expression and indicates whether the main body of the text will be engaging or dull. But if writers really want to arouse the readers' interest, they may begin the essay surprisingly. They can start with a quotation, a question, with a list of words or even with a number.
In my research paper I will present examples of individual differences in writing introductions and differences in keeping alive readers' interest in the rest of the text.
Method
For the comparison I chose four essays from 75 Readings: An Anthology. The book is "strategically designed to introduce students to a broad variety of both traditional and contemporary essays" (xv). The collection includes two tables of contents, from which the second one arranges writings according to thematical reasons. The first table of content groups the 75 essays in ten chapters.
The four essays I selected are William Zinsser "The Transaction", Richard Howey "How to Write a Rotten Poem with Almost No Effort", Bruno Bettelheim "The Holocaust" and Susan Sontag "Beauty". They belong to the last group in the thematic contents which is titled "On Language and the Writing Process". Two works focus on language ("The Holocaust" and "Beauty"), and two on the process of writing ("The Transaction" and "How to Write a Rotten Poem..."). The essays of Sontag and Bettelheim can be found in the same chapter in the first table of contents (Chapter 4), while Howey's belongs to Chapter 3 and Zinsser's to Chapter 1.
As a supplementary reading I used the book How Writing Works by Francis A. Hubbard. His work allowed me to examine the principles along which an essay is built up. The author analyzes the accepted structure of a work, and how it can help both the reader and the writer to depart from it. He claims that "structure must be adapted to the needs of the audience" (Hubbard 52). It guides readers by giving them a shape, a plan in mind so that they could easily follow the text. It tells them what comes next and where they are (Hubbard 49).
Results and Discussion
Is it really important to write an appropriate introduction? This question came to my mind when I read the essays I selected.
According to Hubbard, a writer should look at structure "as a container to fill. A regular format saves time and effort because many decisions don't have to be remade" (125). Structure gives better coherence and easier access to the ideas and examples of the writer. Most of them consider it a necessary requirement as clear structure benefits readers (127).
But sticking to a settled structure (introduction-body-conclusion) tenaciously can make an essay dull. Sometimes flexibility is required.
The first two essays I compared (Zinsser "The Transaction" and Howey "How to Write a Rotten Poem...") concentrate on giving a definition of the writing process. Although they have the same theme and topic, they differ in many aspects.
Zinsser's essay shows us the differences two writers experience when one writes as a hobby and finds it enjoyable, the other writes as a job and finds it difficult. His essay is a narrative one. It shows the features more of a literary work than that of an essay. As an introduction (the first two paragraphs) he places the event in time, describes the circumstances, and the other character. He uses this method to give orientation to readers ("Five or six years ago a school in Connecticut..."). The body of the text makes the most of the contradiction between the two writers: one who writes as vocation, the other who does it as a hobby.
Howey's essay describes the easiest way anyone can create a poem to take part in literary work. In his essay I noticed that he did not stick to the traditional form of the opening paragraph. Rather, his introduction arouses interest by surprising or even astonishing readers: "So you want to write a poem. You've had a rotten day or an astounding thought...". He uses an informal style, words ("rotten, squalid love affair"), he talks to his reader as if it were a conversation. This style serves as a basis of changing into speaking ironically (almost sarcastically) of the way anybody can "write a rotten poem with almost no effort". The body of the text and the conclusion remain in the ironic tone. The sarcastic humor of the writing and the astonishing start help readers to decide: this work is worth reading on.
The essays written by Bettelheim ("The Holocaust") and Susan Sontag ("Beauty") deal with language. Both aim to define a concept: Bettelheim by focusing on it linguistically, Sontag philosophically and esthetically.
The first impression both writings give when the reader takes a look at them is that they consist of long paragraphs: between five and twenty lines each.
Partly in the same way as Howey, Bettelheim does not either apply the usual introductory paragraph. His prompting is direct: it gave me the impression of an in medias res start. Although the first three words say "To begin with", he immediately sets about explaining the origin of the word "holocaust".
The first paragraph (17 lines) sets the tone of the whole writing. As he is involved in the topic emotionally in spite of the essay's scientific and polished style, the reader can still feel and be aware of his indignation ("terrible events, powerful revulsion, unmasterable fate"). Another feature of his is the usage of long words ("connotations, circumlocution, intellectual, uniqueness").
Susan Sontag begins her essay by defining the features of beauty-what it meant for the Greeks, and how it has changed by the 20th century. I treated the first two paragraphs (17 lines) as the introduction. It gives a general view of beauty by helping readers associate it with a specific era. The opening paragraphs establish transition to the body of the text where Sontag writes about beauty from a concrete point of view: connecting this feature only to females, limiting its meaning only to the outside. She expresses her ideas point for point, starting from a general statement: "For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue", and arriving at a detailed description of the concept-what it means today for women.
Conclusion
I presented the different ways different writers fill the container given by a structure or the way they deviate from it. The four essays I used for my purpose showed me four different solutions of writing an introduction, of arousing readers' interest and keeping it alive for the rest of the text.
Readers differ in their purposes of reading as well as in their methods. We read differently. Writing for different people is hard work, as a writer cannot take into consideration every single desire. Tastes differ. One reader loves this essay, but cannot read the other. Hubbard claims that some kind of writing will work for almost anyone, if one can find out what it is (53). He also says that there are no certainties in writing , no guarantees, and no perfect or universal strategies (53).
Comparing four introductions from four so different people is also hard work. As Zinsser puts it in his essay: "There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps somebody to say what he wants to say is the right method for him (24).
All the four writers used the structure (introduction-body-conclusion), some of them in the usual way (Sontag and Zinsser) and some of them making it more flexible (Bettelheim and Howey) adapting it to their purpose.
Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
W 077 F
Introduction
Writing an introduction is a rather challenging task. In the University of Pécs there are no courses which teach us students how to edit the introduction, though it is of crucial importance. If a work bores you in the beginning, what can you expect from the continuation? The key is in the introduction. Umberto Eco has written a great many essays, and his writings are worth reading because of their thought-provoking ideas and questions. In my research paper I will make an attempt to find the answer for the question: What is the relationship between Eco's introductions and the main parts where he expresses his thoughts? How are introductions and the whole related to each other?
Method
I selected five chapters from Umberto Eco's book How to Travel With A Salmon And Other Essays. The titles of the essays are ”How to Eat Ice Cream”, ”How to Buy Gadgets”, ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone”, ”How to Write an Introduction”, and ”How to Speak of Animals”. The method of selection was that I read one essay, and chose every fifth following the first. In my comparison analysis I will compare the selected introductions in accordance with their style, usage of words and structures.
Results and Discussion
On reading Umberto Eco's introductions it strucked me that all of them were written in various ways. The essays addressed different audience. For example, ”How to Eat Ice Cream” started as if it was written for children: "When I was little, children were bought two kinds of ice cream, sold from those white wagons with canopies made of silvery metal" (95). ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone” reminded me of the outset of a general instruction. ”How to Write an Introduction” deceived me at first by its fake scientific and explanatory language: "The purpose of this article is to explain how you put together the introduction to a book of essays, a philosophical treatise, or a collection of scientific articles, to be published by a university press..." (172). The beginning of the essay ”How to Speak of Animals” seemed a sensation-mongering article for a tabloid. "Central Park. The Zoo. Some kids are playing near the polar bear tank. One dare the others to dive into the tank and swim alongside the bears... they tease him, he becomes annoyed, extends a paw, and eats, or rather chomps on, two kids, leaving some bits lying around" (197).
On seeing the differences I read some more introductions choosing them at random, but I valued the same thing. But despite the great range of approaches I could find two common things in the introductions. First, it is impossible to come to any conclusions from the introductions regarding the plot or the content of the essays. Eco deviates totally from the topic he starts with. Second, he begins his essays as if he intends to tell us a story. The introductions of his writings are like tales. I start to read them, and by the end of the introductions I wait for the continuation of the stories, but I realise that Eco led me away from the expected instalments.
I observed other significant factors as well in Umberto Eco's style. The words, especially the adjectives, and adverbs are sarcastic. He describes events, and people, while he is laughing at them, and reveals human beings' weaknesses and ridiculous endeavours. For example, from ”How to Eat Ice Cream”: "Granny always suggested I eat only a part of the cone, then throw away the pointed end, because it had been touched by the vendor's hand..." (95). Or another from How to Speak of Animals: "...a big male bear... chomps on, two kids, leaving some bits lying around. The police come quickly... there is some argument about whether or not the bear has to be killed. Some sensational articles appear in the press. It so happens that the boys have Hispanic names: Puerto Ricans, perhaps black, perhaps newcomers to the city..." (197).
I have another observation concerning the words and expressions of Eco. Whenever he recites a story, he applies a great many rarely used and unusual words. Some of them can be found only in monolingual dictionaries. Men in the streets do not use such expressions. This statement refers overwhelmingly to adverbs and adjectives, e.g. while Eco says 'analogous', we say similar or 'numerous' instead of many, 'drowsy' instead of sleepy, just to cite the most striking ones. He has an elegant style, chooses the words carefully. By writing an introduction in such polished style he gives the impression for the readers that they read a scientific work, constructed of a high standard.
The usage of structures, verb forms, phrases also tells much about the writer's style. Umberto Eco prefers sentences with simple structures. He does not complicate his introductions with convoluted grammatical solutions, which would be difficult to comprehend for an inexperienced reader: he rarely uses passive constructions, active verbs dominate in the introductions. I also perceived that Eco applied simple tenses for the most part. He preferred the Simple Present Tense above all, though he used Simple Past Tense as well in some places. As far as I could state he avoided the usage of 'have' forms. Thanks to the planned and designed style, Eco's writings are clearly understandable. A plain and clear introduction makes the readers go on reading, excites the curiosity of them. The key always lurks in the introduction. Many times it is only the question of the introduction whether the essay or novel will be read or not.
Why does he write so many kinds of introductions? The fact proves his many-coloured personality. Despite I did not always understand all of his words I was interested in the further reading.
Conclusion
In my research paper I tried to demonstrate the various ways how Eco was able to address his readers. He could present us always something new. I have to admit that first I had a totally different question from my present one: What is the relationship between Eco's introductions and the main parts where he expresses his thoughts? But as I read the outsets, they excited my curiosity, and now I will try to give the answer.
Three times in ”How to Eat Ice Cream”, ”How to Buy Gadgets”, and ”How to Speak of Animals”, Eco started the introductions as if he wanted to relate a short story. Two times in ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone”, and ”How to Write an Introduction”, Eco gave the impression of a scientific writer. It is quite deceiving, because it turns out in the end of his essays that he made fun of conventions by the fake scientific and hypocrite writing. He draws startling conclusions. For example, it is worth reading how he set on from eating a two-cent cone ice cream and arrived at the point of mocking people, and making fun of their egoism and snobbishness. Eco's introductions arouse the readers' curiosity, and he manages to persuade people for further reading.
Writing an introduction is a rather challenging task. In the University of Pécs there are no courses which teach us students how to edit the introduction, though it is of crucial importance. If a work bores you in the beginning, what can you expect from the continuation? The key is in the introduction. Umberto Eco has written a great many essays, and his writings are worth reading because of their thought-provoking ideas and questions. In my research paper I will make an attempt to find the answer for the question: What is the relationship between Eco's introductions and the main parts where he expresses his thoughts? How are introductions and the whole related to each other?
Method
I selected five chapters from Umberto Eco's book How to Travel With A Salmon And Other Essays. The titles of the essays are ”How to Eat Ice Cream”, ”How to Buy Gadgets”, ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone”, ”How to Write an Introduction”, and ”How to Speak of Animals”. The method of selection was that I read one essay, and chose every fifth following the first. In my comparison analysis I will compare the selected introductions in accordance with their style, usage of words and structures.
Results and Discussion
On reading Umberto Eco's introductions it strucked me that all of them were written in various ways. The essays addressed different audience. For example, ”How to Eat Ice Cream” started as if it was written for children: "When I was little, children were bought two kinds of ice cream, sold from those white wagons with canopies made of silvery metal" (95). ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone” reminded me of the outset of a general instruction. ”How to Write an Introduction” deceived me at first by its fake scientific and explanatory language: "The purpose of this article is to explain how you put together the introduction to a book of essays, a philosophical treatise, or a collection of scientific articles, to be published by a university press..." (172). The beginning of the essay ”How to Speak of Animals” seemed a sensation-mongering article for a tabloid. "Central Park. The Zoo. Some kids are playing near the polar bear tank. One dare the others to dive into the tank and swim alongside the bears... they tease him, he becomes annoyed, extends a paw, and eats, or rather chomps on, two kids, leaving some bits lying around" (197).
On seeing the differences I read some more introductions choosing them at random, but I valued the same thing. But despite the great range of approaches I could find two common things in the introductions. First, it is impossible to come to any conclusions from the introductions regarding the plot or the content of the essays. Eco deviates totally from the topic he starts with. Second, he begins his essays as if he intends to tell us a story. The introductions of his writings are like tales. I start to read them, and by the end of the introductions I wait for the continuation of the stories, but I realise that Eco led me away from the expected instalments.
I observed other significant factors as well in Umberto Eco's style. The words, especially the adjectives, and adverbs are sarcastic. He describes events, and people, while he is laughing at them, and reveals human beings' weaknesses and ridiculous endeavours. For example, from ”How to Eat Ice Cream”: "Granny always suggested I eat only a part of the cone, then throw away the pointed end, because it had been touched by the vendor's hand..." (95). Or another from How to Speak of Animals: "...a big male bear... chomps on, two kids, leaving some bits lying around. The police come quickly... there is some argument about whether or not the bear has to be killed. Some sensational articles appear in the press. It so happens that the boys have Hispanic names: Puerto Ricans, perhaps black, perhaps newcomers to the city..." (197).
I have another observation concerning the words and expressions of Eco. Whenever he recites a story, he applies a great many rarely used and unusual words. Some of them can be found only in monolingual dictionaries. Men in the streets do not use such expressions. This statement refers overwhelmingly to adverbs and adjectives, e.g. while Eco says 'analogous', we say similar or 'numerous' instead of many, 'drowsy' instead of sleepy, just to cite the most striking ones. He has an elegant style, chooses the words carefully. By writing an introduction in such polished style he gives the impression for the readers that they read a scientific work, constructed of a high standard.
The usage of structures, verb forms, phrases also tells much about the writer's style. Umberto Eco prefers sentences with simple structures. He does not complicate his introductions with convoluted grammatical solutions, which would be difficult to comprehend for an inexperienced reader: he rarely uses passive constructions, active verbs dominate in the introductions. I also perceived that Eco applied simple tenses for the most part. He preferred the Simple Present Tense above all, though he used Simple Past Tense as well in some places. As far as I could state he avoided the usage of 'have' forms. Thanks to the planned and designed style, Eco's writings are clearly understandable. A plain and clear introduction makes the readers go on reading, excites the curiosity of them. The key always lurks in the introduction. Many times it is only the question of the introduction whether the essay or novel will be read or not.
Why does he write so many kinds of introductions? The fact proves his many-coloured personality. Despite I did not always understand all of his words I was interested in the further reading.
Conclusion
In my research paper I tried to demonstrate the various ways how Eco was able to address his readers. He could present us always something new. I have to admit that first I had a totally different question from my present one: What is the relationship between Eco's introductions and the main parts where he expresses his thoughts? But as I read the outsets, they excited my curiosity, and now I will try to give the answer.
Three times in ”How to Eat Ice Cream”, ”How to Buy Gadgets”, and ”How to Speak of Animals”, Eco started the introductions as if he wanted to relate a short story. Two times in ”How Not to Use the Cellular Phone”, and ”How to Write an Introduction”, Eco gave the impression of a scientific writer. It is quite deceiving, because it turns out in the end of his essays that he made fun of conventions by the fake scientific and hypocrite writing. He draws startling conclusions. For example, it is worth reading how he set on from eating a two-cent cone ice cream and arrived at the point of mocking people, and making fun of their egoism and snobbishness. Eco's introductions arouse the readers' curiosity, and he manages to persuade people for further reading.
W 063 F
Introduction
The introductory paragraph is a crucial part of a formal essay. It should provide an insight to the subject of the paper, and the writer`s aim should be to make the reader feel involved in the topic. There are several methods that might be employed in order to catch the reader`s attention immediately. The kind of introduction chosen by the writers varies according to several factors, one of which might be the circumstances in which the essay is written, as in take-home and in-class essays, or essays written at exams. This paper will examine the writers` choice of introductory techniques in the last situation, through discussing the beginnings of eleven essays of the 1996 proficiency test.
Method
During the process of analysing the way students started their proficiency test essays (PTEs) and markers commented on them, I selected a good deal of material. Apart from the essays, I used some supplementary material in connection with them and the exam itself. I also used related literature: I turned to books on essay writing in order to find out what types of introductions are possible and suggested by experts. Therefore, I got a basis for classifying the students` essays.
The main subject matter of the whole research, the PTEs, was written by first-year English majors at JPU at the end of the second semester of the 1995-96 university year, as one of the four subtests of their filter test. In the writing part, candidates were presented with a choice of topics, and their work was evaluated by two cross-markers. The markers awarded marks on five evaluation categories: focus, accuracy, vocabulary, paragraph organisation and essay organisation. Two of these categories were relevant to my chosen topic. In terms of focus, the essay should define a specific idea in the first paragraph, and in terms of essay organisation, the paper should depart and arrive (Horváth 96:95). Having decided to work on these PTEs, I asked my tutor for a number of them, and I was given eleven randomly chosen essays to read. The second material I got from him was the cover sheet of the test package of the grammar, reading and writing components tasks. Therefore, I got to know how much time was recommended on these subcomponents and some other information in connection with the circumstances of the filter test – this information might be useful when working on essays written in such a situation. The third material given to me was the collection of cross-markers` comments on the PTEs, divided into three groups: those addressed to the other marker, those addressed to the author, and those without an addressee (Cross-markers` 96). I considered more significant the remarks I found in the actual essay sheets I read, but I also used this extra material, partly because some comments were not legible, and partly in order to get an overall picture of the comments.
On the basis of these sources I tried to set up a division of methods into various categories (which, of course, might overlap each other). I used the system of methods I found in the related literature. After thoroughly reading the PTEs I assigned them to these categories. This might be considered as an arbitrary act, which is natural, since standard categories cannot be set up, and this kind of classification cannot be authoritative. Moreover, one essay might belong to more than one category, as they do not exclude each other. My research represents only one approach to the subject. Next, I examined how the introductory paragraphs were carried out and how the markers commented on them; and I also made a guess whether the authors` choice of introductory technique was reflected in the scores or not.
Results and Discussion
One type of introduction is the general overview of the subject to be discussed in the main body of the essay. I found only one PTE belonging entirely to this category: its topic was arguing with a lover, and the introduction described people having different points of view in general (though this might be interpreted as an indirect way of defining). Besides, the first sentence of most of the other beginnings was providing general information on the topic, and it was followed by introductory thoughts from other categories.
The second type is the short review of the historical or cultural context, which occurred only in one case. Writing about listening to a teacher, the author explored the "long-established traditions" in "the interactions between students and teachers" (Raise 96:1) from ancient times. Regarding focus, this introduction did not appeal to the markers, since history of education was not relevant to the topic.
The next category is that of giving the definition of the basic concept of the essay. Most of the students used this device – they defined the clue word of their topic, for example e-mailing: "absolutely new, computerized way of correspondence" (Explain how to e-mail 96:1). One of the writers made the act of defining explicit: "First of all let`s clear the definition of arguing" (Analyze 96:1). The picture of an unhappy face on the margin indicated that the marker disapproved of this too direct form, since "the overt announcement of what is to be done, is often boring...Papers may be constructed by delineating parts, but they should show and not tell" (Hall 88:68).
A formal essay might begin with classification, as two of the examined PTEs did. One of them arranged communication methods in classes of writing letters, using body language, talking and phoning. The other one made a distinction between e-mailing from a long distance and e-mailing between friends living close to each other.
An effective technique of introducing an essay is the in medias res beginning. The only PTE that I found beginning this way declared: "It is almost summer. I`m sitting in this classroom knowing not how to make my lover understand. The weather is hot, the girls are nice around me..." (Explain how to argue 96:1). The marker`s remark might refer to this beginning: "Takes essay in jest and than flunks it" (Cross-markers` 96).
It is advisable to make a thesis statement in the concluding sentence of the introduction. It should briefly point out the main idea of the essay. A good thesis statement "states the purpose or direction of the paper in precise words, and, if possible, it indicates something about the writer`s attitude towards the subject" (Rackham & Bertagnolly 88:264). Only five PTEs included clearly identifiable thesis statements. One work expressed the attitude and purpose, which, unfortunately, were not sufficiently defined, since it consisted only of one confused sentence. Moreover, the writer lost direction in the rest of the essay despite stating it at the beginning, which the marker also noted.
Although the writers used various introductory techniques, starting with definitions proved to be the most popular, in addition to the general overview of the subject. This result might be due to the limited length of time that could be devoted to writing and to the fact that they could not use any material to search for extra information. If they had chosen the review of a cultural or historical background, they might have needed more knowledge than what they had in their heads, since they were not necessarily experts in the given topics. Thesis statements were missing in several cases, which did not appeal to the markers. Thesis statements would have been essential for the readers to understand the point, and also for the writers: they would normally urge the authors to organise their ideas in the body of the text according to what was stated at the beginning. The appropriateness of the introduction should be reflected in the focus and essay organisation components of the grading scheme, but one can get good marks only if it were in accordance with the rest of the essay. The type of introduction did not affect the markers` evaluation, but a good choice carried out properly might contribute to receiving a better remark.
Conclusion
In the research I found that the writers of these eleven PTEs had various approaches to opening their essays in order to achieve their aim of drawing the attention of their audience, so they made use of several kinds of introductory techniques. Still, they favoured certain types, at least in the circumstances my research focused on. Among other factors which might affect their choice in other situations as well, their preference given to certain methods might be the result of factors which are independent of the author and occur because of the exam situation.
The introductory paragraph is a crucial part of a formal essay. It should provide an insight to the subject of the paper, and the writer`s aim should be to make the reader feel involved in the topic. There are several methods that might be employed in order to catch the reader`s attention immediately. The kind of introduction chosen by the writers varies according to several factors, one of which might be the circumstances in which the essay is written, as in take-home and in-class essays, or essays written at exams. This paper will examine the writers` choice of introductory techniques in the last situation, through discussing the beginnings of eleven essays of the 1996 proficiency test.
Method
During the process of analysing the way students started their proficiency test essays (PTEs) and markers commented on them, I selected a good deal of material. Apart from the essays, I used some supplementary material in connection with them and the exam itself. I also used related literature: I turned to books on essay writing in order to find out what types of introductions are possible and suggested by experts. Therefore, I got a basis for classifying the students` essays.
The main subject matter of the whole research, the PTEs, was written by first-year English majors at JPU at the end of the second semester of the 1995-96 university year, as one of the four subtests of their filter test. In the writing part, candidates were presented with a choice of topics, and their work was evaluated by two cross-markers. The markers awarded marks on five evaluation categories: focus, accuracy, vocabulary, paragraph organisation and essay organisation. Two of these categories were relevant to my chosen topic. In terms of focus, the essay should define a specific idea in the first paragraph, and in terms of essay organisation, the paper should depart and arrive (Horváth 96:95). Having decided to work on these PTEs, I asked my tutor for a number of them, and I was given eleven randomly chosen essays to read. The second material I got from him was the cover sheet of the test package of the grammar, reading and writing components tasks. Therefore, I got to know how much time was recommended on these subcomponents and some other information in connection with the circumstances of the filter test – this information might be useful when working on essays written in such a situation. The third material given to me was the collection of cross-markers` comments on the PTEs, divided into three groups: those addressed to the other marker, those addressed to the author, and those without an addressee (Cross-markers` 96). I considered more significant the remarks I found in the actual essay sheets I read, but I also used this extra material, partly because some comments were not legible, and partly in order to get an overall picture of the comments.
On the basis of these sources I tried to set up a division of methods into various categories (which, of course, might overlap each other). I used the system of methods I found in the related literature. After thoroughly reading the PTEs I assigned them to these categories. This might be considered as an arbitrary act, which is natural, since standard categories cannot be set up, and this kind of classification cannot be authoritative. Moreover, one essay might belong to more than one category, as they do not exclude each other. My research represents only one approach to the subject. Next, I examined how the introductory paragraphs were carried out and how the markers commented on them; and I also made a guess whether the authors` choice of introductory technique was reflected in the scores or not.
Results and Discussion
One type of introduction is the general overview of the subject to be discussed in the main body of the essay. I found only one PTE belonging entirely to this category: its topic was arguing with a lover, and the introduction described people having different points of view in general (though this might be interpreted as an indirect way of defining). Besides, the first sentence of most of the other beginnings was providing general information on the topic, and it was followed by introductory thoughts from other categories.
The second type is the short review of the historical or cultural context, which occurred only in one case. Writing about listening to a teacher, the author explored the "long-established traditions" in "the interactions between students and teachers" (Raise 96:1) from ancient times. Regarding focus, this introduction did not appeal to the markers, since history of education was not relevant to the topic.
The next category is that of giving the definition of the basic concept of the essay. Most of the students used this device – they defined the clue word of their topic, for example e-mailing: "absolutely new, computerized way of correspondence" (Explain how to e-mail 96:1). One of the writers made the act of defining explicit: "First of all let`s clear the definition of arguing" (Analyze 96:1). The picture of an unhappy face on the margin indicated that the marker disapproved of this too direct form, since "the overt announcement of what is to be done, is often boring...Papers may be constructed by delineating parts, but they should show and not tell" (Hall 88:68).
A formal essay might begin with classification, as two of the examined PTEs did. One of them arranged communication methods in classes of writing letters, using body language, talking and phoning. The other one made a distinction between e-mailing from a long distance and e-mailing between friends living close to each other.
An effective technique of introducing an essay is the in medias res beginning. The only PTE that I found beginning this way declared: "It is almost summer. I`m sitting in this classroom knowing not how to make my lover understand. The weather is hot, the girls are nice around me..." (Explain how to argue 96:1). The marker`s remark might refer to this beginning: "Takes essay in jest and than flunks it" (Cross-markers` 96).
It is advisable to make a thesis statement in the concluding sentence of the introduction. It should briefly point out the main idea of the essay. A good thesis statement "states the purpose or direction of the paper in precise words, and, if possible, it indicates something about the writer`s attitude towards the subject" (Rackham & Bertagnolly 88:264). Only five PTEs included clearly identifiable thesis statements. One work expressed the attitude and purpose, which, unfortunately, were not sufficiently defined, since it consisted only of one confused sentence. Moreover, the writer lost direction in the rest of the essay despite stating it at the beginning, which the marker also noted.
Although the writers used various introductory techniques, starting with definitions proved to be the most popular, in addition to the general overview of the subject. This result might be due to the limited length of time that could be devoted to writing and to the fact that they could not use any material to search for extra information. If they had chosen the review of a cultural or historical background, they might have needed more knowledge than what they had in their heads, since they were not necessarily experts in the given topics. Thesis statements were missing in several cases, which did not appeal to the markers. Thesis statements would have been essential for the readers to understand the point, and also for the writers: they would normally urge the authors to organise their ideas in the body of the text according to what was stated at the beginning. The appropriateness of the introduction should be reflected in the focus and essay organisation components of the grading scheme, but one can get good marks only if it were in accordance with the rest of the essay. The type of introduction did not affect the markers` evaluation, but a good choice carried out properly might contribute to receiving a better remark.
Conclusion
In the research I found that the writers of these eleven PTEs had various approaches to opening their essays in order to achieve their aim of drawing the attention of their audience, so they made use of several kinds of introductory techniques. Still, they favoured certain types, at least in the circumstances my research focused on. Among other factors which might affect their choice in other situations as well, their preference given to certain methods might be the result of factors which are independent of the author and occur because of the exam situation.
W 017 F
A well-done introduction is the brain of a text. Here you store everything in short that is important for the topic you will write about. It is the source from where every information of the discussion - every 'action of the body' - is controlled. The reader can predict from a well done introduction what he or she will find in the text. Just like the doctor, who can tell the difference between a sound and an ill man's abilities, behaviour if he or she knows what is the difference between the working of their brain. (What is the problem with the ill man s brain.) But not all introductions can fulfill this function.
HUSSE Papers 1997 was published after the third conference of the Hungarian Society for the Study of English, which was organized by JPU at Szeged in 1995. The book is a collection of papers written by the speakers of that conference. The fourty four papers are grooped into eight parts: five on literature, one on history and culture, one on linguistics and one on curriculum and testing. This provides the opportunity to see several types of introductions, that is several methods that the authors apply to call the attention of their reader.
My aim in this research paper is to show that there is correlation between the type of introduction and the theme it introduces. As a result, there is one or two characteristic introduction types of every section , of every field of discipline, that the sections are
about.
When one creates an ill done introduction, sometimes the problem is the length or the proportion of the length and the number of the paragraphs. So my second aim was to examine the introductions in this respect. When I had read the introductions I found that there is no point in considering this viewpoint according to sections. So here my examination here covered the whole volume.
METHOD
My first work was to read all the introductions in the book. Then I tried to find types according to the authors' method. My third step was to give labels to these type groops. I did not use written sources neither for grooping nor for labelling. The ideas were inspired by the "raw material" itself and I used my Writing and Research Skills course notes.
These labels are very short, one or two worded. Their function is not to explain, they are only "calling signals", the explanation and the examples (quotations) come after them.
When I had these labels I could examine the sections one by one statistically to find if my hypothesis about that correlation is true or not.
DISCUSSION
These papers were probably written by educated men, experts in their field. They had very likely to written a dozen of studies or essays. This practical experience may be the cause of the fact that I found very few not-leading-to-anywhere introductions, ones that talk about something different from the topic specified in the title and written in the body of the text.
It is minimal requirement in an introduction (and in a text) to have logical link along itself. So one can't regard a paper as a good work if it has this linkage, it's not enough to be considered good.
I want to show in a table what were the specific means in the introductions, what types I found. But before that I give the definition of these types under the label they got.
1.) DATA: The author uses exact data, for example personal names, names of places, dates.
"In 1973 the Black 'womanist' writer and critic, Alice Walker, placed a tombstone in the Garden of the Heavenly Rest, a segregated cemetery in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Zora Neale Hurston had been buried in an unmarked grave in 1960" (Miklódy, 1997, p. 183).
2.) QUOTATION:
A.) AT ONCE: The author uses a quotation just at the beginning of his introduction.
B.) INSIDE: The author uses a quotation inside the text of the introduction.
C.) WORK/WRITER ANALYZED: The quotation is from the work or from the person that the author is dealing with in the essay.
" well, my widow looked out on the Squero where Ogni Santi meets San Trovaso Things have ends and begginings (c76/476:4-7)
This is the first time the statement quoted in the title occurs in Pound's The Cantos" ( Novák , 1997, p. 25).
D .) ELSE: This type is in contrast with the one before: “C.) WORK/WRITER ANALYZED". That is why I gave it only this short label. Here the quotation is from another author, from another piece of work.
"I shall start with a quotation from a very unlikely source, here is the first sentence of the English short story writer and essayist V. C. Pritchett's autobiography : 'In my family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth' (5) " (Bényei, 1997, p. 72).
E.) REFERENCE: The author refers to someone else's findings. The duty of a reference like this is to raise the authenticity, the value of the text , or to make it a bit more grand-styled, sometimes bombastic. /Quotations are similar to references if we consider their role./
"In 1917 Sándor Fest devoted a few pages of his monography on the early Hungarian reception of English literature to Laurence Sterne's influence in Hungary (Fest 101-104). Fest recognized..." ( Hartvig, 1997, p. 65).
"Lakoff and Johnson, and many others after them, have provided overwhelming evidence for the view that metaphorical linguistic expressions cluster together to form larger categories that came to be called 'conceptual metaphors'..." (Kövecses, 1997, p. 323).
3.) CONCISE: These introductions compromise only data, facts about the paper itself: what the author examines and how, in what order he or she does this. My next quotation is not from an introduction, it is an introduction in full.
"This paper will look at the outcomes of the first year of our in-service cultural and methodological awareness-raising programme. This teacher developement project was designed for three years and involves three different groups of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) . First, the objectives and the recruitments of the participiants will be described. Second, the two-week course in England will be detailed. Third, follow-up activities will be discussed and the first year's achievement will be evaluated." (Bors, Nikolov, 1997, p. 368)
4.) EXAMPLE: The author starts immediately with an example, and settles his or her topic and purposes based on this example.
" In the Usage Note on the word help in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 3rd edition, we find the note: He helped me (to) pass my exam (=I passed). (...) so that it would sound contradictory to say, He helped me pass my exam, but I didn't. In other words, the English word help does not simply refer to the prosess of helping someone, it also implies that the goal to which the process is directed is sucessfully reached. The Japanes verb semantically corresponding to the English verb help, however, behaves quite differently." (Ikegami, 1997, p. 288)
5.) DEFINITION: The author gives the definition of a keyword at the beginning. Here is a good, original example for this:
" Diversity is a buzzword in American universities is in part a legacy of the 1960s" (James, 1997, p. 355).
6.) KEY SENTENCE: The author in the very first sentence tells the most important information, the answers for what? , why?, how?.
"In this paper I am going to examine briefly the relationship of Virginia Woolf, critic and novelist, to American women writers" (Surányi, 1997, p. 177).
7.) COMPARISION: A simile, a comparision runs through the introduction instead of any other explanations. I found only one example for this type in the volume.
"Many believe that banking is all about money, interests and security (...) yet the bank this paper is about to describe is quite different from those in Wall Street (...) So much so that in the safe of this bank one would not find a single cent, rather a wide variety of test items" (Szabó, 1997, p. 373).
8.) CONTEXT: The author starts up the paper by setting a more distant point of view onto the topic.
" It seems that even in our death-of-the-author and birth-of-the-reader age the author cannot be wholly disregarded. W.W. Robson is surely right in pointing out that for most people the image of the author can influence what they read to the detriment of the work...
To say that the image of Lytton Strachey is a bad one would be an understatement" (Rawlinson, 1997, p. 54).
RESULTS
I. Distribution of the types of introduction in the sections.
1.) In the first five sections , which are about literature "data", "quotation" and "key sentence" were the most frequent. In essays about literature quotation is always very popular. The analyst quote from the text analyzed, from other works of art and sometimes from other analysts. The later analysts can quote also the writings of their "forefathers", and they may find other earlier works of art that can be connected to the same analyzed work. It is like a system with texts circulating inside.
2.) The authors of the history, politics and culture section prefered using 'key sentence' and 'data' methods. Showing data in essays like this is very logical. If one wants to talk about a historical period or persons, events of it, he or she have to tell exactly which period is this.
3.) The authors of the "Studies in Linguistics" an "Curriculum and Testing Revisited" sections prefered using 'example', 'data' and 'key sentence methods. These sciences are fields where can't do anything without exact examples. Usually one doesn't have to answer 'Who did what when and where ?' questions, as for example a historian has to do.
II. Length and paragraphs
The diagram shows the correlation between the length of the introductions and the number of paragraphs these are divided into.
We can see that the maximum values can be found on a straight line. It would show that most of the introductions are structured 'healthily': the longer they are the more paragraphs they have. But not as much paragraphs as they should have to have. The straight line connecting the numbers should have to be ' on the floor above': from the sign of 5-10 lines in 2 paragraphs to the sigh of 1 page in 5-6 paragraphs. The introduction would be more perspectiuous that way. In the form most of them are written now the readers get frightened just at the beginning and what is worse: they won't get a clear sight of what they would have to read about , and will probably decide not to read at all.
CONCLUSION
My first intention was to find different types of introduction in the fourty-four papers, and to give labels to these types . I created eight types, eight labels. Then I tried to find characteristic introduction type(s) to the papers with the same theme. It meant to find characteristic introduction type to all the eight sections, as the papers are grooped in the volume according to their topic.
The papers about literature prefered "data", "quotation" and "key sentence".
The authors in the history, politics and culture section used "key sentence" and "data" mostly. In the "Studies on Linguistics" and "Curriculum and Testing Revisited" sections I found mainly "example", "data" and key sentence".
My second viewpoint was the length of the paragraphs and the length-paragraph correlation. Here I found that most of the authors did not divide their introductions to as many paragraph as they should have.
The paragraphs makes the text clear, well arranged. The reader can understand easier what the author wants to talk about.
Can there be more important intention that an author has to have?
HUSSE Papers 1997 was published after the third conference of the Hungarian Society for the Study of English, which was organized by JPU at Szeged in 1995. The book is a collection of papers written by the speakers of that conference. The fourty four papers are grooped into eight parts: five on literature, one on history and culture, one on linguistics and one on curriculum and testing. This provides the opportunity to see several types of introductions, that is several methods that the authors apply to call the attention of their reader.
My aim in this research paper is to show that there is correlation between the type of introduction and the theme it introduces. As a result, there is one or two characteristic introduction types of every section , of every field of discipline, that the sections are
about.
When one creates an ill done introduction, sometimes the problem is the length or the proportion of the length and the number of the paragraphs. So my second aim was to examine the introductions in this respect. When I had read the introductions I found that there is no point in considering this viewpoint according to sections. So here my examination here covered the whole volume.
METHOD
My first work was to read all the introductions in the book. Then I tried to find types according to the authors' method. My third step was to give labels to these type groops. I did not use written sources neither for grooping nor for labelling. The ideas were inspired by the "raw material" itself and I used my Writing and Research Skills course notes.
These labels are very short, one or two worded. Their function is not to explain, they are only "calling signals", the explanation and the examples (quotations) come after them.
When I had these labels I could examine the sections one by one statistically to find if my hypothesis about that correlation is true or not.
DISCUSSION
These papers were probably written by educated men, experts in their field. They had very likely to written a dozen of studies or essays. This practical experience may be the cause of the fact that I found very few not-leading-to-anywhere introductions, ones that talk about something different from the topic specified in the title and written in the body of the text.
It is minimal requirement in an introduction (and in a text) to have logical link along itself. So one can't regard a paper as a good work if it has this linkage, it's not enough to be considered good.
I want to show in a table what were the specific means in the introductions, what types I found. But before that I give the definition of these types under the label they got.
1.) DATA: The author uses exact data, for example personal names, names of places, dates.
"In 1973 the Black 'womanist' writer and critic, Alice Walker, placed a tombstone in the Garden of the Heavenly Rest, a segregated cemetery in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Zora Neale Hurston had been buried in an unmarked grave in 1960" (Miklódy, 1997, p. 183).
2.) QUOTATION:
A.) AT ONCE: The author uses a quotation just at the beginning of his introduction.
B.) INSIDE: The author uses a quotation inside the text of the introduction.
C.) WORK/WRITER ANALYZED: The quotation is from the work or from the person that the author is dealing with in the essay.
" well, my widow looked out on the Squero where Ogni Santi meets San Trovaso Things have ends and begginings (c76/476:4-7)
This is the first time the statement quoted in the title occurs in Pound's The Cantos" ( Novák , 1997, p. 25).
D .) ELSE: This type is in contrast with the one before: “C.) WORK/WRITER ANALYZED". That is why I gave it only this short label. Here the quotation is from another author, from another piece of work.
"I shall start with a quotation from a very unlikely source, here is the first sentence of the English short story writer and essayist V. C. Pritchett's autobiography : 'In my family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth' (5) " (Bényei, 1997, p. 72).
E.) REFERENCE: The author refers to someone else's findings. The duty of a reference like this is to raise the authenticity, the value of the text , or to make it a bit more grand-styled, sometimes bombastic. /Quotations are similar to references if we consider their role./
"In 1917 Sándor Fest devoted a few pages of his monography on the early Hungarian reception of English literature to Laurence Sterne's influence in Hungary (Fest 101-104). Fest recognized..." ( Hartvig, 1997, p. 65).
"Lakoff and Johnson, and many others after them, have provided overwhelming evidence for the view that metaphorical linguistic expressions cluster together to form larger categories that came to be called 'conceptual metaphors'..." (Kövecses, 1997, p. 323).
3.) CONCISE: These introductions compromise only data, facts about the paper itself: what the author examines and how, in what order he or she does this. My next quotation is not from an introduction, it is an introduction in full.
"This paper will look at the outcomes of the first year of our in-service cultural and methodological awareness-raising programme. This teacher developement project was designed for three years and involves three different groups of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) . First, the objectives and the recruitments of the participiants will be described. Second, the two-week course in England will be detailed. Third, follow-up activities will be discussed and the first year's achievement will be evaluated." (Bors, Nikolov, 1997, p. 368)
4.) EXAMPLE: The author starts immediately with an example, and settles his or her topic and purposes based on this example.
" In the Usage Note on the word help in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 3rd edition, we find the note: He helped me (to) pass my exam (=I passed). (...) so that it would sound contradictory to say, He helped me pass my exam, but I didn't. In other words, the English word help does not simply refer to the prosess of helping someone, it also implies that the goal to which the process is directed is sucessfully reached. The Japanes verb semantically corresponding to the English verb help, however, behaves quite differently." (Ikegami, 1997, p. 288)
5.) DEFINITION: The author gives the definition of a keyword at the beginning. Here is a good, original example for this:
" Diversity is a buzzword in American universities is in part a legacy of the 1960s" (James, 1997, p. 355).
6.) KEY SENTENCE: The author in the very first sentence tells the most important information, the answers for what? , why?, how?.
"In this paper I am going to examine briefly the relationship of Virginia Woolf, critic and novelist, to American women writers" (Surányi, 1997, p. 177).
7.) COMPARISION: A simile, a comparision runs through the introduction instead of any other explanations. I found only one example for this type in the volume.
"Many believe that banking is all about money, interests and security (...) yet the bank this paper is about to describe is quite different from those in Wall Street (...) So much so that in the safe of this bank one would not find a single cent, rather a wide variety of test items" (Szabó, 1997, p. 373).
8.) CONTEXT: The author starts up the paper by setting a more distant point of view onto the topic.
" It seems that even in our death-of-the-author and birth-of-the-reader age the author cannot be wholly disregarded. W.W. Robson is surely right in pointing out that for most people the image of the author can influence what they read to the detriment of the work...
To say that the image of Lytton Strachey is a bad one would be an understatement" (Rawlinson, 1997, p. 54).
RESULTS
I. Distribution of the types of introduction in the sections.
1.) In the first five sections , which are about literature "data", "quotation" and "key sentence" were the most frequent. In essays about literature quotation is always very popular. The analyst quote from the text analyzed, from other works of art and sometimes from other analysts. The later analysts can quote also the writings of their "forefathers", and they may find other earlier works of art that can be connected to the same analyzed work. It is like a system with texts circulating inside.
2.) The authors of the history, politics and culture section prefered using 'key sentence' and 'data' methods. Showing data in essays like this is very logical. If one wants to talk about a historical period or persons, events of it, he or she have to tell exactly which period is this.
3.) The authors of the "Studies in Linguistics" an "Curriculum and Testing Revisited" sections prefered using 'example', 'data' and 'key sentence methods. These sciences are fields where can't do anything without exact examples. Usually one doesn't have to answer 'Who did what when and where ?' questions, as for example a historian has to do.
II. Length and paragraphs
The diagram shows the correlation between the length of the introductions and the number of paragraphs these are divided into.
We can see that the maximum values can be found on a straight line. It would show that most of the introductions are structured 'healthily': the longer they are the more paragraphs they have. But not as much paragraphs as they should have to have. The straight line connecting the numbers should have to be ' on the floor above': from the sign of 5-10 lines in 2 paragraphs to the sigh of 1 page in 5-6 paragraphs. The introduction would be more perspectiuous that way. In the form most of them are written now the readers get frightened just at the beginning and what is worse: they won't get a clear sight of what they would have to read about , and will probably decide not to read at all.
CONCLUSION
My first intention was to find different types of introduction in the fourty-four papers, and to give labels to these types . I created eight types, eight labels. Then I tried to find characteristic introduction type(s) to the papers with the same theme. It meant to find characteristic introduction type to all the eight sections, as the papers are grooped in the volume according to their topic.
The papers about literature prefered "data", "quotation" and "key sentence".
The authors in the history, politics and culture section used "key sentence" and "data" mostly. In the "Studies on Linguistics" and "Curriculum and Testing Revisited" sections I found mainly "example", "data" and key sentence".
My second viewpoint was the length of the paragraphs and the length-paragraph correlation. Here I found that most of the authors did not divide their introductions to as many paragraph as they should have.
The paragraphs makes the text clear, well arranged. The reader can understand easier what the author wants to talk about.
Can there be more important intention that an author has to have?
W 013 F
Introduction
Umberto Eco is a professional writer. His introductions catch the reader's attention, are wonderfully coherent. He carries the reader with him from the first sentence to the last. He knows -- quoting William Zinsser -- that writing well means "believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel" (238). Although we can find similarities in the structure of his essays, even discover a strong tie between the titles and first sentences, it is only Eco's personality that makes his writings so vivid. Still, in this paper, I was eager to discover the secret of Umberto Eco's introductions.
Method
For my study, I selected the first six essays in Eco's How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays. These essays deal with problems arising during journeys, and reveal some nonsense of the modern world. In some, Eco offers real advice to solve these problems, but mostly he only illustrates them, and gives an ironic picture. All of them are personal descriptions, with a first person narrator re-appearing.
I analysed the first sentences of each introduction syntactically. I defined a key word, or key expression in them, and then compared it to the key words in the title. I wanted to explore how these key words influence the subject and structure of the rest of the text. I analysed the titles, too, because in most cases the introductions concealed the connection between the title and subject.
Results and Discussion
All of Eco's essays build around a key word given in the title: eating in flight, travelling with a salmon, and replacing a driving licence. The introductory sentence lists other key expressions. So the title and the first sentence constitute a crucial unit which determines the content of the essays.
The essay "How to Travel with a Salmon" starts with "according to newspapers" (1). This hint, or reference to newspapers, offers the reader a clear standpoint. The introduction presupposes an essay about the problems of the modern world, definitely something sincere. Still, Eco turns out to write about his adventures with a smoked salmon. He buys it in Stockholm, and attempts to keep it refrigitated during his journey. The key expressions, "the invasion of the computer" and "the alarming expansion of the Third World" (1), appear only at the end of the first sentence. Around these problems is the whole salmon-incident constructed, as these cause every misunderstanding. The expanding Third World refers to the hotel staff, and the newly-installed computer-system as the other worldwide problem also invaded Eco's accommodation.
The next essay, "How to Replace a Driver's Licence", gives a definite point of time for the events. Eco does define not only the date, but also names the city: Amsterdam. The main clause, which describes the source of problems, comes only after these specifications are given. This source is the loss of Eco's wallet, as he writes about his own experience and speaks in the first person singular. He tells us about replacing his documents and cards that were lost or stolen together with his driving licence. The key word of the essay, driving licence, however, appears only in the fourth paragraph that begins listing the difficulties -- his suffering with many different offices and officers. Thus the first part is constructed upon the content of the lost wallet, the second part deals with the licence exclusively, referring to the title.
The essay "How to Eat in Flight" portays Eco's journey, and also gives information about its date and setting -- "a few years ago", "round trip to Amsterdam" -- before the key verb "cost" (13). Trademarks of shirts, slacks, and coats make the language concrete. This essay also hides the title's key word until the second paragraph. Nevertheless, the word "eat" in the title suggests that the food served in the air caused the damage in the writer's clothes. Eco writes about the illogical way of serving spot-making foods on planes, instead of compact dishes. Here, Eco makes a generalisation, extending his own experience to every airline.
The fourth essay, "How to Go Through Customs", does not name the date and setting of the events, but an Italian artist's trademark appears again: Cellini's. Eco depicts a murder -- he kills one of his mistresses in the essay --, so further details would be shocking. Speaking in the name of a criminal is shocking in itself. The main clause describing the murder comes after some ordinary information about circumstances are given. So Eco achieves a much greater effect than he would by starting the sentence with "I did away with my partner" (17). This essay consists of two parts. The first describes how easily Eco goes through the customs carrying illegally morphine, cocaine, and a corpse; the other lists the difficulties of a perfectly honest traveller going through customs.
The illnesses and diseases listed make the fifth essay, "How to Travel on American Trains", concrete. This sentence is unique as it starts with the subject and predicate immediately: "you can undertake". The "air journey" (20) is linked with the title's "American trains". The next sentence reveals that Eco has a cold, the only illness which makes traveling by air impossible, and this forces him to travel by train. So the essay turns into a description of American trains.
In the last essay, Eco refers to mass media again, as in "How to Travel with a Salmon": he mentions political and literary weeklies. This time, however, the media does not seem a reliable source. This is the only essay where the title's key word re-appears in the first sentence. The word "intelligent" prevails in it; it occurs three times, giving the word mocking, unpleasant overtones. This suggests that Eco treats the custom of recommending intelligent books for intelligent vacations ironically. Still, Eco himself gives advice to those longing for an intelligent vacation, but his advice mocks this "familiar custom" (24). The books he recommends bore most readers, are hidden in ancient libraries, and consist of at least 20 volumes.
Conclusion
As shown in these six essays, Umberto Eco determines the structure and content of his essays by the title and the first sentence. In this way, he informs his readers what they can expect. This method, however, does not apply to every turn in the essay; Eco leaves a door open to new ideas, to surprise. We cannot predict from his introduction and title that the essay "How to Travel on American Trains" turns to the subject of smoking. He leaves this kind of surprise to the conclusions. To understand the structure of Eco's essays would be worth analysing the conclusions, as the introduction and the ending co-operates and forms a framework for the text. But that would require another research paper.
Umberto Eco is a professional writer. His introductions catch the reader's attention, are wonderfully coherent. He carries the reader with him from the first sentence to the last. He knows -- quoting William Zinsser -- that writing well means "believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel" (238). Although we can find similarities in the structure of his essays, even discover a strong tie between the titles and first sentences, it is only Eco's personality that makes his writings so vivid. Still, in this paper, I was eager to discover the secret of Umberto Eco's introductions.
Method
For my study, I selected the first six essays in Eco's How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays. These essays deal with problems arising during journeys, and reveal some nonsense of the modern world. In some, Eco offers real advice to solve these problems, but mostly he only illustrates them, and gives an ironic picture. All of them are personal descriptions, with a first person narrator re-appearing.
I analysed the first sentences of each introduction syntactically. I defined a key word, or key expression in them, and then compared it to the key words in the title. I wanted to explore how these key words influence the subject and structure of the rest of the text. I analysed the titles, too, because in most cases the introductions concealed the connection between the title and subject.
Results and Discussion
All of Eco's essays build around a key word given in the title: eating in flight, travelling with a salmon, and replacing a driving licence. The introductory sentence lists other key expressions. So the title and the first sentence constitute a crucial unit which determines the content of the essays.
The essay "How to Travel with a Salmon" starts with "according to newspapers" (1). This hint, or reference to newspapers, offers the reader a clear standpoint. The introduction presupposes an essay about the problems of the modern world, definitely something sincere. Still, Eco turns out to write about his adventures with a smoked salmon. He buys it in Stockholm, and attempts to keep it refrigitated during his journey. The key expressions, "the invasion of the computer" and "the alarming expansion of the Third World" (1), appear only at the end of the first sentence. Around these problems is the whole salmon-incident constructed, as these cause every misunderstanding. The expanding Third World refers to the hotel staff, and the newly-installed computer-system as the other worldwide problem also invaded Eco's accommodation.
The next essay, "How to Replace a Driver's Licence", gives a definite point of time for the events. Eco does define not only the date, but also names the city: Amsterdam. The main clause, which describes the source of problems, comes only after these specifications are given. This source is the loss of Eco's wallet, as he writes about his own experience and speaks in the first person singular. He tells us about replacing his documents and cards that were lost or stolen together with his driving licence. The key word of the essay, driving licence, however, appears only in the fourth paragraph that begins listing the difficulties -- his suffering with many different offices and officers. Thus the first part is constructed upon the content of the lost wallet, the second part deals with the licence exclusively, referring to the title.
The essay "How to Eat in Flight" portays Eco's journey, and also gives information about its date and setting -- "a few years ago", "round trip to Amsterdam" -- before the key verb "cost" (13). Trademarks of shirts, slacks, and coats make the language concrete. This essay also hides the title's key word until the second paragraph. Nevertheless, the word "eat" in the title suggests that the food served in the air caused the damage in the writer's clothes. Eco writes about the illogical way of serving spot-making foods on planes, instead of compact dishes. Here, Eco makes a generalisation, extending his own experience to every airline.
The fourth essay, "How to Go Through Customs", does not name the date and setting of the events, but an Italian artist's trademark appears again: Cellini's. Eco depicts a murder -- he kills one of his mistresses in the essay --, so further details would be shocking. Speaking in the name of a criminal is shocking in itself. The main clause describing the murder comes after some ordinary information about circumstances are given. So Eco achieves a much greater effect than he would by starting the sentence with "I did away with my partner" (17). This essay consists of two parts. The first describes how easily Eco goes through the customs carrying illegally morphine, cocaine, and a corpse; the other lists the difficulties of a perfectly honest traveller going through customs.
The illnesses and diseases listed make the fifth essay, "How to Travel on American Trains", concrete. This sentence is unique as it starts with the subject and predicate immediately: "you can undertake". The "air journey" (20) is linked with the title's "American trains". The next sentence reveals that Eco has a cold, the only illness which makes traveling by air impossible, and this forces him to travel by train. So the essay turns into a description of American trains.
In the last essay, Eco refers to mass media again, as in "How to Travel with a Salmon": he mentions political and literary weeklies. This time, however, the media does not seem a reliable source. This is the only essay where the title's key word re-appears in the first sentence. The word "intelligent" prevails in it; it occurs three times, giving the word mocking, unpleasant overtones. This suggests that Eco treats the custom of recommending intelligent books for intelligent vacations ironically. Still, Eco himself gives advice to those longing for an intelligent vacation, but his advice mocks this "familiar custom" (24). The books he recommends bore most readers, are hidden in ancient libraries, and consist of at least 20 volumes.
Conclusion
As shown in these six essays, Umberto Eco determines the structure and content of his essays by the title and the first sentence. In this way, he informs his readers what they can expect. This method, however, does not apply to every turn in the essay; Eco leaves a door open to new ideas, to surprise. We cannot predict from his introduction and title that the essay "How to Travel on American Trains" turns to the subject of smoking. He leaves this kind of surprise to the conclusions. To understand the structure of Eco's essays would be worth analysing the conclusions, as the introduction and the ending co-operates and forms a framework for the text. But that would require another research paper.
W 002 F
Every university student has to write many essays during the studies. Among unskilled and unexperieneed ones writing introduction is one of the most problematic tasks . Usually it seems to be only an unpleasant problem students introductions are often unfinished and just thrown together. They are full of clichés and mistakes. Secondary school foreign language education generally cannot help the development of the style of writing. Writing courses are necessary to give patterns and to polish the language. But writing introduction is a neglected area. That is why I have chosen to observe the introductions of a Janus Pannonius University student’s essays. My aim is to examine what are her typical mistakes and whether she had developed during her first semester at JPU.
These essays were written for the Writing and Research Skills course in the first semester of the 1997/98 term. The author is Szûcs Mariann, a first-year student majoring in English. I have chosen her pieces of work because she seems to be a good writer but certainly she is not free from mistakes. I will deal with her eight essays. My purpose is to observe typical grammatical and stylistical mistakes and their currency. But I would like to present not only the wrong characteristics to show what is less difficult in writing introduction.
The author’s first essay has not got a title. It is about the coffee. She tells the history of the plant and its spreading. She also presents the method of making drink from the beans and her personal habits of making and consuming coffee. The introduction contains thirty-one words and two sentences ; a short and a long one. It is ordinary although the topic is unusual. But it is relevant. There are not any grammatical mistakes but a comma error. The structure is clear and understandable.
Her second essay is ‘’A travel guide to my home town.” The first paragraph is only one long sentence : ‘’ Before I would show you around I would like to tell you about the history of the town which I heard so many times from my history teacher, just in a nutshell. ‘’Before a four -page excellent piece of writing it does not seem to be enough, the writer did not care about the introduction. It is cluttered and is not vivid. Therefore it does not move the reader. It cannot attract attention because there is not any particular thoughts or ideas. It includes an average school -type vocabulary.
The next essay entitled ‘’ How to Embarras a Know - all ‘’ has two variations. I will examine only the second , corrected version. It is a Proficiency - type essay about an unusual subject. It begins with a too general statement : ‘’ We all hate those who tend to be more clever than we are ... ‘’ There is one mistake :’’ know all ‘’ , but since the word is written two times correctly , it can be only a slip. The active voice and the short , simple verbs as ‘’ hate ‘’ ,
‘’ tend ‘’ , ‘’ swear ‘’ , ‘’meet ‘’ , ‘’ prove ‘’ , ‘’ find ‘’ , ‘’ take over ‘’ make the text dynamic. The vocabulary shows a rich knowledge of synonims.
I found the fourth essay brilliant. Its title is ‘’ Pros and cons of a manly sport ‘’ .It sprang up from personal experience. The introduction begins with an incident from the writer ‘s life then she continues with the defence of body building. But it could belong to a separate paragraph not to mix the thoughts. The tenses also show that it was redundant to splice the two ideas. The author used simple past in the first part and simple present in the second one. The style is subjective but the thoughts are not partial. The beginning ‘’ Last time when I hitch-hiked.... ‘’ entices the reader , it promises an engaging story. Details prove that the content is not only waste of words : ‘’ Professional body builder women who train to win body building races are only about 0 , 1 % of women practising this sport. ‘’ The weakest point is repetition of the words body building and body builder. For instance the ‘’body building races ‘’ in the above example is redundant , it would be better to use only races since the meaning is obvious.
The next piece of writing is ‘’ A Graduation Speech ‘’ . The student starts with a short introduction. It is only one too long sentence : ‘’ It seems to be yesterday when you first entered the gates of the school , and now you are standing here in the possession of your certificate of final examination as mature young people. ‘’ The first mistake is using when instead of that. The comma is redundant. It could be easily divided into two sentences to avoid the clutter. The long possessive structure could be replaced with gerund to reach a clear , comprehensible sentence. It contains many clichés. Most of the readers heard them so many times that they expect for a boring rigmarole which does not worth much care.
The sixth essay is a reaction on a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its title is ‘’ Afterward to the novel The Scarlet Letter ‘’. A spelling slip ( ‘’wether’’ ) occurs two times in the introduction. The content is relevant , the author gives some details about Hawthorne ‘s descent to facilitate the comprehension of the novel. It contains two long sentences full of passive structures and nouns. It is difficult to follow the train of thoughts. The style is rather formal.
The seventh work, without title, is about the history, the technology and the art of bookbinding. The introduction is grammatically impeccable and the style is excellent. But on the basis of content it only looks like an introduction, it is just the first paragraph. The writer immediately starts writing about the historical data without introducing the subject to the reader. The other problem is that the text seems to be taken from a technical book but the writer did not gives the source.
The last writing is entitled ‘’ My Summer Holiday at Lake Balaton ‘’ . The title does not promise a thrilling essay and the introduction cannot attract the attention : ‘’In January my mother informed me that they (my father and her ) laid claim for my presence during the summer vacation in August at Lake Balaton. My mother was rather foreseeing, she made me know their decision in advance so that I wouldn’t have a chance to organize some other program for that time. ‘’ The weak point of this piece is a typical stylistic problem among students. The author mixes informal and formal style. The topic is personal but she uses formal expressions such as ‘’informed’’ , ‘’ laid claim for my presence ‘’ and so on. The second sentence could be divided into two separate ones so that the reader would not lose the track.
The author of these essays has good abilities and safety in writing. Her knowledge of grammar is sufficient ;only few mistakes and spelling slips occur in the texts. She was getting careful about that during the course. She started finding an individual style , but it is more difficult for a foreign language learner than for a native speaker. The punctuation also causes problem sometimes, the using of comma is different in Hungarian and in English. It hampers the development because it is hard to learn. The writer gradually became conscious of how to get rid of clichés . It means that her vocabulary became wider. To sum it up , the writing course reached its aim in her case.
These essays were written for the Writing and Research Skills course in the first semester of the 1997/98 term. The author is Szûcs Mariann, a first-year student majoring in English. I have chosen her pieces of work because she seems to be a good writer but certainly she is not free from mistakes. I will deal with her eight essays. My purpose is to observe typical grammatical and stylistical mistakes and their currency. But I would like to present not only the wrong characteristics to show what is less difficult in writing introduction.
The author’s first essay has not got a title. It is about the coffee. She tells the history of the plant and its spreading. She also presents the method of making drink from the beans and her personal habits of making and consuming coffee. The introduction contains thirty-one words and two sentences ; a short and a long one. It is ordinary although the topic is unusual. But it is relevant. There are not any grammatical mistakes but a comma error. The structure is clear and understandable.
Her second essay is ‘’A travel guide to my home town.” The first paragraph is only one long sentence : ‘’ Before I would show you around I would like to tell you about the history of the town which I heard so many times from my history teacher, just in a nutshell. ‘’Before a four -page excellent piece of writing it does not seem to be enough, the writer did not care about the introduction. It is cluttered and is not vivid. Therefore it does not move the reader. It cannot attract attention because there is not any particular thoughts or ideas. It includes an average school -type vocabulary.
The next essay entitled ‘’ How to Embarras a Know - all ‘’ has two variations. I will examine only the second , corrected version. It is a Proficiency - type essay about an unusual subject. It begins with a too general statement : ‘’ We all hate those who tend to be more clever than we are ... ‘’ There is one mistake :’’ know all ‘’ , but since the word is written two times correctly , it can be only a slip. The active voice and the short , simple verbs as ‘’ hate ‘’ ,
‘’ tend ‘’ , ‘’ swear ‘’ , ‘’meet ‘’ , ‘’ prove ‘’ , ‘’ find ‘’ , ‘’ take over ‘’ make the text dynamic. The vocabulary shows a rich knowledge of synonims.
I found the fourth essay brilliant. Its title is ‘’ Pros and cons of a manly sport ‘’ .It sprang up from personal experience. The introduction begins with an incident from the writer ‘s life then she continues with the defence of body building. But it could belong to a separate paragraph not to mix the thoughts. The tenses also show that it was redundant to splice the two ideas. The author used simple past in the first part and simple present in the second one. The style is subjective but the thoughts are not partial. The beginning ‘’ Last time when I hitch-hiked.... ‘’ entices the reader , it promises an engaging story. Details prove that the content is not only waste of words : ‘’ Professional body builder women who train to win body building races are only about 0 , 1 % of women practising this sport. ‘’ The weakest point is repetition of the words body building and body builder. For instance the ‘’body building races ‘’ in the above example is redundant , it would be better to use only races since the meaning is obvious.
The next piece of writing is ‘’ A Graduation Speech ‘’ . The student starts with a short introduction. It is only one too long sentence : ‘’ It seems to be yesterday when you first entered the gates of the school , and now you are standing here in the possession of your certificate of final examination as mature young people. ‘’ The first mistake is using when instead of that. The comma is redundant. It could be easily divided into two sentences to avoid the clutter. The long possessive structure could be replaced with gerund to reach a clear , comprehensible sentence. It contains many clichés. Most of the readers heard them so many times that they expect for a boring rigmarole which does not worth much care.
The sixth essay is a reaction on a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its title is ‘’ Afterward to the novel The Scarlet Letter ‘’. A spelling slip ( ‘’wether’’ ) occurs two times in the introduction. The content is relevant , the author gives some details about Hawthorne ‘s descent to facilitate the comprehension of the novel. It contains two long sentences full of passive structures and nouns. It is difficult to follow the train of thoughts. The style is rather formal.
The seventh work, without title, is about the history, the technology and the art of bookbinding. The introduction is grammatically impeccable and the style is excellent. But on the basis of content it only looks like an introduction, it is just the first paragraph. The writer immediately starts writing about the historical data without introducing the subject to the reader. The other problem is that the text seems to be taken from a technical book but the writer did not gives the source.
The last writing is entitled ‘’ My Summer Holiday at Lake Balaton ‘’ . The title does not promise a thrilling essay and the introduction cannot attract the attention : ‘’In January my mother informed me that they (my father and her ) laid claim for my presence during the summer vacation in August at Lake Balaton. My mother was rather foreseeing, she made me know their decision in advance so that I wouldn’t have a chance to organize some other program for that time. ‘’ The weak point of this piece is a typical stylistic problem among students. The author mixes informal and formal style. The topic is personal but she uses formal expressions such as ‘’informed’’ , ‘’ laid claim for my presence ‘’ and so on. The second sentence could be divided into two separate ones so that the reader would not lose the track.
The author of these essays has good abilities and safety in writing. Her knowledge of grammar is sufficient ;only few mistakes and spelling slips occur in the texts. She was getting careful about that during the course. She started finding an individual style , but it is more difficult for a foreign language learner than for a native speaker. The punctuation also causes problem sometimes, the using of comma is different in Hungarian and in English. It hampers the development because it is hard to learn. The writer gradually became conscious of how to get rid of clichés . It means that her vocabulary became wider. To sum it up , the writing course reached its aim in her case.
W 001 F
Introduction
I have difficulties when I have to write essays for my classes. Using the punctuation marks and works cited correctly always makes me think for hours. To eliminate these problems I had the chance to attend courses to improve my academic skills of writing. These courses are started every semester in the English department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU). In the spring semester of 1998 the Writing and Research Skills courses, with Horváth József as the tutor, were announced at two different times under the code of ANG 1601.
To complete the course students had to write a portfolio, which consisted of at least nine essays. One of these essays was titled: My Dictionary. Another task was to write a research paper. The tutor gave ten topics, and the students had to choose one.
In this paper I intend to examine the introductions of the My Dictionary essays concerning the tips and training process of the tutor, taught to the students during the semester. I also want to find out how others approached the theme, whether they got right into the middle of it or not.
Method
I asked seven students to share their essays with me. Including mine, eight students participated in the survey and all of them attended the Writing and Research Skills courses in the spring semester of 1998. (I will refer to students who took part in the survey as Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D, Student E, Student F, Student G and Student H to avoid any partiality or influence during the analysis.)
I read the introductions of the essays four times to gain valid data to accomplish my purpose: to present a precise content analysis. I categorised them according to eleven aspects: the number of be forms the number of passive forms the number of words the number of sentences comments of the tutor how many times the word dictionary appeared first word last word mistakes marked by the tutor and other students. (The tutor used and symbols to show his opinion about students’ writings.)
After examining all the introductions, I compared them to see whether they had any similarities to draw conclusions from or not. My personal opinion did not influence the results of the research, which was crucial if I wanted to remain objective about the texts investigated. I carried out the task I had set without modification, accepting the results as they occurred.
As for introductions I only took the first paragraphs of the essays into consideration.
Results and Discussion
After reading the introductions I filled out Table 1 that shows the main features of the introductions examined.
Table 1 results of the aspects examined
1 The students did not show these essays to the tutor, so he could not give his opinion about them.
I dedicated special attention to the numbers and words written in blue when I analysed the data I got because these formed the bases of my comparison.
Be forms and real verbs
During the course the tutor asked the students to avoid overusing the be forms and use real verbs instead. In an average of eight verbs per introductions students used be forms three times. Although Student A used the most verbs, 12, Student F produced the biggest variety of verbs like: possess, suggest, buy, tell, be obsessed with, use, look up, face and make. Student H used the most be forms: was three times and wasn’t twice.
Passive forms
Students took Zinsser’s advice to use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb (110). The passive form only appeared three times when the students could not avoid applying it. Student D wrote I was amazed..., Student F wrote I wasn’t really obsessed with it... and Student G wrote It was ...published in 1990 by ... .
Tutor’s remarks
The tutor used and symbols to express his opinion either in the positive () or in the negative () way. I found that, among the papers he read, he used the symbol only once. Story opening... (Student H). He did not use the symbol at all.
The tutor put his comments and corrections down in three ways. At the beginning of the course he asked students to leave a wider margin so he could write his notes there. He also used stick-on notes which he stuck on the writings. Last, he corrected the grammatical and lexical mistakes students made.
The tutor commented only two essays. In Student D’s introduction he wrote the following comment: Multiple choice exercise? because the student could not decide whether to use the word have or had and he wrote have/had. Another time the tutor said: Story opening but why were you so desperate? Tell me more about it (Student H).
Students made four punctuation mark errors and five grammatical errors. The tutor deleted words twice by putting ... symbols around words which he found unnecessary.
Length of introductions
Students separated the introductions clearly from the rest of the essays. The number of sentences varied between one and four, and the number of words changed between 15 (Student A) and 77 (Student B) per introductions. This means an average of three sentences and 53 words per introductions.
The usage of words
I faced a surprising fact when I compared the first and last words of the introductions. Five students started their essays with the word I, which gave a personal voice to the script. For example, Student D said that he was 17 when he received his first monolingual dictionary as a birthday present. Student H wrote that she was desperate to buy a dictionary, and she bought one in Széchenyi square. The others started their work in a much more general way.
The last word students used the most times was dictionary. Student A and D arrived at describing the type or name of their favourite dictionaries.
The word dictionary appeared 15 times. Student A wrote it four times, but this number seemed too many comparing to the length of the introduction. The word appeared in each sentence. Student H did not include it at all rather, she replaced dictionary with it.
Conclusion
When I started this project I did not have any special expectation as for the outcome of the survey. The tutor gave the title to the students, and they approached the theme creatively, applying what they had learnt. They used different methods to lead the readers to the field. Analysing the first words of the essays I saw that students introduced the topic either in a personal or in a more general way. They only committed minor errors, and they did not have any difficulties in writing these texts.
I chose to analyse introductions because they are essential parts of every composition. These call the readers’ attention and establish the spirit of the whole essay. Students have to attend the Writing and Research Skills courses to master the tricks of writing introductions and become experts.
I have difficulties when I have to write essays for my classes. Using the punctuation marks and works cited correctly always makes me think for hours. To eliminate these problems I had the chance to attend courses to improve my academic skills of writing. These courses are started every semester in the English department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU). In the spring semester of 1998 the Writing and Research Skills courses, with Horváth József as the tutor, were announced at two different times under the code of ANG 1601.
To complete the course students had to write a portfolio, which consisted of at least nine essays. One of these essays was titled: My Dictionary. Another task was to write a research paper. The tutor gave ten topics, and the students had to choose one.
In this paper I intend to examine the introductions of the My Dictionary essays concerning the tips and training process of the tutor, taught to the students during the semester. I also want to find out how others approached the theme, whether they got right into the middle of it or not.
Method
I asked seven students to share their essays with me. Including mine, eight students participated in the survey and all of them attended the Writing and Research Skills courses in the spring semester of 1998. (I will refer to students who took part in the survey as Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D, Student E, Student F, Student G and Student H to avoid any partiality or influence during the analysis.)
I read the introductions of the essays four times to gain valid data to accomplish my purpose: to present a precise content analysis. I categorised them according to eleven aspects: the number of be forms the number of passive forms the number of words the number of sentences comments of the tutor how many times the word dictionary appeared first word last word mistakes marked by the tutor and other students. (The tutor used and symbols to show his opinion about students’ writings.)
After examining all the introductions, I compared them to see whether they had any similarities to draw conclusions from or not. My personal opinion did not influence the results of the research, which was crucial if I wanted to remain objective about the texts investigated. I carried out the task I had set without modification, accepting the results as they occurred.
As for introductions I only took the first paragraphs of the essays into consideration.
Results and Discussion
After reading the introductions I filled out Table 1 that shows the main features of the introductions examined.
Table 1 results of the aspects examined
1 The students did not show these essays to the tutor, so he could not give his opinion about them.
I dedicated special attention to the numbers and words written in blue when I analysed the data I got because these formed the bases of my comparison.
Be forms and real verbs
During the course the tutor asked the students to avoid overusing the be forms and use real verbs instead. In an average of eight verbs per introductions students used be forms three times. Although Student A used the most verbs, 12, Student F produced the biggest variety of verbs like: possess, suggest, buy, tell, be obsessed with, use, look up, face and make. Student H used the most be forms: was three times and wasn’t twice.
Passive forms
Students took Zinsser’s advice to use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb (110). The passive form only appeared three times when the students could not avoid applying it. Student D wrote I was amazed..., Student F wrote I wasn’t really obsessed with it... and Student G wrote It was ...published in 1990 by ... .
Tutor’s remarks
The tutor used and symbols to express his opinion either in the positive () or in the negative () way. I found that, among the papers he read, he used the symbol only once. Story opening... (Student H). He did not use the symbol at all.
The tutor put his comments and corrections down in three ways. At the beginning of the course he asked students to leave a wider margin so he could write his notes there. He also used stick-on notes which he stuck on the writings. Last, he corrected the grammatical and lexical mistakes students made.
The tutor commented only two essays. In Student D’s introduction he wrote the following comment: Multiple choice exercise? because the student could not decide whether to use the word have or had and he wrote have/had. Another time the tutor said: Story opening but why were you so desperate? Tell me more about it (Student H).
Students made four punctuation mark errors and five grammatical errors. The tutor deleted words twice by putting ... symbols around words which he found unnecessary.
Length of introductions
Students separated the introductions clearly from the rest of the essays. The number of sentences varied between one and four, and the number of words changed between 15 (Student A) and 77 (Student B) per introductions. This means an average of three sentences and 53 words per introductions.
The usage of words
I faced a surprising fact when I compared the first and last words of the introductions. Five students started their essays with the word I, which gave a personal voice to the script. For example, Student D said that he was 17 when he received his first monolingual dictionary as a birthday present. Student H wrote that she was desperate to buy a dictionary, and she bought one in Széchenyi square. The others started their work in a much more general way.
The last word students used the most times was dictionary. Student A and D arrived at describing the type or name of their favourite dictionaries.
The word dictionary appeared 15 times. Student A wrote it four times, but this number seemed too many comparing to the length of the introduction. The word appeared in each sentence. Student H did not include it at all rather, she replaced dictionary with it.
Conclusion
When I started this project I did not have any special expectation as for the outcome of the survey. The tutor gave the title to the students, and they approached the theme creatively, applying what they had learnt. They used different methods to lead the readers to the field. Analysing the first words of the essays I saw that students introduced the topic either in a personal or in a more general way. They only committed minor errors, and they did not have any difficulties in writing these texts.
I chose to analyse introductions because they are essential parts of every composition. These call the readers’ attention and establish the spirit of the whole essay. Students have to attend the Writing and Research Skills courses to master the tricks of writing introductions and become experts.
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