New additions to the magazine and group project pages
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Monday, June 5
Balatinácz Péter's interview, Meszes-Tóth Eszter's essay on homeless people, and Nemes Csilla's reflection on clutter are featured in the latest update to the student text collection of this site. They are the latest additions to a growing collection of magazine and group project articles. They will now be supplemented by final versions of research papers as well.
Other authors whose essays are online are Bucsányi Adrienn, Molnár Anna and Nagy Attila. The table of contents page is right at your fingertips.
The first five ANG 160X students whose scripts were published on the internet this semester are Adonyi Zsóka, Luckay Zsuzsa, Holtz Marianne, Meisner Agnes and Richolm Tímea.
If you, too, would like to publish a magazine article or a piece of group writing, please see me with your disk. Let other students and people all over the world get to know your ideas. Alternatively, you could send these texts by email now.
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Next office hours: June 13
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The next office hours will be on Tuesday, June 13. You can pick up a research paper, take a test, or just talk to me from 9:30 to 12:30. Several students have already signed up for short private discussion slots between 10 and 12.
Two more office hours remain: June 14, and 19. Please remember that I will not be able to give a grade after the last office hours.
See the sign-up sheets next to my door. If you need to reschedule a meeting, send me email or call the secretary at 314 714.
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A Classic Bad Essay: Why Do We Play Soccer?
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The last edition of these pages reflected on a Language Practice writing assignment I introduced six years ago. The task was to write a bad, unfocused essay. I hypothesized that anyone who knew what a good, well-focused essay was could write a bad one, too.
This assignment proved an all-time favorite: both with the students and me. Here's one of the worst essays I've ever read: but of course, it's an exceptionally well written bad one.
If you are interested in how I dealt with my own assignment, maybe you will have the time to read the classic bad essay I wrote. Is it bad enough?
If you are confused and don't see the point, let me know. If you feel inspired, send me your cool unfocused essay.
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Additions to the UP Corpus
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With the change in the name of the university, the corpus I have collected will be renamed from "JPU" Corpus to "UP" Corpus. Currently holding over 400,000 words of student text, the collection is in need of additions. If you allow me to incorporate a magazine article, a group project essay, or a research paper in the UP Corpus, please send the text by email or bring it on disk. Thanks to all who contribute. If you participate, I can also show you ways in which you can learn some interesting features of your vocabulary and grammar.
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| Hot Resit Test News
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Two Essays Receive 15 Points From Marker
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Monday, June 5
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Two students, with code numbers 66 and 70, received 15 points each from one of the markers on their essays written in the resit filter test last Friday. The scripts are excellent examples of tight focus, intresting content, and concrete vocabulary, according to Horváth.
Although they are quite different in terms of content and tone, they have several features in common. Both authors chose their own focus for the first part of the title; they both provided a narrative flow; they both selected "Behind the Scenes" as their subtitles; and they both chose "personal account" from the third column of the theme selection table.
The texts are reproduced here as they appear in the manuscripts -- no editing has been introduced. There are a few spelling, punctuation and grammar errors, but the overall effect is good.
If you have an opinion about these scripts, send them when you have read the essays.
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Filter Test: Behind the Scenes
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| a personal account |
| Code number: 66 |
| 386 words |
| Successful first try, maximum point, victory. These are the dreams of a first year English major at PU, at the beginning of May before the Filter Test. During the first year several gossips went around at the English Departments about this test. First year students got many informations, tips and news, but in fact they didn't have any idea about it, until the 'big day' May 19th.
7.45, Friday morning, Building C. A big crowd is waiting in front of the room V/2, the place of the Filter Test. When Mónika, an English major, arrives at 7.50, she can't see anything but smoke, dictionaries and anxious people. She is too nervous too talk with the others, so she enters the room and finds a good seat. When she looks around she recognizes several 2nd and even 3rd year students too. Her heart is in her throat.
At 8.00 the exam starts. Listening, Reading, Grammar and an Essay. These are the components of the test. After the Listening part she calms down, "It wasn't hard" -- she thinks. But when she takes a look at the Reading part her heart starts to beat faster and faster. During the Grammar she is about to collapse. Thanks to God, a 10 minute break comes after it. Everybody is asking each other about the answers and Mónika finds out that someone's answers match with the ones that she wrote. The 10 minutes went down fast. Mónika sits back and waits for the Essay sheet. She is too tired to write even a sentence, but she has to. An hour passed and she finishes with it.
By the time she arrives home she is dead tired. She falls into the bed.
Next Wednesday the English Department is full of with students. Everybody is waiting for the results of the Filter Test. The air is vibrating and cigarette smoke flies around the place. When Mónika arrives almost all her friends have already been there. Some minutes later the results are on the wall. When Mónika finds her code, she recognizes 4 letters after it: L R G E. "What does it mean? Maybe I made it?" -- she thinks.
But when she reads through the paper she realizes that she failed from all. "Nice try" -- she thinks, and goes home. |
On a Luxury Yacht: Behind the Scenes
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| a personal account |
| Code Number 70 |
| 734 words |
| I worked on a luxury yacht for two years as a waiter. It sailed on the oceans all over the world. When I heard about the opportunity that a Hungarian, from this little and far country, can work on such a big ship, I applied for a job on it. They required that I should speak English well and my age should be between 21 and 28. As I lived in England for two years, speaking English wasn't a problem for me, and when I applied I was 24. The agency accepted my application and offered me a pretty high salary. They said that I had to pay for my journey to New York but they gave it back when I got there.
At first, I didn't know what to pack, what the most important things were and what I could leave home. As I remember my suitcases were so full and heavy that I nearly laughed when I looked around in my room -- it was empty. Only the furniture and the carpet remained there. But it didn't matter at all, I was very excited about the happenings of my immediate future. I could only think about the magnificent luxury yacht, the pleasant things with the rich people and the exotic islands, high mountains which we were going to pass. I thought that when my work time was over I explore the area where we stopped, but it happened in another way.
When I entered the yacht many people (it seemed that they were the staff) were rushing up and down, nobody asked me what I wanted. Then an angry man shouted at me to leave the area -- later I got to know that only guests were allowed to go there -- and that man turned out to be my boss. Heavens! He led me into a cabine on the first floor -- it was an eight-story yacht -- and I had to share it with a Portugese guy who could hardly speak English. This guy was a dishwasher, he didn't have any connection with the guests. He was a nice guy, we often call each other on phone since.
Next day I began to work and as the time passed I became disappointed. The guests, whom I thought to be intelligent, were noisy barbarians, impatient and awful. Sometimes I nearly went mad by their requests. For instance, a 30-year-old father with his two extremely fat children could sit at the same table if somebody sat there. I had to beg him to leave that table. Or, a Chinese couple wanted a special sauce onto their fish. They spelt its name but I had never heard about it. I spent 3 hours in the huge store of the luxury yacht with looking for that damn sauce, but finally I found it. Thus I got a high tip from them -- for my pleasure. Once a cabine stewardess told me that as she went into a bathroom she screamed because 3 sharkheads stood in the bathtube looking at her with opened mouth. Moreover, their owner asked her to clean them every day...
In the first weeks I was tired to death when I finished my work. I just slept and worked, slept and worked. Then I gradually got used to it and the long working hours didn't trouble me any longer.
When we had spare time I and some of my friends went to the beach to rest and sunbathe. Although it was short, we could gather strength to continue the work.
The staff were forbidden to make any relationship with the guests or to go on the board where there were the superb swimming-pools and parties were held there. Independently of them, we had our own parties with the workmates and I'm sure we enjoyed ourselves much better than the guests.
During the season we were told to be always patient and calm, there was a basic rule: the guests were always right. Yes, these journeys are so expensive that the luxury yacht -- it is contained in its name -- provides extra and luxury care without any unconvenience.
With working there I combined business with pleasure because I earned a lot of money, travelled throughout the world and had such many experiences that I won't forget till I die. In conclusion it was worth working on a luxury yacht even if it was very hard. |
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