Take Off

Merry

2011-12-21T18:43:00.001+01:00

Take Off on the iBookstore

2011-12-17T20:32:00.001+01:00

The iTunes iBookstore now features my students' creative writing in the top 50 free books. Currently in 28th place, Take Off comes before an English translation of Jókai's classic.

Last Sessions This Semester

2011-12-05T07:16:00.001+01:00

In my two MA courses, Monday will be the last sessions. Students in the Professional Writing course will discuss their blog experience, whereas participants in the Print and Electronic Media course will share their magazine, ebook and audio projects.

A sampling of the electronic media projects submitted by the students:

VIEWpoint magazine
We Are All Alike: an ebook

Phoenix: an ebook

Katharine Whitcomb's Party Last Week

2011-12-03T13:23:00.001+01:00

My colleague, US poet Katharine Whitcomb, invited her students and me to her house last week.

Images from the party:

Try our video maker at Animoto.

Fare well, Kathy!

Four UPRT Books Out, Two in Preparation

2011-10-25T12:54:00.004+02:00

The annual applied linguistics conference, UPRT, held in Pécs, is now in its sixth year. Four of the conference proceedings have been published so far -- the most recent, 2009, today. Three of the books are available on Google Books. The UPRT 2006 collection is in the archives of the Hungarian Electronic Library, where readers can find the other three volumes, too.

UPRT 2010 and 2011 will also be published before the year is out.

Leave a comment here if you have found useful studies in any of these books or contact their authors directly by email.

Podcasts Galore

2011-10-17T10:37:00.001+02:00

Students in my MA course in Print and Electronic Media will finally be able to sample lots of audio and video podcasts in the session today. On the menu: program segments from the National Geographic Weekend, New Yorker Fiction, Podomatic, and iTunes U. Today, we will have a guest, too: fellow teacher, poet, running enthusiast and podcast fan Kathy Whitcomb, visiting lecturer from Washington state.

In the consUltation, we will explore together how Useful and Unique iTunes U content can be foUnd and Used.

Reminder for next week: we will stage our second roundtable session. The theme: online reading and blogs. If you have any questions about it, ask them in the comments below.

The New Yorker's Steve Jobs Postscript

2011-10-10T10:06:00.003+02:00

An article by Nicholson Baker.

MA Students' Debut Blog Posts

2011-10-02T17:45:00.005+02:00

Four students, Zsófi, Ági, Péter and Tamás, have launched their blogs recently. Their posts are part of their projects in an MA course they take with me: Professional Writing.

The links:

Blogzso

From Behind My Glasses

The Blog

Tom's World

Enjoy!

E-Book on Every Continent

2011-09-29T16:21:00.003+02:00

From Brazil to Mexico to the US and Canada, from Spain to France to the UK and Ukraine, from Zimbabwe to South Africa, from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to India and China, from Indonesia to Australia, the e-book I Can't Be 16 Again has been downloaded by 239 people in just fifteen days after it first appeared on Feedbooks. That's a lot of places. Wishing all readers and e-book authors a great time with the book.

Electronic Journalism

2011-09-25T20:52:00.005+02:00

The fourth week beckons, and this means that in the Print and Electronic Media course, we move on from printed magazines to electronic media. The session on Monday will focus on some of the most popular and intriguing content in this area, such as the online versions of USA Today, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Wired, together with the iPad-only Daily, a unique combo of soft and hard news, quality and tabloid reporting. But can a session on this theme be complete without at least passing mention of The Onion? Don't think so.

Also on Monday: a workshop that will put everyone in the best mood for the first round-table session.

Ebook Out Now

2011-09-14T11:59:00.002+02:00

My third ebook has just been made available on Feedbooks. Click the cover to go to view and download your free copy.

It's true: you can't be 16 again, but you can read all the 16 plus 1 chapters of this collection by ten students in my Reading and Writing Skills group last semester: Eklics Dóra, Fülöp Flóra, Györffy Judit Klára, Holczer Hajnalka, Kovács Benedek András, Kremzer Viola, Makk Brigitta, Nagy-Fánczi Noémi, Németh Kitti and Nyúl Anikó.

And these are the places where people downloaded it yesterday:

Zinsser's Style and Magazine Content: Update on My MA Courses

2011-09-12T13:28:00.002+02:00

In the Professional Writing class today, we reviewed Zinsser's book On Writing Well as well as students' comments on and editing of two passages I shared on Google Documents. Today was also the first time that I had shared the full lesson plan with students in advance.

My other MA class, Print and Electronic Media, will get underway in half an hour. I will use two articles from The New Yorker as examples to discuss editorial and ad content in magazines. Besides, we will cover the major editorial differences between daily papers and magazines. Finally, I will help students choose and start work on their projects.

For the next class, study the syllabus and make sure you have not only a New Yorker copy with you but another print magazine, too. The themes next week: cover and cover stories, photojournalism as well as hard and soft news.

Welcome Back To School

2011-09-03T13:22:00.000+02:00

Hello & welcome to the fall 2011 edition of my blog. I will post news & updates about my classes this semester: Professional Writing, Print & Electronic Media (two MA courses) & my PhD seminars. If you attend these sessions, please add this link to your RSS reader or save it as a bookmark.

You can expect some other content, too, such as details about a new e-book I'm editing, bringing together essays & stories written by students in my BA course last semester. Meantime, you can browse my previous ebooks: one on Smashwords, the other on Feedbooks.

Those of you who are interested in my podcast, too, can follow pointers to what's new on that site.

Hindi song

2011-07-16T12:44:00.001+02:00

Hindi song (mp3)

Szoszo gets her degree

2011-07-01T11:46:00.001+02:00

Szoszo gets her degree (mp3)

Conference Talk on Blogs

2011-06-27T12:45:00.002+02:00

Last Friday, I gave a presentation at the University of Pécs Roundtable Conference in Applied Linguistics. My theme: the blogs students wrote in the spring semester.

You can view the slides I used right here.

And with that, I sign off for the summer. Enjoy your vacash'!

Students' Blogs in 2011 and Back

2011-05-23T12:00:00.003+02:00

Blogs from Spring 2011

Blogs from Spring 2009

Blogs from Fall 2008

Blogs from Spring 2008

And those early Xanga blogs

Task Achievement and Coherence Scores Soar

2011-05-23T10:25:00.003+02:00

Seventy-one students took the proficiency exam last Friday.

I marked the essays over the weekend -- here are the pie charts of my marks on the 71 essays, according to the four criteria (max: 3 points). As you can see, students scored much higher on task achievement and coherence than on vocabulary and structures.

Task achievement

Vocabulary

Structures

Coherence

These were the essay theme options. Thirty-nine essays were written about creativity, 32 about anger.

And finally, two creative passages from the best essays:

I remember a story about a little girl. She was around eight, and she was sitting in the art class in school. Their taskwas to draw orpaint something. And this little girl seemed to be very enthusiastic with her task, and that got the teacher's attention. She approached the girl and asked what she was drawing. She said that she was drawing a picture of God. "But no one knows what he looks like!" -- said the teacher, and the girlreplied: "They will in a minute." I found that story incredibly amazing. Her fantasy, her mind was free from any bounds that often restrict adults from creating something new. People like her will be the most successful, most brilliant artists and inventors, musicians of their generation.

And the other one:

Finding new roads to reach your aim, to achieve your goals must solve many of your problems, probably not all. Of course it is notpossible to lead a perfect life or always stand on the shore you want. Creative thinking, however, can make your life exciting like working on the best puzzle for a lifetime -- and while doing so, you may also invent something that will help humanity to survive the next century, write the greatest book about childhood or cook the best steak in human history.

Well Done!

2011-05-18T18:39:00.001+02:00

Congratulations to all students who have passed the written proficiency exam! Good job.

Keeping my fingers crossed (except when I'm typing) for those who will try again on Friday.

There are some great results in my Reading and Writing Skills group: several threes and even a four by Brigi!

The author of that highest scoring (11-pointer) essay I quoted the Coca-Colonization passage from the other day: Benedek. Yeah!

Coca-Colonization

2011-05-15T19:15:00.003+02:00

I have read over 100 essays over the weekend -- the proficiency exam scripts. There are a lot of superb and interesting ideas in them, but this one sentence certainly stands out with its humor and originality: the author writes this in the last paragraph of the essay titled "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be -- Or Is It?"

My home might be in any Coca-Colonized country in or outside Europe, preferably at the sea.

Nine Times Five

2011-05-12T19:23:00.000+02:00

Nine students have received a five as their final grades in the Reading and Writing Skills course. Kudos!

For stats fans, here are some other tidbits about students' achievement in the course: the course averages of participation (max: 15), vocab tests (max: 15), blog (max: 20), proficiency tests (max: 10), portfolios (max: 25 each), and the self-evaluation (max: 10).

Y'all's Wordle

2011-05-07T12:24:00.003+02:00

Here is part of the wordle made up by the most frequent words appearing in the blog entries of students who took my Reading and Writing Skills course this semester:

The full image is just a click away.

The full corpus of the twelve students' blog entries runs to 20,464 words (or tokens), or an average of 1,705 words per student. The number of different words (or types) in the corpus is 3,360. Words that appear once only (the hapax legomena) include

assure, blisters, charisma, diversity, extent, fossils, gondolas, Hasselhoff (remarkably, yes, once only), inexplicable, Japan, Kurdish, losing (no, that's not a typo: just one o in there), motorbike, nerd, ooooh, parapet, quiz, rumors, syllable, tamer, uphill, vogue, wedge, yoga and zero.

Sounds like a great collection of words to me -- maybe I will write another story with them.

Or will you?

Last Session, Last Reading, Last Certificates, Last Lunch

2011-05-05T16:26:00.007+02:00

More to come about our last session today, but first: John Drew's secret message on the board, apparently a poem by Weöres Sándor.

Rani Drew, our other guest today, read a passage from her most recent novel, The Dog's Tale.

And then there were the end-of-term certificates. recognizing achievement in various aspects of the course. The following awards were given out (this list does not include the ones for students who did not attend the last session):

Bokor Marcell: Most Dedicated Non-Blogger Commenter
Eklics Dóra: Best Portfolio Design
Fuchs Anett Zoi: Popularizing Japanese Culture
Fülöp Eper Flóra: Best Second Portfolio
Györffy Judit Klára: Second Best First Portfolio
Györffy Judit Klára: Best Second Portfolio
Holczer Hajnalka: Most Dedicated Blogger
Ifju Anna: Most Promising Ghost Publisher Author
Kovács Benedek: Second Best Second Portfolio
Kovács Benedek: Best First Portfolio
Makk Brigitta: Second Best First Portfolio
Kremzer Viola: Second Highest Vocabulary Test Score
Nagy-Fánczi Noémi: Helping Us See the Difference Between Carriers and Careers
Németh Kitti: Great Ideas for the RWS Course Syllabus
Nyúl Anikó: Highest Vocabulary Test Score
Szentmártoni Szilvia: Campus Botanic Garden Explorer

And finally, to find out about the last lunch -- see whether the students cover it in their blogs.

Tool That Helps You Check Your Submissions

2011-05-03T13:48:00.006+02:00

Do you know that even people whose word processors do not have a built-in spell and grammar check can use such services? There several such tools on the web. One that I would recommend you explore and run through its paces is Paper Rater, available for your clicking pleasure.

Of course, it is not as intelligent as a human editor, but it's certainly worth a try.

If you check it out, let us know in the comments below -- was it any good?

Portfolio News: Twenty-Five Marked, Six To Be Awarded In Last Session

2011-05-02T18:45:00.008+02:00

Breaking News:

I now have read and marked the portfolios submitted on Thursday. (I recieved two more portfolios Sunday night. Will have time to mark those later this week.)

My overall impression:

I am thrilled, amazed, and enthused about these collections. Most are absolutely great in terms of content, style, grammar, fluency -- and sense of humor. It really was a pleasure reading weekend for me. Thank you.

There are some slight problems, too, with two portfolios, which is why now I can report stats based on the ones I have been able to mark, that is, twenty-five collections.

Are you still with me? Take the plunge:

Portfolio 1: 14 marked so far.

Minimum score: 10
Maximum score: 24. The winner of the BEST FIRST PORTFOLIO AWARD will be announced in class
Second highest score: 23. The two winners of the SECOND BEST FIRST PORTOLIO AWARD will be announed in class
Group avarege score: 19.9

Portfolio 2: 11 marked so far.

Minimum score: 14
Maximum score: 24. The two winners of the BEST SECOND PORTFOLIO AWARD will be announced in class
Second highest score: 23. The winner of the SECOND BEST SECOND PORTOLIO AWARD will be announed in class
Group avarege score: 20.4

...

A previous version of this post:

Students submitted twenty-seven portfolios on Thursday. I have read and marked nineteen so far. Will read the rest over the weekend and report some stats on the marks when I am done. A reminder: if you want details about your scores, just send me an email.

Here is my pleasure-reading collection:

Student Scholars' Day Program Started

2011-04-27T14:12:00.002+02:00

The first student scholars' day organized at the Institute of English Studies has gotten underway. Over twenty people have turned up to listen to the ten presentations to be given today.

Happy Holidays

2011-04-22T17:20:00.002+02:00

Wishing all my students a great spring break and happy Easter egg hunting!

Bedő Anikó and her hand-painted Easter eggs:

Being Continued by Benedek

2011-04-19T16:05:00.001+02:00

Listen!

The Andless Post by Judy

2011-04-19T07:56:00.001+02:00

Listen!

Iran Sandwiched Between Canada and Greece: Blog Stats

2011-04-14T19:22:00.005+02:00

Interested to see where the readers of your blog posts come from? If you go to your Blogspot dashboard, click the Stats link and see the set of info there.

As for the visitors of my blog in the past thirty days, for example, most have come from Hungary, rather unsurprisingly, I guess -- see the top ten countries below. I have captured this map and the table from the Blogspot stats link myself.

If you unearth some intriguing result as you browse your stats, please share it with us, too, on your blog -- with some illustration, if possible.

Phenomenal Reading Test Results

2011-04-14T17:41:00.004+02:00

After the high scores of last week's writing test, students today have one-upped themselves in the reading component. Of the fifteen students taking the two reading tasks, ten scored fifteen points or higher, and two students maxed out at twenty.

Kudos to all!

Awesome Essays

2011-04-10T11:35:00.001+02:00

I have read and marked the sixteen proficiency-exam type essays students wrote in the class last week. Eleven students have chosen the YouTube theme, whereas "The Scenes of Szenes" theme inspired five.

The results are incredible: three students have scored ten points or higher, out of the 12 max, and altogether, thirteen students have scored six points (the official pass mark in the proficiency exam) or over. Well done.

As in the course the top mark for the essay task is five points, all scores will be scaled to the five-point system: that is, eleven points is worth 4.6, six points, 2.5, and so forth.

Here is the chart of the scores.

And now, a sampling of the three highest-scoring scripts: the introductory paragraph from each. Enjoy.

My friend invited me to her birthday party, which is going to be held at a place called Revolution Bar, in London. She described the place to me and I was really amazed that she mentioned that she regularly sees groups of students learning or hanging out there. The bar has its own types of cocktails, one can have dinner or even lunch. Besides its charming atmosphere, it has various types of seatings, from single tables to comfortable booths. Only light background music is played on weekdays, but at weekends, they tend to invite bands, thus live music is also on display. Nevertheless, this pub can easily be approached and found with the use of public transport.

One of my favourite videos on YouTube is made by a 20-year-old university student from Detroit. He made lots of videos before this one, in which he introduced some of the comments from his previous videos in a funny, exaggerated way. He did a fantastic job: he changed clothes, put on make-up and wigs, he even used different accents for each comment. It really cracked me up, mainly because of his weird facial expressions and strange ideas to copy the stereotypes. These stereotypes are fangirls, rednecks, city-dwellers, 'haters' and fans.

My ultimate favourite YouTube video is by Simor Máté, a former student of the institute. He is widely known online as 'Vadhaj', and the title of the video might be translated to English as 'How to eat a 200 Forint banknote?' It is set in a lecture hall where any English lectures can be held: E 342, H auditorium, CV2, whatever. In a back row a certain hand holds 200 Forints in cash and starts to rip it up into tiny little pieces. Just when he is over with it he picks up a load and -- with his hair dangling wildly -- puts it in his mouth and swallows it with some water.

Interested in the clips the last two introductions are abut? See them below. Thanks, Marcell, for the link of the first one.

Writing Test Today

2011-04-07T10:58:00.004+02:00

In the session today, students had the opportunity of writing a proficiency-type essay. This is the task:

Test of Writing

In this part of the test, you have a choice. Choose Task A or Task B and write the required essay according to its instructions. Your writing will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

· the degree to which you have completed the task;
· the range and appropriateness of vocabulary;
· the range and accuracy of structures;
· the organization and coherence of paragraphs.

For each task, four topics are given. Write about all of them. Treat each topic in a separate paragraph. Write about 300 words.

You have 60 minutes for the test. You may use a thesaurus.

Task A: Is It Your Tube?

Write an essay about online videos. In the text,

1. introduce a YouTube video you are familiar with;
2. describe the entertaining or learning potential of YouTube;
3. explain your attitude to video sharing sites in general;
4. discuss why students spend or do not time on them.

Task B: The Scenes of Szenes

Write an essay about a place where students gather. In the text,

1. introduce Szenes or another place where students gather;
2. describe the entertaining or learning potential of that place;
3. explain your attitude to such places in general;
4. discuss why students spend or do not spend time there.

Sidewalk Cafés Reappear in Pécs Downtown Area

2011-03-31T09:04:00.006+02:00

More and more cafés and restaurants in downtown Pécs have re-installed their sidewalk services this week. An early morning survey today of the Király street, Széchenyi square and Jókai square area has confirmed the re-appearance of Murphy's Pub, McDonald's and Inn to the Elephant sidewalks, among others. Workers were still installing the supporting structures of the sidewalk area of the well-known sweet-shop Virág, in Széchenyi square, across from the town hall.

Two Serious Women and Two Serious Men at the Apollo

2011-03-23T07:28:00.006+01:00

On Tuesday, Judy, Eper, Balázs and I went to see the movie A Serious Man at the Apollo. We had a super time! I will write a review of the flick later on, but for now, two pix: a rather grainy shot of the three students at the box office and another one of the entrance logo of the screening room, Szuper 8.

Below, the pre-history of the event:
Listen!via Audioboo

A few weeks ago, I posted a poll on my blog, asking students whether they would be interested in a movie night together. Here are the results:

Student Scholars' Day

2011-03-21T15:18:00.004+01:00

Look for posters at the faculty for the Student Scholars' Day, the April 27 event. And make sure you remember to come to the faculty council room on the day at two o'clock.

Clippings from the Vocab Test

2011-03-21T09:19:00.002+01:00

Nine students have already sent me info about their Bryson and New Yorker article choices, and for them I now have the tests.

There will be three tasks, each familiar from the combined test.

Please remember to send me info for your test today -- if you would like to take one on Thursday.

See the quotes from the test below. The first task is based on the two Bryson stories -- the second, on the article from The New Yorker.

- - - - -

Part 1......Use each of these expressions in a sentence of yours.

Part 2 ...... (a) Fill in the missing words in this passage. One gap, one word.

(b) List five expressions (multi-word units) that you have learned from the article. Expressions appearing in the passage above do not count.

Pix from the Punctuation Picnic

2011-03-17T11:59:00.003+01:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

The RWS session today was devoted to punctuation. And we also had a picnic while dealing with pandas who eat shoots and leaves, people who need assistance to bring them back from comma coma, and the wonderful service that the cool colon can render.

Plus, we took photos. Here are mine from the session.

Reminder: Picnic at the Punctuation Mark... That is, Punctuation Park

2011-03-16T12:55:00.002+01:00

Listen!

via AudioBoo

Pot of Gold

2011-03-12T16:00:00.001+01:00

There were four fivers in the pot on Thursday, when I took this snapshot (which doesn't make it a :) pot shot). Since then, two more have been planted in it. A new tradition at the institute?

Proficiency Test Workshop: The Essay Writing Test

2011-03-09T18:14:00.000+01:00

In the next session, we will devote most of our time to the essay writing task of the proficiency test. I am planning to use a few authentic essays from previous exams that we will read, discuss -- as well as mark.

As you might know, these scripts are evaluated, by two markers independently, according to four criteria: task achievement (is the essay about the required topics?), vocabulary (are the words and expressions specific enough and appropriate?), structures (is there a wide range of correct grammatical structures?), and coherence (do the paragraphs and the whole text make good sense?).

An essay task is reprinted at the bottom of this post. If you feel you can't wait till Thursday, you can start writing one of the essays based on it.

Besides, we will discuss how various course tasks will be evaluated, and I'll also return the vocabulary tests.

There are some high scores!

* * * *

In this part of the test, you have a choice. Choose Task A or Task B and write the required essay according to its instructions. Your writing will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

the degree to which you have completed the task;
the range and appropriateness of vocabulary;
the range and accuracy of structures;
the organization and coherence of paragraphs.

For each task, four topics are given. Write about all of them. Treat each topic in a separate paragraph. Write about 300 words.

You have 60 minutes for the test.

You may use a thesaurus.

Task A: When In Doubt, Tell The Truth

Write an essay about telling the truth. In the text,

explain your attitude to honest people;
describe a person you regard as honest;
tell a story when being honest was problematic;
discuss whether telling the truth is always the best.

Task B: The Strongest Principle of Growth Is Choice

Write an essay about making choices. In the text,

explain your attitude to making choices;
describe a choice you regard as perfect;
tell a story when making a choice was problematic;
discuss why the strongest principle of growth is choice.

Where Does This Word Cloud Come From?

2011-03-01T10:14:00.005+01:00

Take a look at this word cloud -- a random selection of words taken from a recent blog post. Who has written it? Answers: in the comments below.

See you in the next class on Thursday. There will be a vocabulary test, among other activities.

And please see the poll in the sidebar. Cast your vote if you would like to participate in it. Then, we may watch a movie together at the Apollo and write a movie review about it -- on our blogs.

I look forward to it!

New Yorker Session This Thursday

2011-02-24T15:07:00.005+01:00

Well, the session was not held in New York, but it did focus on two articles from The New Yorker. They are available at these addresses:

E-mail auto-response

Soccer

For the next class, read one more article from The New Yorker. If you would like to take the vocabulary test, prepare for it the way we discussed it in the session. If you missed the class, come to my Friday office hour or ask a friend about it.

Also in today's session, we started using the 5 T Tips for editing paragraphs. Make sure you complete the third task related to it in the handout you received in the session. The file is also available on Coospace.

And finally, the clip I wanted to show you today in class but couldn't. Have no idea why it didn't work in class. Well, here we go: the story of Howard Engel, the writer who could not read.

Session Two

2011-02-10T19:25:00.001+01:00

In the second class, we discussed what texts are accepted for the first portfolio and the blog. If you have further questions about these issues, please visit me in an office hour.

Next week, there will be a vocabulary test. Some of these expressions will surely appear in it.

Welcome to the Spring Semester

2011-02-02T09:07:00.017+01:00

In the past few semesters, I have had to go without my favorite BA Reading and Writing Skills courses due to my other teaching obligations. But tomorrow, I am making a come-back in the Hungarian writing pedagogy arena with a new course for twenty students. A sneak peek of the syllabus:

If you are part of that team, visit this blog for regular news and updates as well as for links to students' blogs.

Have a superior spring!

Before the first session, I asked students registered for the course to help me write a short story. I invited them to choose a verb, a noun, a proverb, a city, and some other bits -- for me to include in the text.

Interested in the story? Here we go:

Homecoming

“Fun joke! Awesome!” As he was browsing the latest issue of The Island, he found several cartoons that looked just great. He especially liked this one by his favorite cartoonist in the magazine. The caption read, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” “Awesome,” he repeated.

But Steve realized he shouldn’t be sitting here, having fun. He put the magazine down and checked his air ticket and itinerary. He had to get going to reach his flight to Bristol. Having lived in Jaffna for the past six years, his contract was up and a new post was waiting for him at Filton College.

He walked to the book case and looked at the paperback he didn’t want to take with him. There was no way The Secret Garden would make it back home. He shuddered at the memory of that evening with Susan. The way she was bringing that doughnut with chocolate to her mouth after ridiculing his fascination with the novel.

On the plane he wanted to read Wuthering Heights. And Susan would not be there this time, he made sure of that. What a childish way of dealing with this impasse, actually. But it was all over now.

“Howdy, mate,” Gary greeted him at Bristol International Airport. “How was your Heights, dude?”

“‘twas okay, actually,” Steve said as the two made their way through the crowd. Why the procrastination? Why spend all that time in a foreign land that he never really managed to work up a feeling for?

As they walked he felt his steps were becoming light, then even lighter, almost as in a ballet. What a hilarious feeling! Back home, his friends around him, the misery and the hurt will fade away. They have to fade away, as the tracks of a bobsleigh get covered by fresh, driven snow.

With the sights and the smells and the sounds of Sri Lanka still on his mind, he stepped outside and realized that this opportunity to start over wasn’t just any old chance, but the last one, the only one.

Sounds

2011-01-02T19:11:00.001+01:00

Listen!

via AudioBoo

New podcast episide

2011-01-02T19:00:00.001+01:00

Sounds: http://j.mp/g7JYwV

Take Off, the Podcast: The Latest Episode

2011-01-02T13:10:00.000+01:00

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Session

2010-11-14T17:59:00.005+01:00

In my MA class tomorrow in the Print and Electronic Media course, we will discuss the interactive features of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Students will share their selection of viral videos. My choice: this clip:

Creative Writing Classes at Beregszász College, Ukraine

2010-11-11T18:12:00.009+01:00

I am back from a guest teaching tour of Beregszász (Beregovo), Ukraine. I have taught three groups of students there this week.

They have said they may send me a revised version of the stories they wrote in the classes. Meantime, the photos I took of them, with permission.

From left to right: Emese, Alexandra, Timi and Ági, and back row: Gergely and Ildikó

Viktória, Viktória, Gergely and Anett (front row), and Ági, Timi, Ilona and Daniella

Marina, Szamanta and Alexandra and Sándor and Igor

Front row: Robert, Lilla and Brigi. Back row: Nikolett, Szilvia and Attila

The same group, with Norbert in the foreground

A photo I took with Norbert's pro camera

And another one that he took of the group and me

Jonathan Smith's Book Review

2010-07-28T17:42:00.001+02:00

Jonathan Smith

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar

First Harper Perennial’s modern classic edition of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar was published in 2005. Originally publish in 1963 it did no make its way to the states until 1971 due to issues with international copyright and her ex-husband Ted Hughes. The novel is extremely autobiographical, although all names and locations have been changed, so upon reading biographies of Plath one can begin to compare her own dealings with depression and Esther’s. The novel accounts for Esther Greenwood’s entrance into adulthood and her slow decline into depression. Due to the pressures of being a woman in the 1950, both at home and in the work place, Esther struggles to find her own identity in a world that already has her pigeonholed. Ultimately her depression leads her to several unsuccessful suicide attempts and two mental hospitals where she hopes to be cured.

The story it begins with Esther working at a magazine on a summer internship, and although her life seems picturesque, something in the back of her mind is not allowing her to be happy. During this time at her internship she recalls various moments from her past that allow the reader to begin to understand why she is at the place she is mentally. Returning home from New York she receives her first taste of failure, when she receives a denial letter from a writing school in Boston Massachusetts, USA. This is the catalyst in her decline into depression. From her mother’s house she goes back and forth between past and present, and as such the reader becomes witness to the effects of depression brought on by gender roles of the early 1950s.

The characters and events of this novel are designed to be representative of the culture in America at the time Plath’s writing. Her mother’s attempts to persuade her to learn shorthand are the result of a male dominated work force. Esther’s mother is not alone in knowing that shorthand will give her daughter a leg up in the world, for it was a common practice across the nation, and was generally taught at female universities. This is not to say that a woman could not choose a different career for herself, and her boss at her internship and a fellow intern, are prime examples of a women in a position of power. Unfortunately for Esther, Jay Cee and Doreen appear to late in her life, and what is the proper life path for a woman has already been embedded in her head.

Not only does Esther fight against predetermined roles for schooling and a career, she also must deal with prescribed expectations of sexuality. From who is a desirable man to marry, to how she must and can interact with males, Esther must navigate through her own desires and those of others. The main male figure in her life, Buddy Willard— coming from a model American family and now studying medicine at Yale University— is the ideal man for marriage, regardless of her own feeling for Buddy, she is pressured to be with him by her mother, Buddies family, and her fellow doormats at school. She rebels against this norm and meets and cast of oddly name gentlemen who she hopes will be her sexual liberation.

I recommend this book for any lover of prose, but I feel I must warn any potential readers that the story, at times, can be rather mellow-dramatic. The style in which she writes is simple and flows rather quickly, and as such can be finished in relatively no time. As much as this is a novel for sheer amusement, it offers many beneficial insights to Cold War culture and its effects on the individual. It can be read as a fictitious case study of one girl’s battle with depression, which is brought on by standards that constantly remind Esther that she can never be free of the expectations and limitations of being a woman in the 1950s

Mart-Mari Wicht's Book Review

2010-07-28T08:31:00.003+02:00

Zuma: A Biography
Jeremy Gordin, 2008
ISBN 978-1-86842-263-0 , R169.95 (paperback), 324pp.
Jonathan Ball Publishers (PTY) LTD, Jeppestown, South Africa
Reviewed by Mart-Mari Wicht, University of Stellenbosch

OVERVIEW
“Zuma” by Jeremy Gordin is a biography about Jacob Zuma, the current South African president and leader of the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC is a political party that lead Africans out of the struggle of apartheid. The book was published in 2008, a year before Zuma was elected as president. There has been much controversy following Zuma’s election. Many believe that his past does not reflect that of a true and worthy leader of this volatile country and its young democracy. Jeremy Gordin is a widely-published writer for many South African newspapers and has completed various articles on the scandalous life of the newly elected president. He aims to give South Africans, those interested in politics internationally or local or in Zuma as a person, a new perspective of Zuma and his past. The book urges people to look beyond the headlines and into Zuma’s past to better understand the man behind the title.

DESCRIPTION
Written chronologically, the book starts off by taking a look at the younger years of this notorious Zulu boy and how he ended up being one of South Africa’s most controversial leaders. It is divided into 19 chapters that follow the life of Jacob Zuma up until 2008. Gordin tells the story of Zuma’s life focusing mainly on the last eight years where he clashed heads with Mbeki and was facing various corruption charges. A thorough recount of South African history is given as well as the effects on Zuma’s life, the life of his family and the ANC.

“Men make their lives, but they do not make them just as they please, they do not make them under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past, and by the world around them” (x). Gordin tries to take Zuma’s history, his personality and character and apply it to where he is today. On pages 2 and 52 Gordin gives insight into the Zulu culture. This is significant when trying to understand who Zuma is and why he does certain things and how this relates to the Politics. You cannot understand a person if you do not know their background, for a man’s past will always influence his future. “ Buthelezi had fiercely promoted an ideology in which the ‘Zulu nation’ was described as the inheritor of a warrior tradition, and had repeatedly defended the carrying of so-called ‘traditional’ weapons, such as assegais (spears), knobkierries (club-like-sticks) or pangas (machetes) by Inkatha supporters, claiming that their prohibition would be ‘cultural castration’ designed to destroy the Zulu ethnic identity and awareness’. It is important for South Africans to understand the other ethnic groups of the rainbow nation. To understand polygamy, the songs they sing, the wedding traditions and the traditional clothing which characterize the Zulu culture. By understanding someone’s culture, it brings one one step closer in understanding the person and in Zuma’s case it is very important that both white and black people understand where he comes from.

Gordin explains Zuma’s life in prison and in exile in Swaziland and Mozambique. He then discusses the very important relationship that begun while in exile between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma which you later realise as being one of great importance.

Gordin does have very substantive information that sheds new light into the many trials of president Zuma. This is relevant especially on the trial for the rape case where Gordin attended every sitting and really gives new perspective to the case. I do believe that people still mistakenly see him as a rapist, but if you go through the trouble to read the case or have an in-depth look at what actually happened, you do realise how his name and credibility was ruined just because of one person. The book also gives the reader a greater understanding to why Zuma was caught up in the corruption charges and his personal relationship with the Shaik brothers and other political elites, thus giving ordinary South Africans a bit more insight in why politicians act the way they do and support each other blindly, no matter what. It also gives us a bit more substance to base his ideas on, because it paints a picture of his history and background which is very important if you want to understand why someone makes certain decisions.

The book is written from an outsider’s perspective. The author gathered his information from interviews, previous articles he wrote with other writers and then the various trials and meetings which he has attended. Although Zuma did not have much influence in the book, he did accept it after it was published and even one of his comrades Blade Nzimande from the South African Communist Party wrote a complementary review on the biography.

EVALUATION
Jeremy Gordin does a great retelling of history, and I believe that he succeeds in telling people more about the president than they would otherwise know. The book is mostly easy to read and follow, even for those who know nothing of South African history. However, he comes across as being very biased in his opinion and does not hesitate to make it clear that he is a big supporter of Zuma and so the reader does get the feeling that some facts might be omitted or political agenda might be followed. “I am not suggesting that Zuma and others are beyond censure because of their role in the struggle. What I am saying is that such people did not choose the easy road; they made a choice to fight apartheid actively and nearly always at huge personal cost – a choice that maybe you, and certainly I, did not make; and that it might be worthwhile, from time to time, to take a minute to remember that”. I do not think that this statement has any relevance in an unbiased biography. An opinion like the above could be written in a newspaper column, but not in a biography where people are expecting to read cold hard facts.

SUMMARY
Overall, this is a great read. It is quite simply structured for those who do not have such a broad knowledge about politics, especially South African politics. In the end, when read with an open mind, can give the reader enough leeway to make his/her own opinion about the future of South African politics and the future of Zuma’s role within.

Marija Petkovska's Review

2010-07-27T17:31:00.003+02:00

Review of Proficiency Masterclass

Proficiency Masterclass
Oxford University Press

Kathy Gude
Michael Duckworth

ISBN 0-19- 432912-7

Reviewed by Marija Petkovska

Overview
Proficiency Masterclass is a course book which focuses on the preparation for the Certificate of Proficiency in English Examination (CPE). The students study different areas of the language necessary for successful completion of the examination, such as Paper 1: reading, Paper 2: writing, Paper 3: the use of English, Paper 4: listening and Paper 5: speaking. The book gives a preparatory programme and a full explanation of the exam itself as well.

However, this review will turn attention mainly to Paper 5: writing which includes essays, letters, articles, reports, proposals and reviews, since it contains the largest amount of exercises.

Description
The student’s book begins with a guide to the revised CPE Examination. Each paper accounts for 20% of the total marks of the exam. Students are expected to reach Mastery C2 level (Advanced level) according to the Council of Europe Framework. There are specific explanations about each part of the papers such as the format and ranges of sources. 12 units contain topics describing situations from everyday life. They vary from healthy habits, safety and danger, nature and up to money and entertainment.

The writing part consists of thorough explanations on how to write the given assignment. Students should write a certain piece either in the form of academic writing, journalistic writing or plain correspondence letters. They answer the given questions in order to show that they have understood the given task. Afterwards, they need to analyze the sample. Another set of questions regarding the same task are provided. The authors give examples or extracts on how the writing should be organized. On the left side there are exam tips. The final exercise is the writing of the text itself. For each of the writing assignments the stages are the same. The first one is Read, the second Think, the third is Plan, the forth Write and the last stage is Check. The book does not offer direct answers, but through questions and associations helps the student reach the correct answer.

A set of regulations and recommendations for the students is another characteristic of the written part of the exam. After dealing with them, the emphasis is mainly on the following exercises. Their aim is word formation or set book compositions. They can also be in the form of correcting mistakes, paraphrasing, checking vocabulary etc. Each unit has different types of exercise. One common feature is that the questions refer to the given assignment, regardless which paper is treated.

After each unit, students can check their progress by doing exercises in the Overview. Most of them include gapped sentences and word formations. However, all of them deal with lexical clozes and key word transformations. Thus, the main focus of all of the tips and exercises is on helping the students find their topic and aim, and furthermore, use the correct language.

Evaluation
All in all, the book meets the students’ expectations. There are enough explanatory passages with a reasonable amount of exercises.

However, there should be more examples for those who want to study on their own and not in class with a teacher. Since the book is not a real textbook, there should be more guidance for individual working. Furthermore, I would like to see an answer key to all exercises. The student’s book functions as a workbook, while the workbook contains only examples of the actual CPE Examination. The overviews could be richer in variations in order the students to be able to evaluate their progress in all fields, not just in the use of English and word formation.

As for the writing section, the step-by-step guidance is particularly well done. It gives students opportunity to work on each detail. For the same reason, there is also an example how to write a piece. All help is demonstrated in details. I find especially helpful that after identifying the task, immediate example of the same follows. In that way, students would know how to prepare better for the exam. The exercises vary in term of writing an essay, an article, a book review, a proposal, a letter and a report.

Summary
This book is a very good guide for the CPE Examination. It is rich in explanations and exercises, though it could contain more examples for those wanting to study individually. All sections of the exam are covered, with precise plan and help. Although the book does not offer keys to the exercises, it offers the answers through questions, which would be extremely useful for enriching the vocabulary and broadening the knowledge of the English grammar overall.

Summer School Session Starting Soon

2010-07-26T13:35:00.008+02:00

In less than two hours, my Academic Writing workshop will get underway with fourteen students in the Graz Summer School, held at Seggau Castle, Austria. Today's theme: the book review. I hope to share with you extracts from the students' work.

Here's the room an hour before the session. Maybe I can take and place another photo with the students already working on a task.

Photos during the session: students drafting their reviews about books as diverse as Süskind's Perfume, Gender History in Eastern Europe, Plath's Bell Jar, Accounting for the Enviromnent, A Biography of Zuma, Al Aswany's Jacobean Building, and many more.

Take Off Tips Ebook Out Now

2010-04-15T09:54:00.004+02:00

Feedbooks has just made available an 11-chapter ebook of mine, a selection of tips and tasks from this site. Interested? You can view it here.

Creative Writing Anthology Ebook Published

2010-04-13T09:58:00.006+02:00

Take Off, a collection of twenty-two stories and essays written by my students, is now available as a free ebook in Kindle and Epub format for download.

The Contents:

Still There by Dániel Takács
Night by Eszter Zsélyi
Ikebana: Traditional Art in a Modern Way by Tímea Takács
My Little Ways by Anna Tóth
To Become a Child Again by Ágnes Stier
It’s Really Worth It by Orsolya Tukács
Alright by Diána Göncz
Rain on the Windshield by Zsófia Gyenge
A Syllabus by Rita Nyulas
I Hate Mornings by Viola Zöldy
The Woman I Only Knew by Her Voice by Gergely Farkas
First Lines by Kinga Kurucz
As If by Mónika Ürmösi
Searching For by Mariann Gerlecz
Thirteen First Sentences by Dániel Takács
The Pine Tree by Tamás Horváth
Runaway Dreams by Gabriella Ferencz
Time Flies by Zoltán Takács
Shrinking Five Weeks by Tekla Teveli
Quite Right by Nikolett Kovács
Of Mice and Tiger by Zsófia Liska
Y’all Ain’t Gonna Jibe at My English by Dániel Takács

Proficiency Essay Themes

2010-01-06T14:55:00.003+01:00

The game option was chosen by an overwhelming majority of students today in the proficiency exam. Of the 35 students, thirty wrote about how we can learn about people's personalities by playing with them. Five students went for the other option: what we can learn about a nation's ideals from its adverts.

Happy 2010!

2010-01-04T10:36:00.002+01:00

Pécs is European Capital of Culture this year.

Research Paper Options

2009-12-07T09:44:00.007+01:00

Today, in the last session of the semester, we talked about the portfolios and wrapped up the writing pedagogy theme. I shared my assessment with each portfolio writer. The final scores of the five collections (of a possible 50):

38, 41, 42, 43, and 44.

The last task: the completion of the research paper. It should be submitted via email by December 21, as a word processor file attachment.

Requirements:

Citations and references: use the APA standard -- at least two sources

Length: 3 pages, double spaced, spell-checked

Theme: any qualitative or quantitative applied linguistic study relevant to the course. Options:

Reaching Targets in Paragraphs: A Portfolio Analysis
Analysis of Tense in Paragraphs
Humorous Travel Writing
Humorous Feature Writing in The New Yorker
Readers' Response to Nathan's Book
Originality in a Student's Portfolio
Place Descriptions in Portfolios
The Vocabulary of Five Portfolios: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
Short-Term and Long-Term Literacy Improvement in the Professional Writing Course
Success of Email Communication: A Case Study
The Content and Style of the English Website of the University of Pécs
Professional Writing 2010, Fall Semester: Syllabus Design

There are, of course, many other options. Choose the one that best fits your interest and expertise.

You will have the opportunity to revise your paper if you send it by December 21.

Enjoy the end of the semester and the winter break.

Merry Xmas!

Remembering Him

2009-11-30T09:41:00.004+01:00

We started the session today by lighting a candle in memory of the 19-year-old student who was killed last week.

Then students shared and submitted their portfolios.

Our last theme in the course is writing pedagogy. We started discussing a study about feedback.

For next class, read both articles from the Journal of Second Language Writing. They are available on Coospace.

Besides, read the study I co-wrote with Lovorka Zergollern-Miletić. The edited book where it was published can be found on Google Books (go to page 135). We will discuss your questions about these three studies next week.

Also for next time:

decide on your research paper theme
bring a source that will be relevant for your literature review
take notes about your research question and research method. You can put them in your notebook. I would like to ask you to let me take a look at your notebook in the class.

Next Week: Submission of Portfolios

2009-11-23T09:39:00.004+01:00

You can see four portfolios from 2001 here: they are by students who took my Writing and Research Skills course then.

Next week, please bring two copies of your portfolio to class, too. Correspondence students: please post my copy of your portfolios to my department address. As you know, I need them in print.

This is the evaluation scheme I will use:

5 points: production (cover page, typography, and layout)
20 points: language (accuracy and appropriateness of grammar and vocabulary, cohesion, and punctuation)
25 points: content (coherence, originality, understandability, number of scripts, relevance, and professionalism)

In the next session, first we will read a few parts from the portfolios and then go on with our next topic, writing pedagogy.

Today and Next Week: Rebekah Nathan at AnyU

2009-11-16T10:04:00.001+01:00

Today, we discussed the college experience of Rebekah Nathan, based on the first three chapters of the book My Freshman Year.

For the next session, read the rest of the book on Coospace. Based on chapter four, prepare a one-page handout similar to the one we used in class today. Post it on Coospace by Sunday afternoon.

Professional Writing, Session 9: Academic Discourse

2009-11-09T10:29:00.005+01:00

In the session on November 16, we will discuss the first three chapters of Nathan's book. Please come to the class with specific ideas you wish to explore in detail. We will also focus on the ethnographic aspect of the book.

The handout we used in the session today are available on Coospace so that all students can do the tasks.

And look at this photo: maybe one of the last sunny days this month?

Paragraphs, Sentences, and Words: Session 8

2009-11-02T09:58:00.005+01:00

For the session on November 9, study the part of Kolin's book about paragraphs, sentences, and words. In the print edition available in the library, this component starts on page 723. Select sections are also available on Google Books, where it begins on page 693.

Write a page or two in your notebook about one of the tips covered. For example, explain in your text how Kolin defines an ellipsis and what he says about using ellipses in writing. The texts will be read out in class.

On Coospace, you can already find our next reading by Nathan. Make sure you read it by the November 16 session.

And this is a great tool for every word fan: The Visual Thesaurus is an online resource that, when used regularly, can help you learn and use words. Here's an example:

Business Writing Handouts for Session 7

2009-10-26T09:52:00.005+01:00

Students in the Professional Writing course please remember to share on Coospace your one-page handouts by Sunday afternoon.

In the next session, we will continue our exploration of what it means to be successful in business writing, based on Kolin's textbook.

The Cartoon Issue of The New Yorker is out now!

Session 6 and Next Time: October 26

2009-10-12T08:35:00.009+02:00

There will be no Professional Writing class next week, due to the fall break. Our next session will be held on October 26, when we start work with the third theme, Writing in Business. Please read the two scanned chapters from Kolin's book, Successful Writing at Work, available on Coospace.

Students today discussed the New Yorker articles they have read and in the rest of the session composed their rendition of one of these features.

Mónika's, Anna's and Gabi's New Yorker choices:

Correpondence students: please share your own versions of your chosen New Yorker articles with us via Coospace. The length should be about 500 words.

Enjoy your break! If that can mean listening to, rather than reading, a Comment article by Adam Gopnik, here's a link to one about Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol.

New Yorker Day: Session 5

2009-10-05T07:16:00.003+02:00

Lesson plan:

Today, we will devote most of our time in the Professional Writing class to The New Yorker: its authors, genres, and themes. I will ask each student to share her views of the articles she has read and to read out a part of one article. This will be followed by two other, written, tasks, related to the article. At the end of the class, I will ask students to submit notebooks for feedback.

Work for next week:

Go to the American Corner and register with the library, if you haven't yet. Browse the books and magazines. Choose one issue of The New Yorker for the next class and read at least five features in it. (1) Day students: Bring the copy to the session and be prepared to write your version of one of the articles in your notebook in class. (2) Correspondence students: Send me an email and attach your version of the feature. For both groups: length should be between 500 and 600 words.

As always: I look forward to your additional work -- send me your features by email or better yet, share them via Coospace.

Professional Writing, Session 4

2009-09-28T07:33:00.005+02:00

Today, we will review Garrison's discussion of feature writing and Michael Specter's article, among other themes. See the handout we will use.

For the next session, when both day and correspondence students come together again, read two pieces each by two of these New Yorker contributors: Ian Frazier, Adam Gopnik, Patricia Marx and Elizabeth Kolbert. Send me the links to their articles by Thursday evening in an email. Write a profile about each author in your notebook. And as always, continue discovering your own favorite writers, articles, stories, and writing in your notebook and for your portfolio. Share your work via Coospace.

The other writing task: write a comparison piece of Zinsser and Garrison, based on an idea, a notion, a tip, a definition or some other issue that connects the two experts. For example, what do Zinsser and Garrison say about the interview? Quote one idea from each of them and discuss their points. At the end of the piece, provide your own interpretation of the issue.

You can start writing about it in your notebook. When you are satisfied with it, type it up and share it via Coospace, within the forum.

And now, the handout from the fourth session.

A LIFE OF ITS OWN

What words are missing from these extracts? What do you think of each quote’s content and implications?

By using gene-sequence information and synthetic DNA, they are attempting to ____________ the metabolic pathways of cells to perform entirely new functions, such as manufacturing chemicals and drugs.

“What happens to struggling farmers when laboratory _______ in California replace farms in Asia and East Africa?”

“We ought to be able to make any _____________ produced by a plant inside a microbe,” he said.

“… But I don’t think the answer to the future is to __________ into the past.”

The language of just four chemical letters—adenine, cytosine, guanine, and _____________ —comes in the form of enormous chains of nucleotides.

“… Now the use of the recombinant DNA technology _____________ research in biology….”

The ultimate goal, however, is to create a synthetic organism made _______________ from chemical parts and blueprints of DNA.

“… The dangers of ______________________ are real and serious.”

I _______________ how much of this was science fiction.

What’s available to idealistic students, of course, ___________ also be available to terrorists.

For synthetic biology to accomplish any of its goals, we will also need an education system that encourages _________________ and the study of science.

The industrial age is _________________ to a close, eventually to be replaced by an era of biological engineering.

“… This is just the beginning stage of being able to program _____________.”

Professional Writing, Session 3

2009-09-21T09:55:00.008+02:00

Today, we discussed Zinsser's ideas about writing non-fiction pieces and had a recap on course content and options. Anna, Gabi and Mónika shared and commented on each other's scripts. I edited two student scripts in the class. These and the two other descriptions I have received from Dóri and Reni will be emailed to the authors. Revisions and comments on comments will be welcome.

An explanation of editorial mark-up I use:

At the top of the text, I provide my overall impressions about content and organization.

//Texts appearing between double slashes are my questions or content comments about the previous clause, sentence or paragraph.//

Words appearing __between underscore characters like these__ indicate a need for lexical or syntactic revision.

Always compare your original text with my edited version as there may also be parts that I rewrite: this will involve changing punctuation, words, and even sentences.

Obviously, you decide how much you will consider all this editing when working on your portfolio. In any event, from now on, when you share your scripts with other students, please follow this system in your comments.

For the next session, read the scanned sections from Garrison's book (Coospace) and this article in the September 28 issue of The New Yorker: A Life Of Its Own by Michael Specter.

A tip: carry on writing in your notebook. You can reflect on the New Yorker article and connect Garrison's discussion of feature writing with Specter's article. I would also be interested in whether you see a connection between Zinsser's treatment of the lead and Specter's intro.

Professional Writing, Session 2

2009-09-14T07:52:00.005+02:00

A reminder for session 3:

In the next class, we will discuss your place descriptions. Please remember to send them to me by email by Sunday morning. Read the full text of Zinsser's book, available in the German - English library.

If you need further help, see me in my office hours or send me email.

Information on the portfolio and the research paper is now available on Coospace.

Enjoy your week and see you soon!

Professional Writing, Session 1

2009-09-07T07:19:00.007+02:00

Today, a brand new course got underway, in a brand new program: Professional Writing in the MA curriculum. This semester, the Take Off blog will publish, besides other content, students' scripts produced for class and home assignments. It will also act as a headquarters that participants can check for updates on what to do for upcoming sessions. And sometimes the tutor, I, will post news about what took place in the classes.

Welcome!

Tasks for the second class: bring your writing notebooks, preferably with your reflection on Zinsser's ideas in Part One. You will need to read the seven chapters for sure. If you have time, please tell us the meaning of "ply."

At the end of the class, we listened to Cheever's short story, "Reunion."

Here are two snapshots of the whiteboard:

Welcome Back

2009-08-31T11:28:00.002+02:00

Hello to all :) old and new students and colleagues. Welcome to the most beautiful Hungarian campus.

!Noitacav

2009-06-24T08:17:00.002+02:00

Enjoy your vacation!

Take Off will be back with new content in late August. Meantime, I will update my podcast a few times. Stay tuned.

Take Off 51: Iveszics Alexander's Essay

Take Off

Blogs from Spring 2009

2009-06-23T11:53:00.000+02:00

Buda Nikoletta
Cséplő Balázs
Eke Krisztián
Farkas Kornél

Fehér Gábor
Gazdóf Lilla
Gyenge Balázs
Hordós Andrea
Káriusz Bianka

Kartali Dóra
Kaszás Péter
Körmendi Nóra

Kungl Zsófia
Kutor Dávid
Nagy Kristóf

Németh Katalin
Ömböli Krisztián
Simon Gábor
Szvath Dóra
Tomázy Dávid
Vasas Katalin

Proficiency Exam Stats

2009-05-26T12:19:00.008+02:00

Eighty-six students took the exam on May 21. Below, some stats:

Number of students with overall grade

5: one
4: four (two from our RWS group)
3: twelve (five from our group)
2: twenty-three (three from our group)
1: forty-six (eight from our group)

Average of the grades of 68 students (all students minus my RWS group): 1.67
Average of the 18 RWS students' grades: 2.05

Of the 18 students from the RWS course who have taken the exam, ten have passed. The tests that the remaining eight students have failed are

grammar: 5 students
listening: 4
reading: 1
writing: 1

(One student has failed more than one component.)

Keepin' my fingers x-ed for you -- in the oral exam and the written resit!

Don't Worry: Be Happy

2009-05-21T11:30:00.003+02:00

Eighty-five students have taken the proficiency exam today. The essay task again has featured two themes: "Don't Worry: Be Happy" and "Can Anything Worth Learning Be Learned In The Classroom?". The majority of students, as many as seventy-six people, have gone for the first option. Hope the other nine students didn't worry a lot, either.

Below: the essays, waiting to be read and marked.

Blogscar Award Winners

2009-05-05T15:28:00.005+02:00

Breaking News:

Szvath Dóra, Ömböli Krisztián and Kungl Zsófia have won the Blogscar Awards today in the last RWS session.

Blog Evaluation: Comparing Scores

2009-05-04T13:49:00.008+02:00

I have now finalized all grades for the RWS course. Good news: all twenty students have passed it. Even better: high number of 5s! How high? Stay tuned for all the details tomorrow.

And now, on to the comparison of scores. One task for last week was the submission of self-evaluation forms, including a rubric for students' blogs. Below: the chart showing the comparison of students' scores and my evaluation.

The range of scores given by students is 8 (11 to 19), compared with a range of 9 in my evaluation (11 to 20). In terms of averages, there is also hardly any difference: 15.65 points given by students compared with 15.5 given by me.

As for the differences between the scores, it is nice to see that it was non-existent or fairly minor in nine cases.

In the last session on Tuesday, we will have a Blogscar award ceremony. Remember to come to class with your ideas about whom to nominate. Also, please bring little trinkets or knicknacks as prizes.

The Blogscar categories:

Best Designer
Best Writer
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Comparing Test Results: Reading and Writing

2009-04-28T10:00:00.005+02:00

Eighteen students have taken both the reading and the writing tests. Below, the chart shows how the results stack up.

Of the nineteen students who have taken the writing test, eleven would have passed it if it had been the official proficiency exam.

Finalizing All Work

2009-04-21T16:35:00.003+02:00

By April 28, you will need to finalize all course work. One of these tasks will be your self evaluation. Fill in the form I gave you today and bring it to the class.

In the last class, students took a test of writing. Of the two themes, four people chose to write about "The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It," and fifteen about "A Photograph is a Secret About a Secret." A snapshot of one of these essays:

Blog evaluation scheme

Blog started by February 22: 1 point
Regular posts (one every second week): 3 points
Friendly posts: 3 points
Regular comments on other students’ blogs (one every second week): 2 points
Spell-checked posts (no spelling and typing errors): 2 points
Fluent writing (coherent paragraphs, appropriate vocabulary): 2 points
Accurate writing (no major grammar errors): 2 points
Interesting posts (themes you enjoy writing about): 3 points
Customized blog: 2 point

The max score, 20, counts as 20% of the final course grade.

A friendly blog entry

Use at least two of these tips:
1. Write when you feel good.
2. Write about topics you feel good about.
3. Make your notes short -- say, two or three paragraphs each.

Always apply these tips:
4. Make sure there are paragraphs: hit the Enter key twice at the end of each.
5. Publish original entries only: texts you are writing for your blog now. No revised versions of work for other courses or copy-paste exercises from internet or printed sources please.

Enjoy the Spring Break

2009-03-31T18:26:00.012+02:00

Our next meeting, No. 10, will be after the spring break. If you would like to show me your special project before the holidays, please see me in my office hours this week.

Paul Olchvary, a friend from the US, tells about the path to enlightenment. Enjoy!

Reminder for Test 4

2009-03-27T14:25:00.004+01:00

If you would like to take the fourth vocabulary test, please send me an email as soon as possible, but not later than Monday noon, about which Bryson story you have chosen. Remember: there will be three tasks in the test. First, you will be asked to share your ideas about the story. Second, you will use expressions I list from the story. Third, you will reproduce a paragraph (of six lines or more) you have memorized from it.

Article on Blogs Published

2009-03-22T10:23:00.000+01:00

But first, this snapshot from the last class:

Can you use these expressions in a story on your blog?

Breaking news: The journal Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (TESL-EJ) has published my article titled "Hungarian University Students' Blogs in EFL: Shaping Language and Social Connections" in the March 2009 issue -- in the section called On the Internet.

And now, a reminder for the session on March 24: Reading and writing test workshop. Download the reading and writing tests from Coospace and print them. Start working with the tasks and bring them to the class.

Besides the tests, we will have time devoted to the self-evaluation, too.

In other news, I have updated my podcast with a new episode -- featuring Carol MacCurdy, a visiting professor from California.

American Corner Session

2009-03-09T15:44:00.003+01:00

The March 10 session will be held at the American Corner, in the Zsolnay Room upstairs. We'll watch The Graduate, the movie most of you chose to see.

In other news, I have just completed the marking of the second vocabulary test. Some instant stats:

Eighteen students took the test. Twelve of them had taken the first test, too, so we can compare their scores (the max percentage score being 5 in each case):

With one exception, everyone's second score is higher or the same as on the first test. That is a most promising trend.

The six students for whom this was the first vocabulary test in the course have the following results:

Special Project Workshop

2009-03-01T08:24:00.007+01:00

In the fifth session, you will be able to work on your special project. Remember to bring any drafts you may have written for your proficiency-test essay, cartoon-strip story or visual thesaurus exercise. Those of you who will develop the style exercise, please print the corresponding text by Raymond Queneau, available on Coospace.

A tip: bring your novels as well as we'll set aside time for reading.

Also on Tuesday: the second vocabulary test. If you would like to take it, make sure you have with you two Bryson essays and a short story from The New Yorker.

And now, time for another quiz: who has recently posted ideas using the words above? Your answers: in the comments below, please. Student sending the first good answer earns a special prize in the next class.

Where Does It Come From?

2009-02-22T10:05:00.003+01:00

Who has recently posted on a blog using these concepts? Do you know?

In the comment part below, name the blogger. Student giving the first good answer will receive a special prize in the next session.

Vasas Kati's Blog Debut

2009-02-16T18:45:00.006+01:00

Of the twenty-one students in the RWS course, eleven already have a Blogspot presence. Three of them, Vasas Kati, Tomázy Dávid and Ömböli Krisztián, have posted recently. The most recent episode of my podcast features these superb stories.

The podcast archive:

Session 2, Session 3

2009-02-10T13:17:00.000+01:00

In the second class yesterday, we read and discussed the articles in the Year in Ideas issue of The New York Times Magazine. After that, we talked about the special project options, some of which are available on Coospace as examples.

In the third session, you will have the opportunity to take a vocabulary test based on three Year in Ideas articles and a short story published in The New Yorker. Remember to bring copies of these texts with you.

From now on, our classroom will be E 322 -- a larger one than E 321.

See you there -- or in my office hours on Thursday.

Also next week, I will collect information on the three decisions you need to make: (1) blog or mag, (2) novel, and (3) special project.

In other news, two students, Kartali Dóra and Ömböli Krisztián, have already posted to their blogs this semester.

A Special Project Tip

2009-02-07T10:19:00.006+01:00

If you would like to see an example of a special project, visit the Coospace of the RWS course and consider the cartoon strip task. Here's one of the frames from Kepes Keve's art:

Other project examples will be shown in the next session. You will have until the third week to decide on yours.

The Official Reading List for the RWS Course

2009-02-02T17:15:00.007+01:00

I have finalized the syllabus for the Reading and Writing Skills course I will teach this semester (ABNB 030401, AFNB/ANNB 010401).

You will be provided with classroom handouts regularly. Besides those, you will need to read the following texts. As specified in the syllabus, this is the official reading list for the course.

Bryson, Bill. Notes from a Big Country. London: Black Swan, 1999. Available in photocopy in the German-English library. Choose ten stories.

The New York Times Magazine 8th Annual Year in Ideas Issue. Read five articles. Free registration may be required before you can access the articles.

The New Yorker. Read two short stories published since January 2006. Look for the Fiction part of the magazine. Find the issues at the American Corner (9 Mária utca).

A novel by an American, Australian, British, Canadian, or Indian author published since 1990 (to be chosen by February 17).

A thesaurus.

Updates to two students' blogs in the course.

Updates to my blog.

Readings for special projects (to be chosen by February 17).

High-School Students Come To Open Campus Talk

2009-01-28T14:33:00.010+01:00

Over seventy students participated in an interactive lecture Rudolf Anna and I gave as part of the Open Campus programs today at the University of Pécs. They came from Baja, Szekszárd, Nagykanizsa, and other places.

Anna and I spoke about the Reading and Writing Skills component of the B. A. program in English studies. The talk featured a special guest, third-year student Kartali László, who gave us some insights into how one can land an Erasmus scholarship and how he spent the fall semester at the Free University of Amsterdam. The 45th episode of my podcast features some snippets from the talk.

The audience was willing to participate in the two reading and two writing activities we planned for them.

If there are any further questions to ask about the B. A. program, please raise them as comments below. I will make sure you get the answers.

See you in Pécs!

Reading and Writing Skills

2009-01-24T19:03:00.010+01:00

I am working on the syllabus for the spring course and would like to ask students who have registered for it to (1) say what they think of these ideas and (2) suggest what else could be done.

Please share your insights by commenting on this post below.

Reading tasks:

students' blog posts;
a contemporary novel;
stories and essays by Bill Bryson;
articles from The New York Times Magazine;
short stories from The New Yorker;
proficiency exam-type reading tasks.

Writing tasks:

a blog;
cartoon strips;
a printed and online student magazine;
proficiency exam-type writing tasks.

Vocabulary tasks:

activities based on the visual thesaurus;
regular tests based on the phrases of readings;
online vocabulary tests.

Other activities:

a movie-viewing session at the American Corner;
a special session downtown.

Douglas Biber Among Speakers

2009-01-20T08:45:00.005+01:00

Internationally renowned linguist Douglas Biber will be among the speakers at the ninth HUSSE conference, which will take place in Pécs Thursday to Saturday this week. All students are welcome to attend the plenary and section lectures. Professor Biber is the author of books like the Longman Student Grammar and Dimensions of Register Variation. His talk, titled "Register Variation in the University: A Multi-Dimensional Analysis," will be given on Thursday, at 2 PM in the Conference Hall.

Twenty-Seven Students Take

2009-01-07T13:50:00.006+01:00

Today, twenty-seven students have taken the written part of the proficiency exam. As always, one component has been the essay writing task. Here we go:

Test of Writing, January 7, 2009

the degree to which you have completed the task;
the range and appropriateness of vocabulary;
the range and accuracy of structures;
the organization and coherence of paragraphs.

For each task, four topics are given. Write about all of them. Treat each topic in a separate paragraph. Write about 300 words.

You have 60 minutes for the test.

You may use a thesaurus.

Task A: When In Doubt, Tell The Truth

Write an essay about telling the truth. In the text,

explain your attitude to honest people;
describe a person you regard as honest;
tell a story when being honest was problematic;
discuss whether telling the truth is always the best.

Task B: The Strongest Principle of Growth Is Choice

Write an essay about making choices. In the text,

explain your attitude to making choices;
describe a choice you regard as perfect;
tell a story when making a choice was problematic;
discuss why the strongest principle of growth is choice.

Nagy Borbála Defends PhD Study On

2009-01-05T18:51:00.005+01:00

Borbála has defended her PhD dissertation with flying colors today, with both opponents emphasizing the outstanding value of her research into English majors' communicative profiles at the University of Pécs. Kudos!

Borcsi will now return to London, where she works as research executive for a communication consultancy.

Wishing You A Satisfied, Joyous, Thrilled, Elated

2009-01-03T10:14:00.002+01:00

Merry Xmas!

2008-12-18T13:55:00.000+01:00

The cover of the December 22 & 29 issue of The New Yorker, by Bob Staake: "Minimalist Christmas"

Students' Evaluation of Their Blogs

2008-12-16T11:28:00.006+01:00

Seventeen students took part in a special self-assessment activity: the evaluation of their online or offline blogs. Below, the chart that shows their marks and mine.

In fourteen cases, the difference is one or zero points, which indicates that the evaluation ctiteria were clear to most students. Seven students gave the same points as I did. Where the difference is two or three points, the following picture emerges: One student's self-evaluation is three points higher than mine (9 vs. 6), but in the other two cases, I gave the higher marks: 7 vs. 5 and 10 vs. 7.

Comparing the average scores given by students and me, the difference is almost non-existent: 8 points by students, 8.05 by me. That's pretty good, ain't it?

When you come to my office hours, you will get the two assessment slips.

My last office hours this year are on Thursday, from 10 to 12 (see sidebar). Those of you who would like to talk about the novels you have read and your special reading projects, please see me then. I will post my office hours for 2009 after Xmas.

And the Winners Are...

2008-12-09T20:44:00.007+01:00

In the last Reading and Writing Skills session today, the twenty students present voted for the best blogs in five categories.

Best designers: Hordós Andrea and Szvath Dóra (6 votes each)
Farkas Kornél (7 votes)

Best writers: Tomázy Dávid (6 votes)
Ömböli Krisztián (14 votes)

Best commentators: Körmendi Nóra (5 votes)
Hosszú István (12 votes)

Best overall bloggers: Kungl Zsófia and Szvath Dóra (5 votes each)
Ömböli Krisztián (16 votes)

Best posts: Jackie Kennedy's Hairdresser by Kungl Zsófia (3 votes)
Baby on Board I - II by Tomázy Dávid (4 votes)

Accolades to all!

Tomorrow: Last Session

2008-12-08T20:05:00.010+01:00

With just hours to go before the last session this semester, I am reading your blogs again, and as I am doing it, I have collected some objective, quantifiable, info on them.

As the chart shows, interest in blogging peaked in October: 72 of the 127 entries so far were written then:

Looking more closely at the October traffic, I can see that students wrote four posts on average then, with eight of them publishing between five to seven items.

Of course, some of you may still be polishing your last posts -- and maybe some of you will come back to your blogs even after the course is over.

In any event: tomorrow at 2 o'clock we will do some creative writing activities in the last session, after which everyone will have the opportunity to vote for the Blogscars.