Organizational Strategies in the Writing of Entry-Level University Students

Abstract

This small-scale exploratory study was motivated by the desire to find out more about the problems first-year Hungarian students at Eötvös Loránd University have with writing academic papers in English. The study aimed to examine first-year students’ organizational competence in writing in English at the time of entering the university. A class set of 12 essays written at the beginning of the first semester were analysed from the point of view of their overall superstructure and also to see whether a recognisable academic text type could be identified. In the second phase of the analysis the paragraphing and conjunctive cohesion within each essay was examined. The results indicate an underlying insecurity in the ability to use paragraphs effectively and even in terms of basic superstructure only a quarter of the essays were judged to be satisfactory. The findings regarding text type were less clear but only six of the essays exhibited an organisational pattern similar to conventional academic text types. While firm conclusions cannot be drawn on the basis of such a limited study, the apparent weaknesses in the students’ writing are alarming and indicate the need for further more sophisticated research.