Sample OPinion Essay

          On Pelin's suggestion, I am sharing an opinion essay. (Please ignore the organization, you need to follow the organization that we have discussed in the classroom)

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

"Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship."

           Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The traditional virtue of telling the truth in all situations is increasingly doubted by many in today’s world. Many believe that telling the truth is not always the best policy when dealing with people. Moreover, the line of a “truth” is becoming more and more vague. This essay will explore the importance of telling the truth in relationships between people.

We all understand that often the truth is offending and may not be a very nice thing to both hear or say. Lies or white lies often have their advantages. The manipulation of white lies is the most obvious the business world. how many times have we heard that some product is “the finest” or “the cheapest”? How many times have we heard that products have such and such “magical functions”? Advertising is about persuasion, and many would agree that if a company is to tell the absolute truth about it’s products, no one would be interested in even having a look at the products.

The same logic applies to human relationships. If your friend had worn a newly purchased dress on her birthday and energetically asked you if it was a worthy buy, would you freely express your opinion that you had never seen a dress as the one she’s currently wearing? And spoil her birthday? Unarguably, hiding(entirely or particially) the truth in some situations can be quite handy indeed. Confrontations and disputes can seemingly be avoided.

However, there is always the risk factor of the truth emerging sooner or later when telling an untruth. The basic trust in any relationships(businessman/customer, friends, parents/children) will be blotched, and would have an impact on the future relationship between both parties. The story of the “the boy who cried wolf” fully illustrates the consequenes of telling untruths. No one will believe you when you’re telling the truth. Your word will have no weighting.

In addition, another “bad factor” of telling untruths is that you have absolutely no control over when the truth(of previous untruths) will emerge. Untruths breed pain in both parties: tears when the truth is uncovered after a period of time; fear and the burden of sharing a “secret”. In the long run, it seems that hiding the truth is not beneficial to either party.

Everyone hates betrayal. Even if it is the trend to occasionally hide the truth in relationships, it is strongly recommended that not to follow that trend as the risk and the consequences of the truth unfolded overwhelms the minimal advantages one can derive from not telling the truth. Afterall, it is understood that relationships are founded on “trust” which goes hand in hand with “truth”. Indeed telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship between people. Always.

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/ibt_writing_sample_responses.pdf

A good Problem-solution essay from Büşra.

                                             Are You a Student or Worker?

Have you ever experienced both working and studying at the same time? If you have not, you are member of the minority. Majority of students have to work and study because of lack of allowance and they do not want to burden on their families. This situation may cause to some problems such as catching pace of life, feeling stressed about carrying out the school tasks and making both the boss and the instructor happy. Of course, there are several solutions to provide better facility for this majority rather than accepting the results of hardship working.

            To begin with, the first solution can be that the quality of universities should be the same in every city. If this can be managed, university students do not have to move another city for education. They can have a chance to live with their families, hence; they may get rid of cost of food, accommodation and transportation.

            Secondly, government should help students having difficulties to afford their fundamental needs. They can give scholarship as well as credit that have to be refunded later when students are graduated and start to make money. Another thing that they can do is providing the less expensive dorms than the other private dorms.

            The last one is that again related to government, they can make available to find job in university for university students. What is more, they can work and gain money safe and sound. Because, it is likely that university students are in trouble when they work in some jobs that they do not know whether workshops are reliable or not.

            In conclusion, like everyone in society, students also have to work and study to meet their basic needs. Luckily, there are some solutions for that such as making same quality of every university, providing scholarship and government can provide opportunity for university students to find job. I think that working and studying at the same is very hard situation for university students. They have already been responsible for school tasks and other important things related to their lives.

Narration from a guest author (:

                                                  CLOUDS

It was 27^th September. I cannot remember the year. She was trying to wake up like every day she does. She snoozed her alarm clock and slept for ten minutes. After the second snooze she finally woke up.  Then she went to toilet and washed her face. When she looked through the mirror she noticed that her face was blooding! It was horrible because she could not see her face because of the blood. She touched her face and cleaned the blood. She finally could see her eyes. When she saw them, she noticed that she forgot the real color of her eyes. Then she left the bathroom and run to the sitting room because there was voice from there. As soon as she arrived there, she saw that the TV was opened and she looked at it. She was shocked! She closed her eyes and reopened again to see clearly, no there were no differences. She did not make a mistake, it was she! She was on the TV and police were searching her. She tried to raise the volume of the TV but she could not. She could just watch herself on TV but with doing anything. She touched her face before looked her hand if bleeding stopped or not. It was decreasing but her heart attack was increasing. She could not understand anything and decided to go to the doctor to show her face but what if police were going to arrest her? Although she did not know anything about her hunting, she was scared. There was nothing to do and she finally decided to leave home and see a doctor.  While she driving, she saw many cabs but she could escape from them. She achieved to arrive. She ascended the stairs and opened the doctor’s door without knocking. Doctor was surprised because it was not allowed to enter without knocking. As soon as he started to shout at her, she cut his speech and told that she had bleeding. The doctor saw what she said and told his patient that he should leave for few minutes. He examined her and wanted some examinations. She waited for hours and everything culminated. The doctor called her and said to her to sit. He started his speech;

-Have you ever talked with yourself?

-Are you kidding? She replied, I was thinking that I am here for examination!

-You should calm down, I am a doctor and also your doctor you should just answer my question, have you ever tried to touch yourself? Do you really care yourself? You are here because there was something wrong with your body and you thought that if you had not gone to doctor, you would have died. So you scared to die.

-A…Uuuh..Well…I cannot reply you doctor, I cannot.

-If you are really afraid of death, I think you are, it means that you love living and do not want to leave. But if you really do, you should have already answered my questions. You hushed yourself… Let’s get back to the examinations. There is no problem. You just ignore yourself and it is mad at you. That is all. Bleeding is just your body’s reaction. It tries to say something. I will give you a prescription. Try to do it.

He elongated the prescription and there is just a word that written on it;

“LISTEN.”

She drove home. She thought all along the road. When she arrived home she immediately opened the TV and looked for her news but there was not anything about her.

She went to her bed and slept. The day after, she wanted to go to the doctor again, she had many questions. They had really long conversation and she realized that because of her hunger of seeing herself, she just imagined that she was on the TV. The bleeding is just about her eyes, she looked her eyes after a long period and her body wanted to tell her something. That was all. She was relaxed now and after these experiences she started to be more sensitive to herself. There was long and perfect way which is waiting for her. When she realized that, she could start to walk. Clouds the rest...

  By the way, I guess you have been wondering about the information of ‘her’. Maybe you thought that I forgot to give her a name or I forgot to start. No, I did not. Of course she has a name but I do not know her name because I do not know your name. What is your name?

Gizem Ergün

Meva wrote an essay on the causes & effects of globalization.

GLOBALIZATION LINKS WITH LANGUAGE

     Throughout history, people are eager to move around the countries. Some situations such as job opportunitiews and financial problems, promp them to migration. In that way, one word, which can be known as ‘globalization’, comes to our minds. If we think about old times, becoming globarized is noy very common for people and countries. But in today’s world, it plays an essential role in human’s lives. There are some causes which have a close with globalization. We can accept the job opportunities and financial issues as two of the most crucial issues. According to these, globalization can be thought as being important for people. On the otherr hand, there are two crucial effects, which can be associated with decreasing employment and icreasing trade. These effects are also link with language. At first let’s look at globalization’s causes.

    Since the old times, people tries to find job and becoming a good positions. Well*paid jobs are one step up instead of other, because people needs to money and it requires labour. When we talk about well paid jobs and also job opportunities, immediately globalization appears. Thanks to it, people can move from their own countries to another one and find a job easily. They bring their language and culture with them and owner of the businesses always prefers to take them to their own companies. Secondly, one of the other crucial cause is about financial issues. Owingto these, countries can develop their economies. For instance people who visit other countries, improve these countries economies.  As we know tourist always tend to buy special things from the countries which they visit so intentionally or not they contribute them. Namely, globalization is very important for these two issues. On the other hand it has two effects which can be accepted as  decreasing employment and icreasing trade. Let’s look at both of them.

     Nowadays, employment is very essential for many people. They are afraid of being unemployed. Although they graduate from university, there are many people who cannot benefit from job chances. So finding a job is playing a big role for everyone. Thanks to globalization, people can find job just with using their cultural effects and languages. In that way, globalization can decrease the rate of worklessness. In addition to this, it also increases the chance which is about trade. Owing to it, different cultures can make a connection with each other and this situation develops their relationships and economies. As we know,  Globalization not only helps people get on well but also pull through countries’economies.

    Consequently,  globalization has two essential causes and effects. It also relevent with language. As we can see, globalization has an important role in our lives.  People also can have more chances to find a job in the different countries.  Owing to globalization, people  can interract with each other easily.

                                                                   MEVA

An essay by Nur; Electronic age & children.

Electronic Age and Children

            Throughout the history of human being, many devices have been invented. People have wanted to discover new devices that can help them make their lives easier. Thanks to these inventions, now, we are living in electronic age. The important thing is, there are not only causes of improvement of electronic devises, but there are also effects of it  on people especially on children who use these devices a lot, unconsciously.

            Nowadays, there appears to be some electronic devices that are used more. One of them is computer. People invented computer for doing their work easily. Thanks to it, they can write, calculate fast and save their fields safely. Then, people improved its functions so video games came on the scene. However, like every electronic devices, video games have effects on children. Some of these games include violence which naturally effect children who play video games. This situation brings some negative changes on children’s behavior in bad point. They tend to fight with their friends or they can easily get angry against their parents.

            After the invention of computer, people invented internet to share all kinds of information whole around the world and to make computer worldwide. Nevertheless, the internet affects children in bad way. They do not read books and search in encyclopedia, instead of this, they can easily check online. Especially for children, books are necessary; they should get the habit of reading. However, when their teacher wants them to get information about lessons, they immediately search on internet.

            The other electronic device that is used more is telephone. People invented phone for getting information from each other frequently because they have been living all around the world. Now, we have mobile phones which assist us to talk or text easily. In addition, the important point is, almost everyone has a mobile phone even if children. Since the shortest way always looks like the better way for children, instead of meeting face to face, they prefer to talk on phone or text. This results in some social problems. They do not want to talk someone for long hours, they can have some problems with their speech, and those are some examples.

            To conclude, from the beginning of human life, people have tried to find useful ways of living. They have always invented new electronic devises which causes the electronic age and improved them. Indeed, this is the simple cause of electronic age that we are living in. The effects of it on children are not simple. For our children, we should learn how to use electronics usefully firstly, then, we should teach our children the right way.

Another essay from Buse...Thank you Buse'cim..

 

Electronic Age and Children

  Since the people’s existence, they need some requirements and the result of their needs, improvements appear with innovations. Now, it is the period of the electronic age which can be called also, technological age. There are some causes of the electronic age. These are dissatisfaction feeling in people, superiority competition between countries and increasing population. However, there are some effects to electronic age on the children. For instance, being cold and unsocial, self-confidence problems, and losing communication skills are some of the effects on the children.

  There are some causes of the electronic age.  Firstly, people’s requirements never end and they need more and more. So, their dissatisfy feelings bring about producing something new and as their imagine. Moreover, the other cause of electronic age is superiority competition between countries.  Mostly every country show their power to the other country  in different ways. Some of them prefer making war, but some of them prefer showing their intelligence and creativity. So, If one country make something new, the other also try more superior thing to do. For example, Internet was found because of the cold war between  America and Russia. The final cause of passing electronic age is increasing population rate universally. Because of the increasing population, sources are getting consume. For example, the forests are disappeared  throughout centuries, because of the overconsumption of the objects related to the increasing population. Thanks to the electronic age, people draw on writing with their computers or their technological devices rather than papers and pencils.

  There are not only causes of the electronic age, but also it has some  effects on the children. First of all, there is a big problem to be addictive of it especially for children. The electronic tools can be the direction of children’s life. They prefer using electronic devices in early ages.And they play some games or make connections with their friends via internets rather than spending time with their friends. So, the new generation grow up to become colder. Also, they grow up with less self-confidence across the other children or people because of lack of experience with face to face communication, they are getting shy.  Moreover, related to this circumstance, children lose their communication skills. Because they talk with their friends via computer screen or cell phones. So they cannot use their gestures, body languages, or they cannot prefer to look their friends eyes.

  To conclude, the electronic age is important for the people and it supports comfortable life. There are some causes to pass electronic age and there are some negative effects when children use it unconsciously. It can be useful for children, when they use it limitedly because of preventing addictive feelings.

Pelin wrote a beautiful essay on Causes & effects of electronic age... Thank you Pelin.

                                       Children and The Electronic Age

     Humans have been around for millions of years. This process of being has brought a new era. People have developed themselves gradually and have wanted more. Now, in 21st century, we are living in era which is called ' Electronic Age '. Although it seems like good, electronic age can be problematic for children. The causes of electronic age are ‘asking for more’ and ‘adapt to the times’ and also there are some effects.

     People are trying to keep up with the time. That’s why, no body want to fossilize. The time passes quickly and continues to change rapidly like technology. Our grandparents and great grandparents grew up in a much different technological time. If you talk with one of your relatives about old times, s/he will probably say that new generation is luckier than their generation and there were no computer, television, mobile phone when they were young. When we look at today, there are high-speed computers, latest model mobile phones, televisions and more. Children are growing up in this way. Another cause is asking for more every time. For instance, a child with a phone, s/he starting to get bored so wants a new phone. Although he has a desk top, he wants a lap top. As soon as, he gets what he wants, he wants a new one which is made with high-technology. That’s why, production is gaining momentum every day. This situation leads to change rapidly. In these supply-demand relationship, it is difficult to keep the children away from electronic tools and technology. Having looked at the causes of electronic age on children the affect can be given as ‘physical and psychological disorders’

     Children, growing up in this electronic age face some serious problems. The increase in the use of television, computer and computer games has become main reason of electromagnetic radiation exposure. According to research, children absorb 3 times more radiation than adults. Furthermore, it affects children’s quality of sleep, memory and process of learning badly. Also, because of electronic tools, there has been decrease in the number of children who read books. In addition, a child who is watching TV more than 3 hours a day, experiencing serious health problem such as; obesity. That’s why watching TV is related to inactivity. In the face of great technology, childhood illnesses are changing. Diseases based on technology can be listed as follows; asthma, allergies, hyperactivity, mental illness, gastrointestinal diseases and like that.

     To sum up, electronic age is still present and people will continue to live with that so it will continue to affect children in serious. The effects of electronic age on children should be kept in mind before meeting children with electronic tools

                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                              Pelin Acartürk

Writing Center Workshops..

Yağmur wrote a good essay on the role of art...

                    THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF ART IN EDUCATION

   Being literate is one of the most important characteristics for people. If you want to be succesful and if you want a good future, you have to graduate from a unıversıty. But being a university graduate is not an easy task. It needs very hard work and some skills. So the key question is ‘’how people can develop these skills to be succesful?’’ acording to research, academic development starts at the first grade with art. Despite great numbers of schools rule out this lessom, art has an important role in education for some reasons.

   First of all, there are lots of learning techniques. Visual learning is one of the most common one. Especially at first and second grade, little children can not learn by telling or listening, they can understand only by watching. Art develops their visual skills. So if their schooldoes not offer art lesson, students have difficulty to understand because of their undeveloped visual skills.

   Second reason is, art lesson helps students think functionally. Also it develops their imagination. Everybodey knows children transfer all their imaginary world on paper. If their parents and teachers restrict them, their imaginations and interesting ideas decrease. Thus, art education improve their imagination.

   Other benefit of art is that students can understand other subjects much more clearly. For instance ; geometry requires to see little details. The students, who are taking art education can see these details easily and solve the problems. On the other hand others have many difficulties and it is very hard to be succesful for them.

   The las but not the least possitive effects of art education is, art always helps children be well disciplined. The people who are interested in art become disciplined. And it affects all their lives. For example; their worklife, their school life and their private life. Shortly art develop their self-discipline.

   In summary, art always affects people in a good way. Because of all these good attributes, all schools should offer art lessons. I am sure that all countries need succesful, good problem solver and disciplined generations. And all these skills are connected with art education. I hope all schools begin to give these lessons before it is too late.

Homework for next week. Please start searching and reading on the following topic.

Analyze the causes and effects of the electronic age on children.

A good essay from Duygu Özkan. Please do not hesitate to make constructive comments.

ART EDUCATION

        

       There are lots of significant issues about the education such as quality of school and knowledge of teacher. Art education is also an important factor in education. Especially in kindergarden, it is clear to see using art in education is beneficial. Is it possible not to utilize art while they are teaching? It should be used in every school because of some reasons.

         Arousing the interest is one of the essential reasons. Almost every student has some problems with math. Teachers cannot manage to teach easily without art in primary school. Some tools about the art or pictures should be used. Thanks to this, children can learn faster and easier. According to research, there are several student who are visual learners or learning via moving. Think that, your subject is history of Istanbul. You have two alternatives. First one is, you can explain it by merelt talking. Secondly, you can create a drama and make your students to join. Second suggestion is better, isn’t it? The reason is not only arousing the interest, but also there is one more cause.

          Creativity is also one of the significant reasons. It contributes to childen’s imagination. Beside this, it expands their capacity of thinking. To exemplify, while students are painting, if you want them to use their creativity, you can take their erasers. Thus, even if they make mistakes, they will attempt to change them. Maybe they want to draw a flower, but it can be a house after they do a mistake. While they are thinking of what can they do, their creativity is expanded. In addition to this, teachers should not say the inaccurancies. If students draw a blue sun or red snowflake, let them do. When you ask why did s/he do that, their answers can  amazed you!          

           As we read in this text, arousing the interest and creativity are the reasons of teaching with art. Also, there is one more reason, too. Teachers, who use art in education, direct the children to be a worker who is interested in art in the future. In Turkey, most of the students know this, they learned alphabet via a song and this song is stil in their minds. When a child learns and sings this song, s/he discovers her/his ability of music. Or, while they are painting, some of them realize that they can do it better. Eventually, their ability of art is improved and they can be a prosperous artist.

          Taking everything into account, teachers should educate their students with art. It is more beneficial for  children because of three reasons. First one is arousing the interest, secondly creativity and third one is directing the children to be an  artist. Each reason is significant and teachers should emphasize the art education.

                                                                                                                            Duygu Özkan

Assignment for writing course on Monday (20th February)

Please watch the video and read the article on the link before coming to school. They will help you generate ideas to write about "the necessity of art education in primary and secondary school'.

Have a good weekend..

Why is art education important?

On monday (20th February), we are going to write about the necessity of art education in primary and secondary schools. Before coming to school, please watch this video and read the articles that I will upload on the blog to generate ideas abut the subject.

New members are all welcome (;

Buse, Pelin, Büşra & Merve have already joined the blog. I thank them and also look forward to seeing other memberships..

Happy Valentine's day..

Hi dears,

I wish the weather was sunny like your hearts today, anyway, no need to be upset.
Try to live your best today with your darlings (not necessarily a boy friend bu anyone you love).

Happy VALENTINE'S DAY...

Essay Writing

Here is a webquest I have prepared. Please check the site to find useful tips about writing.

http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=39910

Why bother with blogging??

- As a significant part of our writing course, you are going to blog your writings and share your comments about eachother's pieces of art.
- You will learn an effective media to use in your courses and teaching in the future.
- It will be an opportunity to get ready for the faculty writing and technology courses.
- You will see that writing can be also fun instead of burden.

Please enjoy and have fun...