JOURNAL ENTRY 4: SLOGAN FOR METU

               The latest slogan of METU, I brain ODTÜ, fails to be effective due to some flaws and is effective in some aspects. The first flaw is about its language. This slogan contains both Turkish and English words. This is a fault in my opinion because METU is an international university and this slogan must be meaningful both Turkish students and foreign students. Secondly, the word ‘brain’ as a verb is not appropriate to this slogan, because it has not a positive meaning as a verb. Its lexical meaning is to hit someone hard on the head with an object. However, if it is looked at in a positive light, the picture of brain in the slogan does not symbolize the word ‘brain’ but ‘think of’. When the symbol is thought in this way, it makes sense and it is effective. Finally, the slogan can only make sense with this video. It is not comprehensive, meaningful and explicit without the video. However, it is really meaningful and effective with the video, explaining the slogan in all aspects. In conclusion, this slogan is not an universal slogan and does not make sense alone, but it could be effective if it is thought in detail and the video is watched.

              If I were to design a slogan for METU, I would choose ‘ METU can change the world’ because it contains only one language and can be understood by foreign students easily. Moreover, it makes sense without anything. In my opinion this is more effective than ‘ I brain ODTÜ’..

CONJUCTIONS--- ARKA SOKAKLAR

 
      In the last episode of Arka Sokaklar, Ali gets shot while he is going to his son’s birthday party. Rıza, who is both police commander and Ali’s father-in-law, commands Ali to come home late because of some assignment in the office, so he blames himself for this case. Not only Ali’s family but also his coworkers worry about Ali’s life threatening injury.                                                                                                  Actually, in the day before this event, the man shooting Ali, Necmi, was caught, but chief in narcotics agent gave orders to release because Necmi cooperated with police in an operation, and he was released. Therefore, Rıza queries the chief by thinking that he knows where Necmi is, yet the chief says he has not gotten in touch with Necmi. Unless Necmi is found, Rıza does not give up blaming himself, nor does he give up being angry to the chief. Actually, either Rıza or the chief is not held guilty. However, Pınar, Rıza’s daughter, blames him for Ali’s injury, but he knows that Pınar blames but loves him very much. Rıza and his team have to find Necmi, or he will harm to more people. Neither is Necmi found nor does Ali recover from death for days. In this process, neither the team nor their families have a rest. Not only do Rıza and his team find Necmi, but also Rıza kills him to protect his team at the end, but Necmi’s death or anything else is not important for Pınar. She only wants Ali recover from death. On the one hand, Rıza’s team are busy with both this event and another operation. On the other hand, they have no power to stand, nor does Pınar, but they have to stand, of course, so does Ali. Through two days, either Ali’s coworkers are in operation or they are in hospital to stand by Ali’s family. At the end of the episode, Ali does not wait them any more and recovers from death, so his friends and family are tired yet happy.       

ERROR CORRECTION 2

Because I come from Aydın and I am not used to this type of weather. But never mind I will get used to. I feel great especially psychological aspect. Because I’m at where I want to be. Today,there are lots of universities all around the world in my opinion,most of them aren't able to educate their students enough to find good solutions to the problems that they face. ( There are run-on sentences. Moreover,'at' and 'where' can not be used together and there must be an adverb before enough.In addition, psychologically must be used  instead of psychological aspect, and 'in my opinion' must be at the end of the sentence.)
 " I come from Aydın. Therefore, I am not used to this type of weather but I don't mind because I will get used to. I feel great especially psychologically because I'm where I want to be. Today, there are lots of universities all around the world, most of which aren't able to educate their students well enough to find good solutions to the problems that they face in my opinion." 

ERROR CORRECTION 1

1. When ı first heard that ı had been accepted to Middle East Technical Unıversity, ı was disappointed. Because ı did not like Ankara as a city. But my opinions have changed over time dramatically. Because Middle East Technical Unıversity is really a different world in Ankara. (Underlined ı which is pronoun must be capital and 'ı' which is in the word 'university' must be 'i'. Moreover,  'Because and but ' as conjuctions require two sentences,so the sentences which include them are run-on.And also, in the last sentence, 'really' and 'a' words must be replaced.) 
         "When I first heard that I had been accepted to Middle East Technical University, I was disappointed because Idid not like Ankara as a city. However, my opinions have changed over time dramatically because Middle East Technical University is a really different world in Ankara."  
         2. It has been only one month since I came here. But I got used to this environment. Because, first of all, people from all of ages in here respect to each other. ( There are again run-on sentences  and 'of' in the last sentence is unnecessary. 'in here' must be at the end because it is more convenient in my opinion.) 
        "It has been only one month since I came here but I got used to this environment because, fist of all, people from all ages respect to each other in here. 
3. I love Ankara,I love my dormitory,I love my new friends, I love my department,I am content with everything which are belongs to METU.( There are lots of 'I' and 'love' and sentences are not connected each other and also 'are' and 'belong' can not be used together like this, so 'are' must be omitted)
        "I love Ankara, my dormitory, my new friends and my depertmant. That is, I am content with everything which belongs to METU."
 4. If someone wants to walk , he or she can go and walk. And it is nice place to go and meet with my friends.(There must be 'a' before 'nice' and using 'moreover' is more convenient instead of 'and'.
        "If someone wants to walk , he or she can go and walk. Moreover it is a nice place to go and meet with my friends."
5. We can easily see this by watching TV,surfing on the internet or maybe just looking around us.Because there are many people getting graduated from different kinds of universities but they're not even able to know what's going on around them or they don't even try to find good ways to improve the countries yhat they live in.( There is a run-on sentence, and 'get' and 'graduate' are not used together like this)
         "We can easily see this by watching TV. surfing on the internet or maybe just looking around us because there are many people graduating from different kinds of universities but they're not even able to know what's going on around them or they don't even try to find good ways to improve the countries that they live in.

JOURNAL ENTRY 6 : INCEPTION

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extraordinary thief, who gets the information from people’s mind through their dreams. His ability makes him an international fugitive and costs him everything he loves (his wife and his children). He leads to dead of his wife because of planting an idea to his wife’s mind and has to escape from his country leaving his children. He is offered a chance to go back his country and to come together with them again. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish it. Cobb and his team of specialists are not to steal information but to plant an idea in this assignment. Planting an idea requires to reach deep in the mind, therefore it is only possible with a series of dreams within dreams. He accepts the job although he has to deal with his emotions and feelings of guilt.

In this film, lucid dreaming is considered from a different angle. Cobb has already been successful in lucid dreaming. Moreover, he gets information from people’s mind, and also he can plant an idea in their mind by sharing their dreams though a machine. In that respect it is a worth-watching film. It should be watched in order to comprehend the lucid dreaming because there are mainly two remarkable points about it and a psychological problem it causes. Moreover, ambiguity at the end of film makes it unusual.

Firstly, Cobb has an effective tool, top, which belongs actually to his wife, in order to realize whether it is a dream or not. This top is special for him and it determines reality. If it continues to turn without stopping, he has a dream, but if it stops, he is in real life. In addition, he has another way to determine it. It is to question how one came where he was, because in dreams the dreamer finds himself in the events and does not remember the beginning of the events.

The other point is about a psychological problem. Cobb and his wife live in the world they created in their dreams approximately 50 years, according to time in the dreams. Cobb’s wife does not want to wake because she likes their life, therefore, she hides her top in a safe and loses her sense of reality.  As a result of this, Cobb has to plant the idea that it is not real life in his wife’ mind and they wake together, but she does not put this idea out of her mind. She thinks that they have to die to wake even in real life, so she kills herself. Dealing with lucid dreaming excessively may cause such a psychological problem.

Lastly, the film ends with Cobb's spinning top when he sees his kids by leaving viewers to wonder whether the top continues to turn endlessly, which means the scenario is all a dream, or stops.  Christopher Nolan, director of the film, says about the end of film that he tries to leave his movies open to interpretation. He says “There can’t be anything in the film that tells you one way or another because then the ambiguity at the end of the film would just be a mistake. I put that cut there at the end, imposing an ambiguity from outside the film. That always felt the right ending to me." His leaving the film open to comment and ambiguity at the end appeal to viewers. As for my thoughts about the end of the film, turning of the top endlessly means that life is a dream and people wake to real life when they die.

In conclusion, the film is worth-watching in terms of being informative about lucid dreaming and open to interpretation and admirable in point of warning about a possible psychological problem mildly,so I chose it to share in my blog.

JOURNAL ENTRY 5 : LUCID DREAMING AND ITS SOME TECHNIQUES

                     

Lucid dreaming is that one becomes aware that he is dreaming. In lucid dream, dream can be controlled by dreamer and anything which is impossible in real life or everything wanted can be done. I chose it to write in my journal, because the idea that one can control his dream and do everyting in dreams sounds good and interesting. However, it is hard to learn to control the dream. In order to manage it, there are three important points.

Firstly, recalling dreams is necessary to control the dream. It may be thought that remembering dreams is hard, but they can be remembered more clearly if they are intended to remember before sleep and they are thought after waking up. Believing lucid dreaming is another important point in the process of learning to become aware of having a dream. Moreover, the dreamers must focus on lucid dreaming and always think about it until it is managed. That is, it must be part of their lives. Lastly, learning lucid dreaming may take months, so it requires being patient and trying again and again. Apart from recalling dreams, believing lucid dreaming and being patient, realizing that one has a dream needs mainly four techniques.

One of the techniques is to question oneself about reality every time, because dreams look like real and it is hard to determine that it is a dream or a fact. Therefore, it is possible to have a dream in any time and it must be checked by asking oneself ‘Am I dreaming?’ In addition, determining a color or a song and associating them with dream are effective in lucid dreaming. They must remind the lucid dream. When dreamer sees this color or hears the song, he must ask to himself the same question ‘Am I dreaming?’

Secondly, in dreams something does not seem right or is contrary to physics laws. For example, there may be no gravitation in dreams. This is not possible in real life but in a dream. Trying to search non-realistic thing like this is effective to understand whether it is a dream or not.

Third technique is to write about the dreams every day because determining what is generally dreamed makes awareness of dreaming easier. As a result of this, when the same thing is dreamed, it can be noticed that it is a dream.

The last and most successful one is to sleep, wake, try to remember the dream and sleep again by thinking about the dream. After a five-hour sleep, the dreamer must try to remember his dream and focus on lucidity throughout an hour. And then, he must fall asleep by imagining that he is in his previous dream and becomes aware that he is dreaming.

After getting dream awareness with these techniques, the dreamer can do anything he wants in his dreams. However, experiencing it extremely may cause psychological problems. For example, the dreamer may want to spend his time by sleeping to dream because he can do everything he wants there.

       In conclusion, lucid dreaming may be exciting and realizable with some techniques, but it must be limited in order to protect psychological health.

Journal entry 3: METU: an ideal university atmosphere? (revised version)

    An ideal university is to give students opportunities like quality education,a settlement, free transportation,low-cost living conditions,job opportunities after graduation,social life and free-barrier campus.Firstly,providing quality education is the most basic characteristic of the university and it requires a successful teaching staff,sufficient number of sources for information such as books,computers;a well-equipped library and free of charge internet access.
     Secondly,in my ideal university,there must be dormitories,cafes, markets and banks, so the students at the university can meet their basic needs and withdraw cash without going out of the campus. In addition, transportation must be free at the campus.
     Another characteristic is about living conditions.Students have not any income except for the money their families sent.Therefore, living conditions at the campus must be affordable for students.For example,accommodation costs or food prices must be low.
     Job opportunities after graduation are important for students.Being an unemployed graduate student is really nonsense and thus,an ideal university must make sure an employment.
     Apart from the quality education,low-cost living conditions and the academic achivement,social life is essential for students.In order to socialize, meet and communicate people from different areas or cultures, the university must have clubs,teams or groups in some branches like sport,music,art.
     METU fits all this criteria,because professors at METU are experienced and its sources and library are satisfying.Moreover, there is free charge of internet access in the whole campus.As for the settlement,there are lots of dormitories,banks and markets at METU.Furthermore,transportation in campus is charge of free.Another characteristic of METU is to have low-cost living conditions. The cost of dormitories and foods is affordable for everyone.In addition,graduate students of METU are the most well-respected people of Turkey.METU is a reference for them in their career.Therefore, getting a job is not a problem for them.Lastly, METU has lots of clubs,teams,activities and groups like my ideal university.
     Lastly, the university must have a free-barrier campus. There are not only self-contained people but also handicapped people in the world. This is to be considered when a university is being built.there must be some special ways which are suitable for the handicapped students' needs,and also rooms, classes, courses and teachers for them.
     In summary, not being a free-barrier campus is the only deficiency of METU in order to be my ideal university.

JOURNAL ENTRY 2 (revised version)

        According to  the Times Higher Education Rankings 2012-2013, Middle East Techinical University is the best university of Turkey and it is in the top 250 universities of the world in terms of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internatioal outlook. Because of the prestige of METU, being a student at this university is source of pride and priviledge for me.

        I am happy about being at METU in the way of opportunity for socializing, academic achivement and social prestige I have during my education years and especially after my graduation.Firstly, quite a few clubs,activities,groups and teams are found in METU in order to socialize, improve oneself or serve society.For instance, I participate in METU without Barriers Student Club and Ankara Voluntary Team.In my opinion,these clubs are really effective on socialization and serving to society.They provide us with the opportunity for meeting people from different cultures and also supporting people who need  help or have disabilities.Apart from these clubs,there are lots of sport, music and research clubs to improve oneself in a special area.Secondly,METU classes are a great deal more difficult than high school classes and other universties classes.This fact prompts me to study harder and pushs the edge of my envelope and leads me to think 'The harder I study ,the more successful I will be in my university life and academic career.'As a result,this university improves me academically.Finally,students who graduate from METU have social prestige because they graduate from the university as qualified people.Therefore, employers prefer them.

        In addition to all its positive effects, being at METU is challenging for me in some ways.First of all,one of the most challenging thing for me is about time management.For example, sometimes I think I have too much free time and then I think I have no time to do anything.In order to cope up with this, I try to plan my life for each day.Another one is about the increased academic demands.There are more writing,reading and assignments for each class and they sometimes are overwhelming.A schedule may be a good idea to overcome the assignments.

         In summary, being at METU is both the source of pride and happiness and sometimes really challenging for me.

Journal Entry I: Contextual grammar in action

Mental health: Global effort sought

                                                         By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

                                                            proper noun

 Experts around the globe are calling for a joint effort to tackle the world's leading cause

plural noun

 of  suffering and disability - mental health disorders.

                                                singular noun

Nearly 450 million people have mental

                                                  adjective

health disorders and more than three-quarters

live in developing countries.

             adjective

According to the World Health Organization

                  dependent clause

(WHO), eight in every 10 of those living

in developing nations receive no treatment at all.

                             transitive verb

Many are the survivors of infectious diseases, natural disasters and war.

In Afghanistan, most families have lost one or more member during the country's 30

  place adverb                                                direct object

years of conflict.

And it's estimated about half of Afghans over 15 years of age have mental health

                                                                                                         verb phrase

problems such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Outside of the country's capital Kabul, there is no mental healthcare system.

                  place adverb

Neglect

Afghanistan is not alone - almost half of the world's population lives in a country where ,

 subject

on average,there is one psychiatrist or fewer to serve 200,000 people.

Many low-income countries have less than one mental health specialist per one million 

population,according to the WHO.

In Nigeria, a quarter of patients seen in local health centres have significant 

                                            subject

depression symptomsyet few are diagnosed and only one in six of those who are

diagnosed get treatment of any kind.

In other parts of Africa, like the Ghanaian capital Accra, patients in some mental health

institutions are left hungry and naked.

Each country faces its own set of challenges.

                         personal pronoun

In Ethiopia, a major cause of mental stress is domestic violence, which is thought to

                                                                        adjective                          dependent

occur in more than two-thirds of rural families.

          clause

Meanwhile people living in Haiti are having to come to terms with the devastation

                       subject                                    intransitive verb

of the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, injured another 300,000

                                        action verb

and left 1.6 million homeless. Almost every person on the island was affected. Later that 

same year a cholera outbreak killed another 6,000 inhabitants.

In May 2012, health ministers from the member states of the World Health Assembly

time adverb

agreed to a resolution on mental health, making a commitment to promote greater

awareness of mental health issues and improve care standards around the world.

                                                                                direct object

Mobile help

A global mental health action plan is now being drawn up.

The Canadian government has said it will give nearly $20m (£12.5m) to support 15

 new projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing

                                                                   direct object

countries. The projects, led by  Grand Challeges Canada, will tackle issues that can

lead to mental illness, such as alcohol and substance abuse,

as well as delivering solutions like counselling and health promotion.
                               adverbial (prepositional) phrase

One project will use mobile phones to deliver instant and accessible support to Nigerian

women suffering from postnatal depression.

Another will use local health networks and telemedicine to help Afghans with mental 
indefinite pronoun                                                                          infinitive phrase

health conditions.

Dr Peter Singer, of Grand Challenges Canada, said: "There is very little funding for  

mental health innovations in low- and middle-income countries, where mental illness

                                                                                               relative pronoun

is the most neglected of many neglected diseases.

"It's a terrible denial of human potential."

       independent clause

http://www.metu.edu.tr

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-776744