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

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