Band 90-100

INCREASING VIOLENCE AMONG YOUNGSTERS

     According to The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, nearly 1561 young people, whose ages were under 18, were arrested for assassination in 2000. Throughout the world, 250.000 homicides occur among youngsters who are between10-29 years old each year, which means the %41 of the annual total number of homicides. These statistics demonstrate that the rate of youth violence is quite conspicuous. When a trouble arises, the factors that cause this trouble should be taken into consideration. The research that was done by some experts resulted in the view that there are three major factors of violence in youth. These are family, educational and social factors. Such factors, and more, bring about increasing the rate of violence among young people.

     First of all, family factors can be viewed as the most leading one causing violence among youngsters. A research conducted by Sezer Ayan in 2007 indicates that the teenagers who were exposed to violence while growing up are apt to violence more than the others. Parents had better care about their children so that they can receive sufficient affection which is their imperative requirement all the time. Parents should be aware of how to interact with their children. In order to accomplish this, parents need to be well-educated. Low parental education might lead lack of communication between parents and children. Unfortunately, parents leaving their children in front of TV sets may be observed almost everywhere. They do not even control what their children watch. It is probable that children may watch some movies or cartoons that include violent scenes without parents’ supervision. All these elements may contribute to the idea that it is quite crucial for parents to engage in their children and make them they are of great importance to their parents.

     Second major factor that brings about violence among youngsters can be educational factors. According to CDC’s study, about %2 of homicides occur among school-age children. When children begin to get education at schools, they spend much time with their teachers and other pupils more than their parents. Interaction problems may arise between teachers and students. Unless the teacher tries to put an end to such problems, this situation might become more and more troublesome. For instance, children may be deprived of their willingness to participate lessons. Additionally, they may escape from school, which most probably results in failing. Many of them may be prone towards becoming a part of gangs due to this failure. Since it is very likely for teenagers to be influenced by their peers because of the features of puberty, one student can cause the others to be drawn to gangs without difficulty. As a result of these determinants, they might be involved in violence either with their own decision or with pressure of their friends.

     The third of the most considerable factors of violence among youngsters is social factors. Unemployment can be thought as a major factor of this issue. Particularly in Turkey, the case of unemployed university graduates is an enormous problem. There are approximately 600.000 people suffering from this situation. This tough issue may cause some people to have psychological problems. Furthermore, when the people around the jobless ones begin to neglect them, their problem is likely to become a lot more bothersome. Income inequality in a society might be one of the consequences of unemployment in a country. Such cases may also have an effect on addiction to drugs or alcohol. Due to the fact that their mental health is not fine enough, they may consider that these addictions are appropriate ways to dispose of their troubles. One can be sure that addicted people will not be able to control themselves. They are likely to be brutal against their family members. Each element influences one another and most probably engenders violence.

     To put in a nutshell, the increasing rate of violence among youngsters is a problematic issue all around the world. According to the studies that were conducted previously, family, educational and social factors are the main reasons for this social case. Family is the basis of a society. To head on to such social problems, the first thing to do is establish well-educated families knowing how to raise their children. Insufficient education at schools triggers violence, as well. Social factors, such as unemployment, income inequality, addiction, are said to have a significant effect on rising rate of violence among teenagers. As this is a social issue and family is the essence of a society, every parent is supposed to care about their children and teach them to love the life they live in before the gloves are off.

Author: Fatmagul Ozalp (ELT-2)

Band 60-70

Population: “Asset or Alarm Bells”

Population indicates the number of people who lives in a specific area. According to the sources, the number of livings on earth is now more than 7 billion and increasing progressively. This seems like a good thing or can be considered as an asset for the world but it can also turn to be an affliction if the explosion cannot be controlled. This is because, people need particular things to survive and there should be a balance between the things –resources- and the rate of population. However, due to tremendous growth in population, resources cannot responding our needs. Consequently, high rate of population growth turns to be an affliction when it actually could be an asset. The general rate is currently growing at a rate of approximately 1.14% per year and if it continue to growing more, the problems we should have to face with will be more in relation to lacking of resources. Some of these problems are shortage of food, poverty and housing (accommodation) problems.

To begin with shortage; Shortage is one of the major problems, nearly can be seen every part in the world. It can be in economy field or for instance; labor shortage but the most important one for all human being is shortage of food to stay alive and carry out vital functions. On account of growing population, food supply in markets do not provide the population needs, the resources are starting to run out. Approximately 7 billion people live in the world and more or less one in eight cannot find enough food supply to eat. This is because, as the population rate increase, the amount of food supply which people have to take increase. It seems like the population are growing drastically and in a fast way than people’s ability to grow food and that will eventually open the doors for a mass starvation in the near future. Even right now, 10 million people die of starvation and hunger-related diseases every year because they could not have the chance to get sufficient food supply.

The second problem which population explosion –though not directly- led to is poverty. Everything about this problem start with another problem: Educational problems. In many countries in the world, some families are not send their children to schools maybe it is because economic reasons and fees or maybe it is because some cultural beliefs. Therefore, in a situation like this, children cannot access to education and their job alternatives which they will do in the future are diminishing. Especially, in undeveloped countries usually these children have job prospects like farming and manual labor which do not even supply the simple needs. That is why some families think to give birth to benefit their children to provide extra income. However, that just makes the things worse than ever because according to some research, people who make a living by farming have more children to provide more labor and income. Due to increasing population rate, access to health services and education are becoming less and the next generation is prone to repeat the cycle. As a result, lack of education with population growth, trigger the poverty.

Thirdly and lastly; Housing problems are also one of the critical results of population explosion. The population is growing with an uncontrollable way so the accommodation needs of people and the number of households are rising. This is because some people are living alone and maybe some of them have second properties. Thus, a country with a dense population might need extra houses per year. However, these extra need houses come up with new problems like great pressure on limited resources such as water and electricity. This is because, when there is more home the more amount of water will be consumed and the more electricity, natural gas will be used. In this respect, for instance, UK could not obstruct this problem and called for a new law. The report stated that London is in a housing crisis due to steadily increasing population. This housing crisis make the rents 64% higher, consequently, the number of families cannot afford to own a home has increased. Plus, the report finds that in addition to housing, population growth generates supplementary demand for food, water and electricity because of the number of living humans in houses.

In conclusion; this unbalanced and unconscious increase is one of the global problems we should deal with. Each day, with growing population, our problems are getting bigger proportionally. People need adequate quantity of food to survive but due to high growth in population, shortage shows itself with insufficient resources. This time, poverty starts to show itself on account of the people who obliged to live with insufficient resources and food, that is to say, constitution of bad conditions. Bad conditions make life even harder. Housing problem is also one of them. Rising number of households, expensive land prices are all results of population explosion. From this point of view, since population dense is important for us to live in better conditions, we should be careful about it. If we can take a look at mathematically, we already see instability between resources and population. Though in the moment, we do not recognize it clearly, approximately within 50 years our resources will be finished according to the estimates. Therefore, we should take some precautious to keep a balance between population and resources for the world’s future.

Author: Damla Uygun (1^st year ELT)

Band 70-80

POPULATION GROWTH RATE AND ITS EFFECTS

          Unexpected population growth affects us in almost every field of our life. Everyone has some needs to live, and this rapid population explosion causes circumstances. As long as population continues to grow, needs of people increase. This is because the quality of life is changing rapidly. For instance, the life style in 1980 and today are totally different, and I am sure that tomorrow will not be the same as today. As the day goes on, people want more and try to accommodate these changes in some fields, such as science and technology. Of course, these rapid changes have many positive effects to our world. But if we look at these circumstances from a different point of view, we can easily understand that there are many negative effects on human life in different fields. Some of them are in health, education and nourishment.

           Firstly, rapid population growth may cause some troubles in health sector. The number of unhealthy people increases due to the fact that population goes on increasing, because infectious disease can spread among people fast in crowded areas. With the increasing number of patients, we need many more hospitals and doctors. Since the number of patients per a doctor is increasing, doctors may not do their job ideally. Also because of this, they are sometimes exposed to the violence by the patients and their relatives. For example, according to the Turkish Health Services, there are 130.000 doctors in Turkey, and every doctor has 590 patients.* If population explosion happens in Turkey the number of the doctors might be insufficient. Actually, there are some samples for this in Turkey. In Nusaybin, a district of Mardin, a group of people protested the insufficient doctors in front of the hospital.* Although there were enough doctors in every department of the hospital, because of overpopulation, people protested. So overpopulation can affect the health sector miserably.

          Secondly, negative influences of population growth can be seen in education. Unpreventable population explosion may cause really critical problems at schools, such as crowded classes. If we want to have a efficient education for students, there must be a suitable atmosphere in classrooms. This atmosphere occurs with proper number of students per classrooms. Whether the classrooms were too crowded, teachers may not pay attention to each student equally. They may not gather students’ attention to themselves. Also, crowded might affect psychology of teachers. According to a survey, when teachers were asked some questions about psychology teachers who are responsible for crowded classes, 77 % teachers answered that they were under a lot of stress and 73 % teachers replied that they were always angry, nervous and felt tired*. So increasing population can affect education negatively.

          Finally, rapid population growth can influence nourishment and human life negatively, and in the case of overpopulation, some tremendous changes can occur in our world. As long as population continues to increase, the need of nourishment also increases. This might cause humans to produce convenience food. Some of them includes GMO (genetically modified organism ) and this is quite harmful for human health because the products which include GMO  are not organic. When we compare the production of convenience food with last years, we can easily see that there is a remarkable raise in production of those prucust.* That means deficiency of nourishment mat trigger to produce some food that are really dangerous for human health.

          If I need to sum up, I can say that unexpected population growth has some really serious and tremendous effects on some fields, such as health sector, education and also human life. With the increasing population, hospitals and doctors may be insufficient for patients, and this circumstance may endanger their lives. In addition to this, population explosion may also cause some deformation in education. Crowded classrooms can prevent teachers from paying attention to each student, and affect psychology of teachers miserably. They may feel tired, angry and nervous because of crowded classes. Lastly, as population continues to grow, its negative effects on human life continues as well. Because of lack of food, people prone to produce harmful product for human health. After we see all the problems of overpopulation, we should take some precaution not to increase population too much like family planning.

Author: Hilal Onur (1^st year ELT)                                        

*1-www.turkiyegazetesi.com.tr

*2-www.haberler.com

*3- hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr

*4-www.isaa.org

Band 80-90

DANGER IN 21st CENTURY: POPULATION

         If the governments do not take any precautions straight away, people will witness some of biggest effects of population explosion quite soon. This means that in average, another two billions people will start to live in the world according to the latest research of NATO.” Another two billions people” means that much more basic needs and troublesome problems. Of course; the governments will not hold out and be effective about these problems. Even when they endeavor to find a way out, will encounter a whale of problems. Considering all of these aspects, educational problems, health problems and irregular urbanization can be three main troubles that will be observed.

         First of all, one of the most considerable problems of unstable population can be education. The more students are available, the less quality education is given in the countries. As everyone knows, most destroyed problems for our future because while quality of education declines. Increasing young population will have more demands for schools and job opportunities. Lack of job opportunies will bring about unemployment rates of Turkey increased from 8.8% to 12.1% in 2014 according to TUIK (Türkiye Istatistik Kurumu). That percentage, 12.1%, may be accepted as a normal grade around the world. However, it indicates a tremendous explosion, because almost all countries worldwide have these similar numbers and rates. It means that the governments and people will come across some results of unemployment like poverty, famine. When all of these datum of TUIK are considered, lack of education can be mainspring for bags of problems in the future.

         Second terrifying effect of unexpected population is health problem that will break out all around the world. Food and water are basic needs to continue life for people. So lack of these sources will affect the natural life gradually. It causes famine and poverty, are principal reasons of heaps of serious diseases. In addition, increasing population means consumption of different energy sources (like electricity, natural gas, coal, and petroleum). Therefore even today, many of nuclear power stations are founded all over the world. Even if people come across these types of illnesses, they will carry on destroying the nature, unfortunately. Although the nature is a plaster for us, any precautions or treatments cannot be occurred for disease.

         Irregular urbanization and some difficulties about transportation are third major troubles of rapid population explosion. The explosion can lead to heaps of problems, like unemployment, education, health. Because of these serious factors, people may need to migrate from their places to large cities. So people may call for extra settlement areas. The governments or people have to build innumerable houses, buildings or shanties to supply their needs. By the way irregular urbanization will start to arise steadily. This problem can bring another trouble related to traffic and transportation because the more people settle down in a city, the more demands may exist for transportation. For example, each person wants to possess their own car. According to TUIK datum, in Turkey almost 19 billion transports (just includes proprietary automobiles) are allowed to hit the roads in 2015.Even if that figure stirs up trouble for large cities, unfortunately the number goes on constantly. At the same time, people can perceive lack of public transportation due to increasing population. When we consider all of these aspects of troubles, population explosion will complicate the country life steadily.

         All in all, educational problems, health problems, irregular urbanization and transportation are just three troubles of unstable population. Except for these, people may encounter lots of different problems. It is absolute that the governments should take precautions to prevent this increased population and its tremendous effects in all over the world. These problems evolved due to high population rate of undeveloped countries in unexpected populated countries. So some beneficial lectures can be given to diminish the rate of population explosion in certain areas of the world. We can realize that, according to datum that are influential above, if we do not take any precautions about it, our children or grandchildren will not experience their lives as their wishes. Even, our basic needs may be luxurious for them.

Author: Beyzanur Çöpçü (1^st year ELT)

What is 'ELT-Writing @Erciyes University Blog' about?

        Welcome to our blog! This is Erciyes University- English Language Teaching (ELT) Writing Blog!

        This website is designed to publish some of the ”distinctive” and ”original” essays of the novice student writers, studying English Language Teaching (BA) at Erciyes University and taking my ''Advanced Reading and Writing'' and ''Process Writing'' modules.

       Before my students started their university education, they had so focused on passing the university entrance exam in English (YDS), which is mainly about reading comprehension,that they totally ignored the other skills, i.e., speaking, listening and writing. Although my students have been learning English for almost 8-10 years and aimed to start teaching English after they successfully complete their degrees, I felt that they did not have enough opportunity to practice their writing. In my first classes, I realized that I needed to change their attitudes towards writing as most of them had not even wanted to touch their pens and paper to start producing a very short text on a given topic.

       All I heard was ”We do not really know how to start writing”.. We almost started from scratch..

       And these essays are the products of 6-7 weeks of work (2 hours a week-instruction)..I have already marked them and I will present the score band..

       I will give you more info along the way..ENJOY!

                                                                                                                                 Dr. Erdem AKBAS