Week 16

This is a goodbye post. I feel really complicated now; actually I don’t know how to feel. I feel amazingly free after a tough year but I am also a bit sad about leaving my school and friends tomorrow. No matter how demanding the year was, it was that much great with lots of new and great experiences. I feel really lucky and happy for having three years more in here.

This week we had our Comm. 101 final exam and we wrote an essay in three hours as I said before. The topic was not difficult and we could easily use the texts given us before. But I was not able to think quickly in the exam so I spent first hour by thinking about the topic without writing anything. Then I spent rest of the time on trying to write as fast as possible. It was my fault not to use the time effectively but there is nothing to do now. I can only wait for the result.

Overall, studying Comm. 101 with Mr. O’Regan was a good experience and my classmates were all nice people. I will also take Comm. 102 from Mr. O’Regan in summer school so I hope it will be another good experience for me. I will miss Comm. 101 Section 8.

Goodbye…

Week 15

This was the best week of the year because we had the last lectures of the year. Now we are studying for our final exams. First of the final exams will be Comm. 101 and we will write an essay in 3 hours. I think it will be a bit demanding to write in 3 hours with no break but we can handle.

On Tuesday, we got the feedback of our second essay’s final draft and when I got mine I was very pleased because I got 91. My first grade was also 91 and now I want to pass Comm. 101 with an A. In the first week of the course I also wrote in my blog that I had been dreaming about getting an A at the end of the course and now I feel really close. But I know that everything is still in Mr. O’Regan’s hands because we still have 41 points not given yet including the final exam.

On Thursday, we talked about the final exam: what we have to do before and during the exam. Because it was not allowed, we didn’t talk about the texts. But later there was a study session for the exam so we had the chance of discussing the texts with the teachers and asking our questions.

At the weekend, I read the texts again and now I feel ready for the exam. I will try to do my best. That’s all for now. Bye…

Week 14

Time has passed quickly and we are coming to the end. Comm. 101 has been one of the most demanding classes of this semester with its tasks. But following the instructions and using our intelligence have always helped us in Comm. 101.

On Tuesday, we talked about paragraph organization types and Mr. O’Regan gave a task about it: writing an essay. But it will be easier than the ones we did before because it will be a TWE type essay. It is due next Tuesday.

On Thursday, we handed in our second essay’s final draft and we got relaxed. So the class was very funny that day. Then we talked about quotation and we realized how complicated it is. We learned that we should be very careful while using a quote.

Everything went well in Comm. 101 until now and I hope the rest will also be nice. Now I have to go and do my Comm. homework as soon as possible because I have to prepare two presentations for my Hist. 245 and Turk. 100 classes this weekend. I am in a hurry because there will be limited time to study this weekend due to spring festival of our school.

That’s all for now. Bye.

Week 13

This week we had only one class on Tuesday because Thursday was holiday due to the 1st May chaos of Istanbul. But missing the Comm. 101 class was not a good thing because we would have been more informed about our second draft if we had had that class. However, it was a good chance to get relaxed.

On Tuesday, we discussed the common mistakes which we had done in our first drafts. Mr. O’Regan was a bit angry because he encountered the same mistakes again which he had seen in our first drafts before. He also gave us the homework grades which equal 5 % of the course by checking our notebooks’ being ready when the lesson started.

Now I am working on my essay again to make necessary changes for the second draft because on Tuesday I have a tutorial with Mr. O’Regan.

When I think about the Comm. 101 class, there has been a long time since it started and I have used the Internet much more than before I started taking this class. Although it is nice to use the Internet to do the tasks, it can easily make one distracted and make one spend many hours on it unnecessarily. So since I started to use it, I have always cared about only doing my tasks then shutting my computer down.

That is all for this week, see you later…

Week 12

Thursday was the deadline of our second essay’s first draft so we spent Tuesday by talking about the essay. As it was the class just before the deadline, it was very important for all of us. I also had a tutorial with Mr. O’Regan on Wednesday to discuss my draft and make the last changes on it. Wednesday was a sunny and great holiday but I worked on my essay instead of enjoying the nice day outside. But it is not a big deal because there is an upcoming holiday less than a month later.

On Thursday we handed in our essays and got relaxed for a week. I said “for a week” because we will be working on our second draft next week. In our second class, our topic was “topic sentences”. We did some exercises and tried to understand how a topic sentence is constructed. Mr. O’Regan also gave us some exercises about it as homework due next Tuesday. We will also hand in our podcast evaluations on Tuesday and it was a very interesting task to evaluate our own podcasts. We read our classmates’ feedbacks on our podcasts and evaluated our own work.

As I said, there is less than a month till the end of the semester but it will be demanding enough with mid-terms and finals. I am really worried about the Comm. 101 final because we will have to write a complete essay, which is like we write in two weeks, during the exam. I hope it will be a good final whistle.

Week 11

This week we handed in our podcast evaluations and now we are waiting to see our feedback. When we get our feedback, we will evaluate our own podcasts. Podcasts were not very notable for this week because we all mainly thought about our second essay. We talked about Mileham’s text which is about online infidelity and Brendan & Lauren’s story. Mr. O’Regan explained clearly and comprehensively how we would write our synthesis essay. Then he offered an extra week for us to work on our essay but we rejected. Generally students want extra time to do a task but this situation is not one of those because most of us want to do it as soon as possible to have enough time later for our midterms. Furthermore, we wouldn’t have a second feedback which would be beneficial later if we agreed for extra time. So it was a good decision.

Today I had a tutorial to discuss my outline with Mr. O’Regan before I started to write and again it was very beneficial for me to shape my essay. Now I am writing my essay and on Wednesday I have another tutorial to make the last changes on it.

By the way, last week I registered in Mr. O’Regan’s Comm. 102 class in summer school. As Mr. O’Regan said it will be very demanding with my Economy class so I need to study hard in that five-week-period. But the topic sounds very interesting and enjoyable: “Stories and Philosophies”. I think the most difficult part of it will be the research paper as I heard from my friends.

This is all for now. See you later…

Week 10

Week 10 of Comm. 101 was not done thanks to the holy spring break which let us take a breath among those difficult exams and essays. It was a great holiday to refresh but it has passed very quickly. We could find enough time to do our Comm. homework and we did it easily in the comfortable atmosphere of our homes. We read the article for upcoming essay and we assessed the podcasts. Now we are ready for new tasks.