Letter to Editor about hunting

Aslı Özoğuz

IB1

10.10.2012

Word Count: 405

 Dear Editor,

My name is Aslı Özoğuz and I’m a student at MEFIS schools. I read an article on your newspaper which talked about the book called “From Boys to Men of Heart: Hunting as a Rite of Passage”. Overall it was a great article which gave lots of useful information. However, I believe that some of the points made weren’t actually accurate. I am writing this letter in order to state those incorrect points. I hope you’ll have the time to read it.

In one of the arguments the author relates peace with hunting. He says: “What do you think Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela would say? They won the Nobel Peace Prize and both are avid hunters.” to a woman who believes that hunting is violent. However, peace and hunting can’t be linked together.  First of all, they won the peace prize because they were being peaceful towards humans, not animals. Peace is within the humans, not the animals. It wouldn’t be right to make a connection between those two things. Also this doesn’t answer the question of the woman. She believed that hunting is violent and giving reasons of why hunting is not violent would answer the woman’s question. Giving information about how hunting is done and how it isn’t brutal because of the equipment they use would have made more sense.

Another statement made which I believe is incorrect is: “My survey of older hunters indicated that all men have spontaneously killed a small animal before the age of ten.” The author of the book believes that this happens because everyone has an urge to kill. I believe that this statement is invalid. There might be some exceptions, but there is no possible way that every child had an instinct to kill something when they were born. They might have an urge to kill something when they grow up or when they go through some difficulties in life. Also they probably killed it by an accident, not on purpose. However I don’t believe that every child is born with a desire to kill. If this statement is somehow true, I would want to see proof.

In conclusion I believe that this article has some problems that should be solved. However, despite the mistakes, this article is helpful and full of information about hunting. Thank you for taking your time to read this. I hope I was helpful.

 

Warm Regards,

Aslı Özoğuz

 

"teenagers trade pride for selfish attention"

Aslı Özoğuz

Language B

Word Count:  283

 01.10.2012

Dear Diary,

You won’t believe what happened today! For the first time in my life my mom and I actually agreed on something. Okay, I’ll start from the top. It was a typical Sunday morning. Our house was extremely quiet and calm as it is on every Sunday. Everyone woke up at 11 o’clock. After we had breakfast, I and my mom were watching TV. By luck, there wasn’t anything on TV so we had to watch a show called My Super Sweet 16. Yuck. Anyway while we were watching it my mom said that teenagers trade pride for selfish attention. Even though I am a teenager, I totally agree. Spending all that money on a night which is only about you… That is just selfish. These teenagers crave attention so much they are willing to spend all this money. If I had that much money I would actually do something which is good for our society. I probably would have donated some of it. Instead of donating the money or at least do something useful with it, they just spend it on one party which is only about themselves. These people want to feel like a celebrity. They want to feel famous. That’s why they do all this stuff. But the thing is, the other day no one will remember who the girl or the boy was. So the thing is these teenagers could actually do something good for the community and gain people’s attention that way. But they just throw away a lot of money for a party which is only about themselves. That is just selfish. I’m just glad I am not like one of those spoiled teenagers! Good night!