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http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/composition/freewriting.htm
1. Birth story - here is my own 'birth story'. Read it and enjoy it then write your own. If it's a good story, we can include it on this page for everybody to read.
My birth story
On the day I was born, my father had gone to work, full of worry and hope and joy. Tonight he would be a father, and he was full of happiness, full of worry. In those days, fathers didn’t attend the birth of their son or daughter, as they often do today, and so he was left out of the equation, as we say.
He went to work and worried about Mum and me. We were doing fine though, and so he had no real need to worry. Still he worried. You worry about what you think is uncertain, don’t you? My Dad was the same. Mum and me were in a modern hospital and were being looked after by highly trained staff – doctors and nurses, and the women who help other women give birth – midwives.
Still my Dad worried. How do I know? He told me later, when I was old enough to understand such things. His work those days involved laying railway lines along new tracks – taking up old lines that were worn out, and replacing them with new lines. It was heavy work, but it was well paid, and he liked to work outside in the open air.
His friends working with him tried to reassure him that everything would be just fine, but still he worried. The gang of men were repairing a section of line in a cutting – a place were the line runs between steep banks. They had lifted a section of line out and were nearly ready to put a new piece of railway line into the gap.
It was a windy day – or so my dad told me 10 years later, and it was difficult to hear anybody shouting, or hear a whistle being blown – or hear a train coming. The men worked on, preparing the track so that they could put the new line down.
Suddenly, my dad heard someone shouting, then he heard a whistle blowing. He looked up from the line he had just slotted in but hadn’t fastened down yet. A look of sheer horror swept across his face. He called out to his friends, but they didn’t hear him. He hit the railway line with his hammer and the other men felt the vibration and looked at my father.
Just beyond my father was a terrible sight – a train was coming towards them at a high speed. The line was not yet ready – the train would surely come off the track unless someone did something.
Quick as a flash, my father knelt and quickly put one bolt into the parts that held the line in place. He didn’t have time to do anything else. With a loud roar and whoosh, the speeding train bore down on him. He leapt back as the train passed. My father lay on his back, shocked but not hurt. He had been lucky. None of his friends were hurt either, and the huge train sped safely away towards the next station.
Passengers looked out at the windy day, saw the cutting but didn’t look down to see my father nearly get his head chopped off by the huge steel wheels of the steam locomotive.
Standing up, my father said he could feel a broad smile coming over his whole face.
“Everything’ll be fine now,” he shouted to his pals. “Those two in hospital will be ready to come home.” He put his coat on and walked towards his friends down the line. They were laughing now.
“Thanks, lad,” they said to my father. “You get off and see how they are getting on.”
My father didn’t need telling twice. He ran along the line, jumped on a bus rounding the corner near the station and got to the hospital where we were waiting for him. I can’t really remember that moment, but Mum said, “Robert, this is your father,” to a man with a smiling, dirty face. We had all been lucky on that day, the 25th of September.
Robert L. Fielding
2. Your name
My name – Robert Leslie
Robert is a common enough name in Britain and elsewhere. Leslie is a Scottish clan name and first name too. Robert Bruce – Robert the Bruce, as he is known, was a great leader who defeated his enemies.
His qualities were those necessary for a great leader, he had courage, wisdom and tenacity, and he had determination. There is a story about him that illustrates his tenacity and determination. One evening, as he was stirring the broth on the fire, he noticed a spider trying to reach a point higher up the wall next to him. The spider tried to get higher but kept falling down. Despite its continual failure, it tried relentlessly until it reached the point it had been aiming for. Robert scratched his chin and pondered over what he had just seen.
He thought, ‘If that wee spider can try and try until obstacles are overcome and success is gained, I can overcome my obstacles and be successful, if I am determined as yon wee spider.’ And from that point he was more determined than ever to vanquish his foes on the battlefield.
I am not a military man, or a leader, but I have lots and lots of determination to do the things I think are worthwhile in my own life, and in that sense I do take after my namesake, Robert Bruce.
However, my being named Robert Leslie had little to do with Robert Bruce, and more to do with the fact that my own father (Leslie Fielding) had a grandfather on his mother’s side named Robert Leslie. In his case Leslie was his surname, being a member of the Clan Leslie in Scotland.
My grandmother, Ruby Leslie, was born and brought up as a child in the Glasgow suburb of Maryhill. Later, the whole family came south to find work. Robert Leslie worked at various trades, but became well known as a lay-preacher – a person who spoke in public on issues like morality and religion. He was also something of a poet – not a well known one, but a man given to writing down his thoughts in verse.
I have always loved writing and speaking too, come to think of it. I like to think I have something of Robert Bruce in me, but I know for sure that I take after my great grandfather, Robert Leslie.
Robert L. Fielding
3. Earliest childhood memory
My earliest memory
When I was five years old, my sister, Gillian was born. I can’t remember anything about that day, because, of course, I wasn’t involved at all. I went to school as an only child, and came back being the elder of two.
Some kids resent the intrusion of another face in the house when a sibling is born. I remember telling my parents that when my sister or brother was born, I would put them in my little red wheelbarrow and tip them out, but I never did, of course.
Earlier, we had all been wondering about a second name for the baby if it was a little girl. My parents couldn’t think of any names for their daughter. I was standing on the edge of the tiled surround of our fireplace – It was June, so there wouldn’t have been a fire in the grate.
I said, “Why don’t we name her after the Queen – Elizabeth.” My sister was named Gillian Elizabeth Fielding. I did that!
Robert L. Fielding
6. Family customs and traditions
Family life – customs and traditions – Christmas Eve
Santa Clause always came to our house on Christmas Eve. He brought his big sack full of presents down our chimney, read our notes to him and ate the mince pies that we left for him before going to bed excited.
Gillian, my little sister, and I always wrote little notes to Santa and threw them up the chimney so that he could read them. When the great night came, we could hardly sleep, we were so excited about Santa’s visit in the night.
I used to lay awake and try to imagine him on his sleigh, with his reindeer pulling him along, over the snow-covered rooftops, bells jingling as he came.
My mother and father always stayed in on that night. Friends and neighbours came and went, but they stayed in. I remember my father sitting by the fire, the Christmas tree at his elbow, and plates of mince pies around the foot of the bright tree.
My mother, I remember, had finished baking by that time, and was sitting near my Dad. She watched us children as we shouted up the chimney to Santa, left him something to eat, placed our pillow-cases on the sofa for him to fill them with presents.
Mum and Dad never went out on that night, even after my sister and UI had got married and left the home to live in our own homes. Lots of people went out on that night, to parties all over the neighbourhood, but my parents never did. They relived those wonderful days of our childhood as they sat and talked and ate the very same kind of mince pies that Mum had just lifted out of the oven.
And there is something timeless about that to me, thinking and writing about it years later, when both have passed away from this world into the next. Because I can still picture them sitting by a roaring fire, smiling at us children and at each other, that is what they are still doing – our old house belongs to someone else now. Maybe other children are too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve, just like us.
Life goes on.
Robert L. Fielding
7. Dreams
My dream(s)
I dream regularly, and can often remember my dreams, which, I believe, is a sign of a healthy mind. I hope it is, it’s the only one I’ve got.
An old song from one of the shows goes something like this: You’ve got to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?'
The expression, ‘to have a dream’ in this sense has nothing to do with dreaming whilst asleep. It is connected to daydreaming, but probably only a little.
Others have dreams for you; my parents, I think, had a dream that I would one day ’make something of myself’ as they say. I think I have done that too – I made them proud I was their son, and I am proud of having achieved that more than anything.
If we can all work towards being someone’s dream, as well as our own, I think the world would be a better place in which to live, don't you?
Robert L. Fielding
8. Wish list
My wish
Of course, like everybody else’s, my wishes include health, happiness and prosperity – for myself and every member of my family, my friends and neighbours. But my wish – my big wish, if you like, sort of encompasses everybody’s happiness, their health and their wealth – it is this; that we all take more responsibility for how the Earth is dwelt upon – how we live on our planet home and the things we do that can harm it and our own existence on it.
I wish we could live without greed, without hate and without envy; if we could manage to live our lives without those three negative aspects of our personality – those three destructive emotions, we would have no more wars, no more exploitation of each other and the Earth that keeps us alive. Perhaps more importantly, if we could live without those three forces of destruction in our lives, we could bequeath a life worthy of the name of us and our ancestors. If we could do that, we could look all those who have gone before us in the face when it is our time to go.
We would be greeted by William Wordsworth, who wrote so eloquently and so beautifully about his beloved Lake District – we could talk to William Shakespeare, and inform him that no Othello, Macbeth, Iago or Coriolanus walked the Earth, except in his plays – we could sit and talk to Dylan Thomas and show him old photographs of the Welsh coastline, unspoilt by industry – we could roam with Thomas Hardy on Dorset’s green hills, look out across a sea, clean and full of fishes, and we could walk with the Almighty and thank Him for the bounty that is Earth – His Creation, which is not ours to destroy.
Robert L. Fielding
My heroes
The real heroes of my life are the members of my family, of course. My wife, Nazan works very hard to give her pupils the best tuition they can possibly get. She tires herself out every evening working to produce materials for her youngsters at school. We have been married close on 19 years, lived in 7 foreign countries and as many different houses in each of them. She was always an adoring daughter in law to my parents, and daughter to her own.
My sister, Gillian, brought up her two boys almost single-handedly, and they have both turned out to be fine young men, John and Lee. Lee is now a father to Lucy and husband to Sarah.
My parents, now both sadly no longer with us, my mother, Beryl, and my father, Leslie, both lived as good, honest people and taught myself and my sister to be the same. My father went to war in 1939, joining the Royal Navy, and serving in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Egypt before being de-mobbed in 1945.
My mother welded bomb doors for aircraft in her own part of the war effort, and later, she met my father. She worked hard all her life for all of us and was always loving and kind.
My grandfathers, William Edgar Parkin and Evans Fielding both fought in the First World War in France, on the Somme, and came back wounded, but lived full lives as good husbands, fathers and grandfathers. My Grandad Parkin played professional football, and my Grandad Fielding played county cricket.
My grandmothers, Zilla Parkin, and ruby Fielding, were both great ladies. My Grandma Fielding was born and brought up in Maryhill in Glasgow, and my Grandma Parkin was a child in Rochdale. I loved both of them very much and cherish my memories of them.
My father in law, Erdogan Ener, was a tremendous man – he served in the Turkish army for more than 20 years, serving in Cyprus for much of that time. When I got to know him, he was a manager of a holiday camp owned and run by the Prime Minister’s office. He had a terrific sense of humour and we joked continually with each other, despite not speaking each other’s language fluently.
My mother in law, Sahure Ener, brought up their four children, Bulent, Fuhurizan, Nazan and Levent in houses the length and breadth of Turkey. She was a charming, beautiful woman who we all loved very much when she was with us.
The people I regard as heroes other than those members of my family are these: my teachers, Donald Ratcliffe (Fez), Ms. Dorothy Schofield (Dot Squash) and Mr. Pete (Daddy Pete – our headmaster), as well as Miss Spencer, my headmistress at Friezland Primary School. They all contributed a great deal to making me the man I am – they gave me confidence to ask questions, and helped me to develop my enquiring mind.
My tutor at Ashton Sixth Form College, Josephine Christou, Dave McCabe, Jim Higgins, Dennis Renwick and John McCann all helped me to pass my A-Level examinations and get me to university.
My heroes – those I have never met, include the former Prime Minister and wartime leaders, Sir Winston Churchill and Clement Atlee, the contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, and footballers Bobby Charlton and his brother, Jack, George Best and Billie Bremner of Leeds United.
All of these people have one thing in common; they gave their lives to help others, and they did it cheerfully and willingly.
Robert L. Fielding
11. A letter to a famous person - "Everybody is 'famous' to someone."
My letter
If I were to write one important letter, I would write it to everybody on the Earth. I would have it translated into every language, from those spoken by millions – Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and of course English.
I would also have it translated into those languages only spoken by less than 10,000 people – Huambisa, a language spoken in the high mountains and jungles of Peru, Veps, spoken by 6,355 people in Uralic Russia – to everybody in every language on Earth.
The very fact that there are thousands of languages spoken by millions or tens of thousands, or less – spoken b y people living in environments as diverse as the steppes of Central Asia, or the rainforests of South America testifies to the fact that we as people are as diverse as the flowers that carpet the Earth in Springtime.
And each and every one of us has one desire – to live happily and at peace with our neighbours. We all wish to eat and drink, work and play, live and die on our own little part of the surface of the Earth.
My letter would ask everyone to whom it was addressed to remember this fact – to constantly have it in mind whenever we act and whatever we do. I would say – “Just stop and think before you do anything!”
Robert L. Fielding
12. My life 10 years from now
My life 10 years from now
The nice thing about mortal life is that it is unpredictable – it is impossible to say with any certainty what we will be doing tomorrow, next week, this summer, let alone what our lives will be like in 10 years time.
My favourite singer, Kathleen Ferrier, who died at the age of 41 in October, 1953 was as famous as the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth. Yet only 12 years earlier, she had had a bet with her father that she would win a singing contest that took place near her home in Lancashire. She won the competition, of course – ‘Hands down’ as we say, and from that moment her life changed; she went on to sing in all of the most famous and grandest concert halls in the world, and with the finest orchestras and conductors.
Despite her fame and her wonderful voice, ‘Our Kath’ still retained her humanity. After a recording of ‘Orfeus’ with the world renowned musical director, Bruno Walther, she asked him, “Was I alright, love?’
Walther’s face was a sight to behold as he gave the contralto a most beautiful smile that said more than any words of congratulation or compliment could. Despite her fame, she was still a ‘Lancashire lass’ from Preston.
If I am anything in 10 years time, from this time, the 3rd April, 2009, I would like to be the same as I am right now – this is not to say that I am perfect, far from it – but rather that I am still learning how to be a human being, how to be kind to everyone I meet, and how to treat everyone as a special person, for that is surely how they see themselves and how they would wish others to treat them.
One of the lovely things that all life teach us is that all life is special; our little c at Ginger is now 16 years old, and that is quite ancient for a cat – the equivalent of 95 in human terms. Ginger is old and unwell now – he sleeps most of the time, and only moves slowly, but to us, to me and my wife, and our to our niece, Ginger is a special cat and our memories of life with him fill us with great joy and happiness.
In ten years time, God-willing, I will still be writing and enjoying my life, but if I am not, I wish to be remembered for all the things I tried to do and succeeded in doing.
Robert L. Fielding
My Life in Stories
Journal Writing Book
Level 3
Name:Mariam Sultan
Section:709
Week 2 Your Name
What does your name mean? Who gave you your name? Does it have a special meaning to anyone in your family? Do you like your name ? If your could change your name , what would you change it to ? Are you called any other name ex . Mimi for Maryam or Fatoum for
My name is Mariam , the mean of my name is ghazal .When I born my grandmother choose my name because I’m first child of my mother . It have a special meaning for my family because it is name of my grandmother and I doesn’t my name because everybody
Choose this name . If I would change my name I will choose special name like salama or alyazia . I’m called by other name like Mime , Remooh and Alreem .
Week 4 Family Life
What does family mean to you ? How has your family helped you in your life? In what way is your mother important to you? Your father ? Sister ? brother ? What do grandparents add to family life ? What member of your family has influenced you the most ? How ?
My family mean for me many things like Safety and stability .My family help me in many things and give me what I need .When I have any problem they solve for me .
My mother mean for me every things like Compassion and love .My father
Mean for me safety and I doesn’t like the home without my father .I haven’t sister ,my brother mean for me friend because I like to talk with him .My grandparents mean for me Past generations because Which has no past has no present
Week 6 Family Customs or Traditions
Family life is mirror or picture of your culture. What customs are important to your family? How do you spent a special day like a birthday or a holiday ?
You can start with
In my family we always …..
In my family, we have m
any important occasions to celebrate in order to keep the family bond strengthened. We celebrate Mother's day, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, etc. The most often celebrated occasion is birthdays of all the family members. We usually decorate the house with streamers, balloons, etc. Then of course we order for a lovely cake, ( the flavour depending on the celebrant's favourite!) with the name on it and not forgetting the candles. We usually have friends and family members over, so we prepare a few dishes at home and we order for some food as well. Sometimes we have the party either in a restaurant or a hotel. That depends on the number of guests. Last but not the least comes the presents. We give lovely gifts and flowers. There is usually a lot of singing, dancing and party games. Most important of all, we make the person who is celebrating the birthday feel that he /she is a special person in our life.
Week 8 Wish list
What do you wish for? Try to think of things you wish for yourself, your country , the world.
Ex . I wish that I could fly around the world.
I wish everybody in my country could speak English . I wish I could have all the education in the world possible. I wish I could be the President of the country. I wish I could help all the third world countries. I wish I could find ways to transport food and clothes to all those children in poor countries who are dying. I wish I could do things to wipe out war and strife and bring peace in the world. I wish I could write a book about all the great people's lives so that people would read them and try to be like them. I wish the youth of today would keep away from evil deeds and work more for the welfare of their country. I wish all nations would hold each others' hands in peace and harmony and that the world would be a heaven.
Week 10 My Hero
A hero is a famous person that you admire or respect because of the things they have achieved in their life . Who do you admirer respect ? What did they do in their life and why do you admire them ?
Being an Emirati, my favourite hero is none other than our late President .H.H.Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He was a visionary leader. We have many pictures of
What do you think your life will be like in the future ? Where will you live? What will the world be like at that time ? Will you live with your family ? Will you be married ?
Will you have children? Will you have a job?
My life10 years from now, will be, I hope a very secure one. I hope to be doctor and I think I would have realized my ambition by then. I plan to live in a very sophisticated villa on the Carribean islands. I think the world will be cleaner and safer then. I plan to be married and have a couple of children. We will all live in this beautiful sea side home and
live happily together. I plan to set up a hospital and treat patients who have strange diseases. I would do my best to see that the world is clean and safe.
