Fatima's Archives

Hey everyone! A few days ago I wrote a story, this time too, in response to a topic in an AS level English Language paper. Although the topic asked for a 'descriptive piece', what I wrote is more of a story (despite not following a proper story structure!) than a descriptive writing. Nevertheless, it is better than some of the other stuff that I wrote lately, so I'm posting it here. I would really look forward to any feedback and constructive criticism on it. Write a descriptive piece called Laughter and Tears . In your writing, create a sense of contrasting moods to help your reader imagine the scene. It was a hot afternoon and they were playing hide-and-seek in the house. This time she was “it”, and as she counted to hundred, they rushed into their hiding places, giggling and whispering. The innocent young girl, unaware of what life held in store for her, laughed as she rushed from room to room, spotting each one of her friends. She had been running down the ...

I recently attended a workshop called 'The Basics of Photography' at ERDC . One assignment during the workshop was to take some photographs that told a story. That is, the photographs were not supposed to be just beautiful and artistic, but had to represent an idea or perspective. They could be a series of photographs that showed progress/ development, or just one picture, and at the end of the workshop, we had to present and explain it. Being somewhat an environmentalist, I decided to make my presentation on environmental pollution. We went to a park for photography, and in the park, while others focused on flowers and leaves, I took pictures of plants that were surrounded with junk. Hence, I named my presentation 'No longer beautiful' - a representation of all the things in nature that were once beautiful but are no longer so because they have been spoiled by mankind.  What I have managed to capture is hardly a tiny fraction of the whole idea behind it. This prese...

Here's a story I wrote a few days ago in response to a topic given in an AS level English Language past paper that I was solving. I think it has been quite a while since I wrote any stories - I've been more into writing articles lately - so the standard of this is perhaps not as good as it should be. Also, this story is focused towards exploring the inner thoughts and feelings of the main character, rather than building suspense and excitement, which I think is a weak point, but that is what the task had asked me to do. I hope you enjoy reading it. I would really appreciate any feedback and constructive criticism, as there certainly is a lot of room for improvement. Additionally, my exams are only three months away, so feedback and suggestions would be very helpful. Write a story called ‘At Last’, about a person who has waited a very long time for something important to happen. In your writing, create a sense of this person’s mood and how it changes through the story. ...

Hey there! Here are some tips and ideas for becoming a writer. This text was part of the activity booklet in my workshop, Writing Made Easy . I don't know if I'm the right person to give this advice. After all, I'm not a professional writer myself, and only write because I like to. But I think these tips are more like some motivational ideas to encourage you all to write. They don't tell much about the intricacies of writing, rather, they are some general ideas for anyone who wishes to become more fluent and consistent in their writing. I hope that this will be helpful and motivating for you. If you'd like to ask me anything about these points or writing in general, please leave a comment below. I'd look forward to any feedback and suggestions, and would also like to know if you have any tips for better writing. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! Do not hesitate. Write whatever comes to your mind, without worrying about whether it is rig...

Hey everyone! A lot has happened since I last posted here and I am strongly feeling the need to post about it now. After returning from our trip to Turkey , I along with my siblings, Zainab and Ibraheem , made a documentary on homeschooling, about which I had mentioned in a previous post . It is a quite detailed video in which we've answered some frequently asked questions regarding homeschooling, as well as talked about many of our experiences. The complete video is approximately fifteen minutes long and is called 'The Story of Three Homeschoolers'. Unfortunately, we haven't uploaded the video anywhere online yet D: but if we do, I'll be sure to post it here as well. But the thing I wanted to share about right now is my own thoughts and reflections on a workshop I recently conducted called 'Writing Made Easy'. This was a three-day workshop that I did at ERDC  for children aged nine to thirteen. This was the third workshop that I conducted at ERDC -  I ha...

On Saturday, 15th September 2018, I had an experience like no other I have ever experienced before. I attended the ‘sema’ in Konya. For those of you who might not be familiar with it, the ‘sema' is a performance of whirling dervishes. It originated in the thirteenth century and was founded by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. The event was to be held at Konya’s Cultural Center (Mevlâna Kültür Merkezi), and was free and open for the general public, without requiring any prior booking or reservation. We found out that this event was held every Saturday evening in the indoor auditorium (which could seat 3000 people, by the way) of the cultural center. Additionally, there was also a performance every Sunday afternoon in the outdoor hall of the center, plus one every Thursday evening in the courtyard of Rumi’s mausoleum. We all were pretty excited and eager to attend the program, as this had to be one of the most important things of our trip to Turkey. I had first read and heard about the...

Since the last four or five months, I have developed a new interest, that is significantly different from all of my other interests and hobbies. Soapmaking! If you aren’t familiar with the concept and idea behind it, it might sound very strange to you. But that is why I’m posting this: to tell you about it and how simple it is, my own personal experiences regarding it and the challenges I faced, and also, to convince you to start soapmaking as well. If you’re interested, please read ahead. I had been interested in the idea of soapmaking for at least a year before I learnt how to make it, and started making it. I think my initial interest in this area arose after our family’s transition to natural hair care, which was about two years ago. After reading a number of blog posts on natural living and even attending a couple of workshops on the topic, I found myself determined to try out soapmaking. I had tried making a few DIY natural beauty products before as well, such as face scru...

Hello readers! I haven't posted for a pretty long time. There was a lot of stuff going on, plus I had been busy in some office related stuff (where I volunteer), so I wasn't getting a chance to write and post. Although I had a few topics to write on in mind, and had begun writing on them as well, I wasn't able to conclude the writings well enough so I didn't just post them.  Anyways, back to life. I have just completed my O levels successfully, alhumdulillah, as a private candidate. Although I did face a few challenges, I'm glad that I've finally completed it with reasonably satisfactory grades. :) I have decided to do my A levels privately as well, instead of going to an A level school or college. I've picked social sciences for my A levels, (Sociology, Psychology, and English Language) instead of pure sciences. (Why I chose social sciences over pure sciences is another topic I'd like to write on sometime.) Anyways, I do hope I manage to do my A lev...

This morning I had my last O level Chemistry exam. While going through my books for one more time a few hours before the paper, I was swept by a wave of emotion as I realized that after today, I wouldn't be reading them again. My favourite way of dealing with all sorts of emotions is to write about them, so before long I was writing a letter to Chemistry. It may sound weird, but well, that's the way it is. So here you go. Dear Chemistry, I’m gonna miss you. Today is my last O level Chemistry paper, and believe me when I say I will miss you. The ten months we spent together were a quite enriched experience for me. From knowing almost nothing about Chemistry, I have now acquired an understanding of and an appreciation for it. You were never as boring as Physics or as difficult as geography. In fact, you were quite interesting and made sense – at least most of the time. The concepts and formulas you taught me were logically appealing and were things I could easily re...

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I was working on an article and would post it soon. This topic had been bothering me for a long time; I started writing this several weeks ago. I had nearly completed it when I got distracted by something else (don't remember exactly what distracted me, this happens to me all the time), and I lost focus from this work. Then I got really busy in some other work, so busy, in fact, that I nearly forgot about my blog. But of course, I couldn't forget it for long, and here I am, back with this new article on age restrictions. Basically, it is an argument that young people should be given the same rights, and opportunities as adults. I'd like to know about what you think about this. Do you agree with this perspective or not? It would great if you could take out the time and leave a comment below. Thanks a lot! :) In most countries of the world, an individual is considered to be a ‘child’, and not an adult, before s/he reaches the a...

Hey Readers! Welcome back. I noticed that I hadn't posted on this blog for about two months. Not that I was very busy or anything, I just wasn't in the right mood for blogging. I guess you can assume that I'm back in the mood now, for I'm back with a new page element on my blog. I had been working on it for several weeks. It is a Reading Log , and you are most welcome to check it out. But before you do so, I must inform you about a few things related to this reading log. First of all, this reading log is NOT a list of all of the books that I have read in the sixteen years of my life! That would be pretty much impossible to do. This reading log is actually a list of some of the books that I have read and enjoyed reading very much, or received some important lessons from. They include fiction and non-fiction books. Secondly, I would like you to know that I am not rating any of these books. I would not like to say that the books listed at the top are any better than t...

I wrote this story to share with Khan Academy on their Share your story page. I submitted this story yesterday, but I haven't seen it on their page yet. Maybe someone will read and approve it before publishing it... Anyways, I decided to publish it on my blog. Initially, I had thought of writing a few lines, but the finished story turned out to be over 350 words long. So of course, I had to publish it here. If I find that this gets published on Khan Academy, I'll share the link here as well. So here you go... I am a homeschooler from Pakistan, and I usually study by myself. I am sixteen years old, and  am doing O levels as a private candidate. I took a lot of help from Khan Academy while studying Maths, and was delighted to see that Sal Khan could make even the most complicated concepts understandable and easy in his videos. Here in Pakistan, people think that kids can't study by themselves, and even homeschoolers think that they need some sort of assistance or hel...

Hello readers! I have recently been attending this Advanced Writing Course on Coursera . Week 1's assignment was to choose any topic of your interest, and write an advanced argument essay on it, applying all the things we had learnt in that week. The essay was supposed to be peer reviewed. I chose Global Warming as my topic, since I am interested in the thing and what is causing it. I did a lot of research on on it, and spend several hours working on the essay. In the end when I submitted it, it didn't meet the criteria, because my essay had only three body paragraphs while an advanced essay should have more than three body paragraphs. So I added one more paragraph and some more detail to the other paragraphs, and submitted it again. I haven't received any feedback for my second attempt yet. Anyhow, I am posting this on my blog now. Global warming is a serious issue that is creating problems for the whole world. One of the major problems that have resulted is climate c...

Hey there readers! I hadn't posted on this blog for too long, and I was feeling pretty guilty about not having done so. And I had some kind of a writers' block, and wasn't able to write anything non-academic for quite a while. But after attending a five-day workshop on Spoken Word and Language Skills conducted by Spoken Stage at the British Council Library , and after doing a lot of writing activities, I broke the writers' block that had built up. Now I am back with a list poem on Sadness, which is one of the pieces that I wrote in the workshop. Sadness is when no one listens to me Sadness is when people fight Sadness is when my parents don't trust me. Sadness is when people leave Pakistan; Saying there's nothing in it for them. Sadness is when I lose hope Sadness is when I see the ugly truth. Sadness is when I realize that the people who matter so much to me don't really care, And sadness is when I stop caring for the ones who care for ...