LIST 15 FACTS THAT WERE RAISED IN THE ARTICLE, EITHER ABOUT THE HURRICANE OR THE TOWN EFFECTED. THEN, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING TWO QUESTIONS:
(1) WHAT DOES THE INSERTION OF FACTS DO FOR THIS (AND ANY) STORY?
(2) HOW DID SHE INCORPORATE THEM INTO THE PIECE (STRUCTURALLY)? GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.
1)"The classic ingredients for a tornado--
ReplyDeletewarm air to the south, cooler air north and a hint of wind"
2)"Pietrycha is a meteorologist in the Chicago forecast office of the National Weather
Service"
3)Romeoville is about 25 miles southwest of Chicago
4) The tornado lasted 10 seconds
5)The tornado that swooped through Utica at 6:09
p.m. April 20.
6)The average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes
7)Shelba Bimm is 65 years old
8)Bimm lives at at 238 W. Church St. in Utica
9) The population of Utica is 977
10)The next level up from EMT is EMT intermediate
11)Bimm drives a Honda CRV
12)"Shelba Bimm had been a 1st-grade teacher for 42 years"
13)Oswego is 13 miles Northwest of Utica
14)The specials as Duffy's Tavern were: "'All You Can Eat Spaghetti w/garlic breadsticks, $4.99'
and Cajun NY Strip w/onions and peppers and potato salad, $16.99' and '2 stuffed
walleye, $13.99.' The soup was cheesy broccoli."
15)"Lisle Elsbury, 56, had bought Duffy's a year ago"
A. The insertion of facts made the story more credible. It proved that this event actually happened and these people are real.
B. The author did not just place the facts one after another like a journalist might do. She weaved them into each other, connecting them with descriptive words. She has a certain style of writing that helped her to tell the story. For example, she did not just say that the tornado lasted 10 seconds. She said "Ten seconds. Count it: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Ten
seconds was roughly how long it lasted." And right away, you knew that she was talking about. Her writing style is complex but makes it more interesting.
1. April 20th, @ 6:09 pm
ReplyDelete2. Lasted 10 seconds
3. Stratiform cloud cover – Gothic looking sky
4. Pietrycha – (slender man, short sandy hair) meteorologist for National Weather Service
5. Sandstone blocks slam into eachother killing 8 people
6. Average warning time for tornado = 11 min
7. Shelba Bimm – left the town before storm
8. Lisle Elsbury –(small gray mustache, curling around upper lip) owner of Duffys Tavern
9. The specials as Duffy's Tavern were: "'All You Can Eat Spaghetti w/garlic breadsticks, $4.99' and Cajun NY Strip w/onions and peppers and potato salad, $16.99' and '2 stuffed walleye, $13.99.' The soup was cheesy broccoli."
10. Weather Service Office – people scurrying, phones ringing, frowning workers
11. Larry Ventrice (49)– owner of Milestone/restless/impatient/good heart
12. Milestone (117 y/0) – thick, sandstone walls/flat concrete roof/slate foundation/stone floored basement/lights flickered/ “Wanted” poster to add a down-home feel
13. Tornado – black mass/swirling coil 200 yards wide at the ground/NW @ 30 mph/ debris swirling in it
14. Maltas (23 y/o volunteer fireman) and Burrows said “ screw the rules” and flipped the switch for tornado siren
15. Gloria Maltas – warned everyone to get back inside, ran from tornado, tried to escape to Mill Street Market
A. Inserting facts like the ones that pointed out to me makes the story more realistic for the reader; they can picture the scenes as if they are RIGHT there just from the descriptions that the writer displays in this article (characteristics of Milestone, descriptions of the characters, etc.)
B. Ways in which the writer incorporated details in the piece made the story more interesting because she made it flow, rather than a normal journalist putting facts on top of another, she spaced them out appropriately ( counting down the tornado from 10 )
1. Tornado lasted 10 seconds.
ReplyDelete2. Occurred in Utica on April 20, at 6:09 p.m.
3. A stratiform cloud gathered over Northern Illinois that day.
4. Albert Pietrycha is a meteorologist from Chicago forecast office of the National Weather Service in Romeoville, 25 miles southwest of Chicago.
5. Eight lives were lost during the storm.
6. Spring and early summer are peak times for Tornadoes.
7. The average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
8. Utica's population is 977.
9. Shelba Bimm is 65 and lives at 238 W. Church Street in Utica.
10. Dave Edgcomb is Utica's fire chief.
11. Lisle Elsbury, 56, bought Duffy's a year ago and left his life in Lyons as a repairman behind.
12. There are fourher ot taverns in town: Skoog's Pub, Joy and Ed's, Canal Port and Milestone
13. 5:32 p.m., Pietrycha's colleague, radar operator Rich Brumer, issued a tornado warning for north-central Illinois
14.That same night, 53 tornadoes hit the mid-west, 14 of them across north-central and northeastern Illinois.
15. The tornado was 200 yards wide at the ground, wider in the sky and traveling northeast at about 30mph.
A.The abundance of facts really makes the story. These facts are the author's back bone. Without names, bios, ages and descriptions of people, or the vivid explanation of the tornado and town itself, the story could have read as such: tornado hits Northern Illinois, kills 8 people...That is boring and honestly, detaches the audience from the drama here. The facts real the audience in like a story book. We can picture everything in our heads from the layout she gives us and also connect with the Utica residents because this author personalizes them so much. We know their names, families and occupations so it makes them matter. They become people and not just numbers.
B. The author incorporate this facts in a creative way. She doesn't just list them, but forms them into a story book chapter format. The fit so well, it actually sounds like her making up the facts to enhance the story. For example, in the beginning when she describes the tornado, she writes so vividly, as if she were writing a novel: "...soon would slam into each other like cars in a freeway pileup, ending eight lives and changing others lives forever." She adds a fact in her-the loss of eight lives-but does so stylistically and creatively. She isn't telling us, she's showing us.
1) Tornado occurred at 6:09 pm April 20 in Utica, Illinois.
ReplyDelete2) Stratiform cloud cover technical name for what was occurring.
3) Romeoville is 25 miles southwest of Chicago.
4) Ingredients for a tornado are warm air to the south, cooler air in the north, and hint of wind shear.
5) Spring and early summer are when most torandos occur.
6) Meteorologists can’t say for a fact why some thunderstorms generate tornados and others do not.
7) The average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
8) Shelba Bimm lives at 238 W. Church St in Utica
9) Lisle Elsbury has been the owner of Duffy’s for a year.
10) A tornado watch is usually sent out before a warning.
11) There were 53 tornados counted in the Midwest on this evening.
12) Tornado that arrived at 6:09 started 2 miles southwest of Gransville.
13) Larry Ventrice was the owner of Milestone’s.
14) Steve Maltas was a Utica volunteer firefighter.
15) Only the fire chief has authority to sound the tornado siren.
1) The facts that are inserted into the story make the sympathize and connect more to the story. Describing and stating facts about the town that the tornado occurred in and facts about the people involved in the tragedy makes it more realistic fir the reader. It allows them to realize that this was a real event that happened to real people in a small town. It allows the reader to start thinking as well about their own town and the people they know. What would they do if an event like this were to happen to them? Where would they be, how would they act? The reader can connect more to what the author is writing.
2) The author uses the facts in this story very wisely. She using them when giving creative descriptions of scenes and what is happening to establish credibility, and let the reader know even though she might slightly be exaggerating with the language she is using, what she is saying is still true. For example she writes, “The technical name for what gathered up there was a stratiform cloud cover, but Albert Pietrycha had a better way to describe it: ‘mirk.’ It was a Gothic-sounding word for a Gothic-looking sky,”. She lets the reader know what she is saying is true, by stating a fact about what the sky is called and what the description looks like to her.
She also does not just list facts, but puts them when necessary. Small facts listed about different characters when they are introduced makes the reader realize they are real people. The more intense and closer it comes to the time that the actual storm occurs as well, the more facts about it are introduced.
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ReplyDelete1)The tornado lasted for 10 seconds.
ReplyDelete2)The tornado went through Utica at 6:09 p.m. on April 20.
3)Spring and early summer are boom times for tornadoes.
4)While meteorologists can spot an approaching hurricane days in advance, the average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
5)Utica has a population of 977.
6)Shelba Bimm is 65 years old.
7)She lives at 238 W. Church St. in Utica.
8)Bimm has been an EMT since 1980.
9)Duffy’s Tavern is located at the corner of Mill and Canal Street.
10)There are five taverns in Utica.
11)At 5:32 p.m., radar operator Rich Brumer issued a tornado warning for central Illinois.
12)The tornado that hit Duffy’s tavern was born 2 miles southwest of Granville.
13)Milestone was 117 years old, had sandstone walls, a flat concrete roof and slate foundation.
14)The tornado was 200 yards wide at the ground and was heading northeast at about 30 m.p.h.
15)Rona Burrows worked as a cashier at Mill Street Market.
1)The insertion of facts into an article adds a certain credibility to the story. Minute details and facts make it a more interesting read as well and help the reader visualize everything that happened.
2)Julia Keller ties her facts into the story in such a way that she keeps the reader interested and informs them. The first couple sentences are short, brief and powerful. The fact that Keller is getting across is that the storm lasted 10 seconds. She does it in an interesting and entertaining way to bring the reader right into the story. On the second page she writes, “And while meteorologists can spot an approaching hurricane days in advance, the average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.” This sentence comes at the end of the second section of the article. She compares the warning time for tornadoes to hurricanes and makes a useful, frightening fact into a neat way to tie up the section. On the fifth page she writes, “At 5:32 p.m., Pietrycha’s colleague, radar operator Rich Brumer, had issues a tornado warning for north-central Illinois.” The uses this fact to let the reader know that Pietrycha and his colleagues have realized that the storm is now serious. The fact helps the story move along and still gives the reader an interesting piece of information. She uses it in the third paragraph down in the second section on Pietrycha and the weather service office.
1)The tornado that swooped through Utica at 6:09 p.m. April 20 took some 10 seconds to do what it did.
ReplyDelete2)The technical name for what gathered up there was stratiform cloud cover, but Albert Pietrycha had a better way to describe it: "murk."
3) disparate elements--air, water and old sandstone blocks-- soon would slam into each other like cars in a freeway pileup, ending eight lives and changing other lives forever.
4) The classic ingredients for a tornado-- warm air to the south, cooler air north and a hint of wind shear
5) Meteorologists know a lot about tornadoes, but with all they know, they still can't say why some thunderstorms generate tornadoes and some don't. Or why tornadoes, once unleashed, do what they do and go where they go.
6) And while meteorologists can spot an approaching hurricane days in advance, the average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
7) Bimm was standing in the driveway of her house at 238 W. Church St. in Utica, population 977, just outside Starved Rock State Park.
8)All told, it took her less than a minute to cross Utica. Had she happened to lift her pale blue eyes to the rear view mirror as she left the city limits, she would have seen, poised there like a tableau in a snow globe just before it's shaken up, her last intact view of the little town she loved.
9) six computer screens glowed with radar information that told him, through tiny pixels of perky green and hot red and bold yellow, about hail and rain, about wind rotation and velocity.
10) Bartender Chris Rochelle, The sky, he told anybody who asked, just didn't look right to him. Didn't look right at all.
11) That lackadaisical warm front suddenly had come to life, moving north much faster than any of the forecasters thought it would, initiating the fatal tangle of warm and cold air.
12) At 5:32 p.m., Pietrycha's colleague, radar operator Rich Brumer, had issued a tornado warning for north-central Illinois.
13) That night, the weather service would tally 53 tornadoes in the Midwest. Fourteen whipsawed across north-central and northeastern Illinois.
14) He braked in front of the yellow-brick firehouse, cut the engine, raced inside and ran smack into a dilemma: He had no authority. Only the chief was supposed to give the OK to sound the warning. The two men had seconds to decide and what they decided was: Screw the rules.
15) Maybe they thought the siren was just a precaution, or maybe they were trusting old Utican wisdom: A tornado won't go in a valley. A tornado won't cross water. Both were false.
(A)The insertion of facts allows the story to be credible and let the readers know that the story is actually true. Without the facts someone could have made up a story about tornadoes.
(B) She incorporated the facts into the story in a way where it made the story flow easily and nicely . When she gave the times of everything happening it it gave a countdown until the tornado and gave the story some anticipation to when the storm was actually going to hit. It almost gave the reader an in story experience on when everything was going to happen. At 5:55 p.m. the phone rang in Beverly Wood's mobile home in Utica. It was her daughter, Dena Mallie, a vivacious 44-year-old who lives in Peru, just west of Utica."We're having really bad hail," Mallie told her mother.
1.ten seconds
ReplyDelete2. date and time:Utica at 6:09 p.m. April 20
3.location:about 25 miles southwest of Chicago
4.season for tornadoes: Spring and early summer
5.Bimm's, 46, and address:238 W. Church St. in Utica
6.Utica pop: 977
7.the average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
8.EMT Intermediate, the next level up from EMT,
9.Steve Maltas, 23, Utica volunteer firefighter
10.Milestone was 117 years old,
11.the soup at Duffy's was was cheesy broccoli.
12.all the time references keep in correlation with the lede
13.That night, the weather service would tally 53 tornadoes in the Midwest.
14.Elsbury and Pat own Duffy's
15.A tornado won't go in a valley. A tornado won't cross water. Both were false.
I)Inserting all these little facts in this article make it more believable to the reader and it also makes the story feel like you are there as opposed to just saying oh there was a tornado and all these people were affected. It brings the story to life and makes the reader want to be invested in the lives of these victims.
II) The author makes this into a story. Using her descriptive and vivid word choice she engages the reader, making it an easy read. She ties her creative writing with facts. One example is when the she explaining Brimm. She puts so much information into this one graph, without making it boring.
"Bimm was standing in the driveway of her house at 238 W. Church St. in Utica, population 977, just outside Starved Rock State Park."
the reader knows the person, the location, and population size. By weaving all these components into one sentence you give facts but keep the story moving. basically showing and not telling.
1. Tornado hit at 6:09 PM on April 20th
ReplyDelete2. Utica, Northern Illinois
3. Shelba Bimm, 65, lives on 238 W. Church St
4. Bimm was 1st grade teacher for 42 years
5. Utica population is 977
6. Meteorologist, Pietrycha lives in Oswego, 13 miles away
7. Elsbury, 56 Owner of Duffys, which sheltered many people in town
8. Tornado warning was issued at 5:32pm
9. 53 Tornados took place in the midwest that night
10. At 5:45 the weather took a rapid turn for the worse
11. Larry Ventrice, 49, owner of Milestones with wife Marian
12. Steve Maltas, 23, Utica Volunteer firefighter goes to firestation to sound the alarm
13. Average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes
14 The tornado was 200 yards wide on the ground.
15. With no time to spare, Gloria Maltas found shelter in the Mill Street Market, when Rona Burrows scurried over to let her in.
1. The usage of facts can do many things for a story. Most importantly, it gives the journalist credibility that they fully investigated the story and put effort into sharing it. In addition to making the story more believable, it also evokes more emotion and interest in the readers. Describing the many people in the story as oppose to just putting a number on them, takes the story much more in depth.
2. The author used facts to describe many of the people of Utica, as well as how they connect. Setting the stage of a small town allowed her to zone in on the important places, and people that occupied it. She brought life to them by giving their age, describing how they looked, as well as what their role was in the town. As the stories changed from person to person, the greater the connections became. For instance, after Duffy's & the Milestone are introduced, many other people of the town end up their for shelter. This helps convey the intimacy and care that these people shared, and furthermore led to how they would work together in a time of crisis.
1)Hurricane hit at 6:09
ReplyDelete2) It was April 20th
3) Average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes
4) Utica has a population of 977
5) Bimm was a teacher for 42 years
6) Lasted roughly 10 seconds
7) There are 4 taverns in town
8) The special at Duffy's that night (pg.4)
9) At 5:32 radar operator issued tornado warning / tornado watch was bypassed
10) Building where Milestone resides is 117 yrs old
11) There were 53 tornadoes in the midwest that night
12) Tornado born 2 miles sw of granville, cutting 15 1/2 miles, 200 yard wide notch from granville to utica
12) Tornado was 20 yards wide and going 30 mph
13) The town speed limit was 20 mph
14) Where everyone was when they first saw the tornado
15) Milestone's has wanted posters, murals of wagons, horseshoe handle doors
1)The insertion of facts in any piece is crucial. Without facts, i am confused about what i am reading. If details and facts are broad and vague, then i won't understand everything, and i will be less inclined to think it is a true story. Additionally, i won't be as interested in hearing the story without facts. Facts help me to visualize the story, the characters, the setting. In this piece, facts helped me to grasp what people were thinking at the time of the tornado. Their actions and realities of their environment helped me discover and ultimately relate to the people and the situation. I wanted to keep reading the story.
2) On page 2, the author writes about Bimm. Background information about her was important because it shaped my perception of her (her occupation, her schedule). After i had those facts, her actions seemed much more understandable, more realistic. Structurally, there seems to be a loose format, every time a new character or place is introduce, it is accompanied by specific dates, times, events that surround she, he, or it. Usually a paragraph is designated for that. Then the narrative circles back to what is happening the day of the tornado. Making the facts relevant to this particular day / situation.
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ReplyDeleteThe tornado took 10 seconds to wreak its devastation
ReplyDeleteIt hit at 6:09 p.m.
Murk is the gothic looking pre-storm sky
Tornado signs - warm air to the south, cooler air to the north
Average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes
Very specific times of Bimm's coming and going & addresses and description (5:30 p.m. & EMT)
4 pubs in town
At 5:32 p.m. they issued a tornado warning for north-central Illinois
"ground truth" is a term for what's happening to real people in their real lives during a tornado
The tornado hit the tavern at 6:09 p.m.
Spceific descriptions of each person in The Milestone at the time that the tornado hit
200 yards wide 30 mph
The insertion of facts gives the story legitimacy. It goes from being a narrative to a news story. The facts keep the story real and they keep the readers empathetic.
The author uses different times to keep the story moving. The hurricane hit at 6:09 p.m. Then tells us at what time each person was doing something before the hurricane (the meteorologic warnings and the townspeople heading to Milestone) The use of time threaded throughout the story keeps the story moving (as the time moves) and builds the anticipation of the moment we know is coming (when the tornado hits at 6:09 p.m.)
1. Lasted 10 seconds
ReplyDelete2. April 20, 6:09 p.m.
3. Stratiform cloud clover
4. Albert Pietrycha - meteorologist
5. Spring and early summer are high times for tornadoes
6. Meteorologists still can't say with certainty why some thunderstorms generate tornadoes and others do not.
7. The average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes.
8. License plate of Shelba Bimm Bimm-2
9. Oswego, 13 miles northwest of Romeoville
10. Duffy's Tavern special that night: All you can eat spaghetti with breadsticks: $4.99
11. Five taverns in town, Duffy's, Skoog's, Joy & Ed's, Canal Port and Milestone
12. 5:32 p.m. Rich Brumer issued a tornado warning for north-central Illinois.
13. That night the weather service would record 53 tornadoes in the Midwest.
14. Larry Ventrice: from Bridgeport
15. Milestone's was 117 years old.
The facts greatly enhance the story. The facts keep the story moving and add such a rawness and real-ness to the story that it is almost un-nerving. It would not have been nearly as powerful without all of the facts inserted into the story.
The facts were really just stated matter-of-fact in the story. Which I loved. The first paragraph was my favorite because it just got straight down to business, no extra frills or silly, useless words. The first sentence is powerful: "Ten seconds." You know she means business when she starts with only "Ten seconds."
Suzy Berkowitz
ReplyDelete1. That the tornado lasted roughly 10 seconds. This shows the readers that a lot can happen in no time at all.
2. Albert Pietrycha’s description of the cloud cover over the sky, murk, brought a bit of gloom into the story.
3. The “ingredients for a tornado” are included, which foreshadows what’s to come.
4. A tornado is the most violent storm on Earth. It’s a fact we might not know, and it helps heighten the severity of the situation.
5. Pietrycha knew, based on the weather, that a tornado might hit. This fact makes us realize that our main subject is in tune with his climate and surroundings.
6. The average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes. That’s not a lot of time, and that makes readers anxious that even though we think they escaped a tornado, they didn’t really.
7. The story of Shelba Bimm was placed in there because she is not a meteorologist, she is simply someone trying to avoid the “rain” about to hit. This snippet of her story dealing with the hurricane helps personalize it.
8. Price specials at Duffy’s Tavern, to make us aware of the casual air everyone had the day of the hurricane.
9. As the story gets more intense and the probability of the tornado hitting increases, the writer keeps citing the time, as if to make us even more on edge.
10. A tornado watch precedes a warning, but in this case, there was no time for a watch; they had gone straight to the warning. This also makes us realize the severity of the situation.
1. at 6:09 p.m. April 20
ReplyDelete2. Pietrycha is a meteorologist in the Chicago forecast office of the National Weather Service
3. at 238 W. Church St.
4. in Utica, population 977
5. She was due in Oglesby at 6 p.m.
6. Shelba Bimm had been a 1st-grade teacher for 42 years
7. Bimm turned west on Illinois Highway 71
8. Lisle Elsburg, 56, had bought Duffy's a year ago.
9. there were four other taverns in town - Skoog's Pub, Joy & Ed's, Canal Port and Milestone
10. At 5:55 p.m., the phone rang
11. Average warning time for a tornado is 11 minutes
12. At 5:58 p.m., Dena Mallie saw it from her driveway in Peru
13. Carol Schultheis, 40 - Wayne Ball's daughter
14. That night, the weather service would tally 53 tornadoes in the Midwest
15. At 5:32 p.m., Pietrycha's colleague, radar Operator Rich Brumer, had issued a tornado warning for north-central Illinois
Facts are crucial because they make the story believable to the reader. Inserting people's names, ages, occupations, exact times and locations give credibility to the story. All the facts in "A Wicked Wind Takes Aim" paints a picture of the series of events leading up to the tornado. The reader may identify with the characters or the everyday activities in the text, making them more emotionally attached to the story.
The author inserts the facts throughout the story in a way that makes it easy to follow multiple characters and scenarios. When characters in the story were introduced to one another, it wasn't confusing because you already knew the facts that tied them together. The use of time creates a sense of urgency and panic for the reader, counting down to 6:09 p.m. when the tornado hits. I love how this piece is so captivating without ever mentioning the actual destruction and horror of the tornado.