National Park Service

Yellowstone National Park is located where Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho come together, in one of the least populous corners of the United States. Until 1872, when it became the world’s first national park under president Ulysses S. Grant, the land that is now Yellowstone was home to Native Americans, who hunted and fished there. Yellowstone is still home to an array of wild animals, including black bears and grizzlies, bison and elk, wolves and coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions, bighorn sheep and moose. The park, located in a geologically active area, is most famous for its dramatic hydrothermal features, including mudpots, fumaroles, and geysers. But the focus of the “Minute Out in It” video here is not the eruption of the geyser Old Faithful but rather the natural beauty of a stream, icing over as fall turns to winter

NPS/Neal Herbert

<<embed video from insert BIM 13_NPS_Hidden Gems in Pebble Creek from \\Fozzie\newmedia\@Drop_Box\Content_English\McWhorter, Successful College Writing, 6e\BIM Files >>

Analyzing the Writer’s Technique

After watching Hidden Gems in Pebble Creek <<pop: 13_NPS_Hidden Gems in Pebble Creek>>, answer the questions below. Then submit your responses.

9. Express the essay’s dominant impression in your own words. How does the video create this dominant impression, and what sensory details does it use? Be sure to include sensory details of both sight and sound. You may also imagine the sensory details that cannot be conveyed on film—touch, taste, and smell.

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10. What is the vantage point used in the video? Is it fixed or moving, and how do you know? Why do you think the creators of this video used this vantage point to organize this video?

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Possible Answer: The video uses a moving vantage point. The camera does not stay in one position but shifts from a wide-angle view of the stream and its surroundings to a close-up of the ice formations in the stream. It then switches every five seconds or so to another formation, before finally pulling back to spend the last few seconds showing the stream from a distance and bringing viewers full circle. This moving vantage point allows the viewer to put the stream in its broader natural context before (and after) appreciating the beauty and variety of the individual ice formations.

Thinking Critically about Description

After watching Hidden Gems in Pebble Creek <<pop: 13_NPS_Hidden Gems in Pebble Creek>>, answer the questions below. Then submit your responses.

11. How do the natural sounds of the creek affect the viewer’s response?

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12. How would a human presence in the video have changed the viewer’s reaction?

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Possible Answer: A human presence could have given the viewer a proxy, helping the viewer to see the stream from the point of view of the stand-in. But placing a human being in the frame would also have detracted from the viewer’s pleasure in the scene, as if the viewer were encroaching upon the silent reverie of the person in the video. It would also undermine the viewer’s sense of being at Pebble Creek, as the viewer would then feel like he or she was watching someone else watching the stream.