The way Andrea Elliot organizes this New York Times piece shows that it is an exemplary work for how a story should be organized. She was able to shadow Mr. Shata for 6 months and was therefore able to narrate his story and describe the challenges he went through as he struggled between following his faith and teaching the modern generation in a mosque in Brooklyn, New York. Elliot uses chronology in her story, including time jumps, flashbacks, and flash forwards. An interesting technique that was brought up during class was “sign posts”. Similar to a nut graf, Elliot gave us a hint as to where the story was going. Lastly, the reporting of this story must have been a challenge as Elliot translated many of the conversations that were observed.This is a technique in itself. It shows future writers that although a story may be challenging at first, once the final product is complete, it’s well worth it in the end.

What techniques does Amy Fox use in narrating this conflict story? Who are her sources? What kind of research did she do? What is the arc of this conflict story and where is the nut graf?

Amy Fox narrates her conflict story with many techniques. She uses instances of flashbacks to her grandparent’s recollection of their memories in Stuyvesant Town. Fox also uses real life accounts from her family including her grandmother, grandfather, and even from local residents that lived during that time and who currently live there. Real life accounts definitely gave her story a personal touch. At the same time, she balanced the personal content with research content. She did a bountiful amount of research about the housing in Stuyvesant Town, including researching at the public library. The arc of the story occurs when residents began to protest and stand up for what they believed in, which was standing up for the black residents in the housing units. They wanted the racial tension to stop and instead for people to be integrated no matter what the color of their skin was. Fox does a great job at linking the different parts of her story from the arc, to the flashbacks, and to the current. She also does an excellent job at making her nut graf known, which was the 5th graf, when she links personal and research content perfectly.

In her piece in The New York Times, Andrea Elliott masterfully writes and organizes this long-form piece about an imam who faces the challenges of tailoring his Muslim teachings to the people of a modern mosque in Brooklyn. One way that Elliott chose to organize this piece is by comparing and juxtaposing Sheik Reda Shata’s Muslim way of thinking with the westernized issues that are presented to him on a daily basis. This allows us to gain insight into the challenges that Shata faces on a daily basis as an imam. For example, Elliott cites that one of the challenges that Shata faced in America was whether or not to grant a Muslim woman a divorce from her husband. Divorce is usually prohibited in the Muslim religion, however, he granted the woman a divorce to balance his traditional teaching to his new western way of life. Also, as mentioned in class, Elliott uses chronology to organize her piece, sometimes flashing back to his early upbringing in Egypt, and then coming back to the present day in order to show how his past and present are intertwined.

Elliott uses jumps in time to narrate her story, and weaves the past and present together with Muslim beliefs and customs. I think that this was a great approach because it engages the reader and keeps the article from being a boring story about the duties of an imam. The interesting chronology that Elliott chose is also very affective in that it gives life to the story. An example of one of these time skips is in the section entitled “An Invitation to Islam.” In this section, Elliott explains how Mr. Shata became an imam and how the appointment process works and also mentions how Shata’s family was granted visas to come to the US. Instead of going right into the narrative of Shata landing at JFK in the next section, though, she talks about the mosque and all of the services it provides. It is only after the mention of immigrants in “A Mosque, a Magnet,” that Elliott returns to Shata’s arrival in New York in “Skip 911. Call the Imam.” She also does a nice job of mixing in descriptive and visual details with hard facts about mosques in the city and the number of worshipers who pray at the mosque every Friday. All of the different voices and conflicts included really give the story color and they make clear how much Shata does for his community.

Andrea Elliott uses the timeline of Sheik Reda Shata’s life alongside a timeline of events including immigration patterns, changes in the East and 9/11.

Elliott’s descriptions of Shata and his neighborhood contrast with her descriptions of where he came from: the industrious N.Y. versus “the Egyptian farming village where he was born.” This contrast in the beginning is important because it sets up the greater conflict of the colliding worlds for Shata. Not only does he have to adjust to his new environment, but also to new people and new problems.

The different cultures carve Shata’s faith and his approach to helping others. Elliott writes about how some more traditional Muslims may be offended by his “liberal” ways and some “liberal” Muslims may disagree with his conservative roots.

The greater conflict of the story is about Muslims living in the western world while trying to live out their faith righteously. Instead of interviewing many Muslims struggling, or not, with this issue, Elliott centralizes on Shata, the imam. The imam is the mentor for Muslims in the East and the West.

Elliott weaves in Shata’s prior schooling and experiences in mosques along with quotes from a Muslim psychiatrist, congregants and a Muslim activist. She also adds in statistics about the number of Muslims moving to the Bay Ridge area and the United States.

Throughout the piece, Elliott consistently brings up examples of how daily American life interrupts a Muslim life from what food to serve at your business to seeing non-Muslim women in clothing that reveal skin and hair.

This story is an example of a profile with a conflict arc.

In A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds, the author Andrea Elliott, does a fantastic job of organizing the story and having it flow seamlessly.  I found it to be great, that in the beginning, Elliott brings the readers in the world of Imam Sheik Reda. With this kind of opening, one can immediately get an early sense of what the story is about.

I benefited from reading and understanding the life of imams in addition to learning more of what the Islamic faith is about and how it operates in Islamic countries, such as Egypt, and in non-Islamic countries, such as the U.S. That contrast in the story, is another effective organizational tool, Elliot did a great job of applying.

I appreciated that Elliot was able to intertwine Imam Sheik’s experiences in America as an imam with the traditional expectations of Islam.  She articulated a substantial report on the work and importance of imams in the community and the their impact on the community.

Throughout the story, the very detailed events in Imam Sheik’s life such as, fixing the problems of those that come to him and acting as liaison between the Islam faith and American life, gave the story a unique organization that proved key from beginning to end. Also very detailed inside look of how a mosque is operated  and its physical set-up.  That tactic provides an eye-opening glimpse for those who have never visited and/or completed understood what a mosque is like on the inside.

I appreciate the way Andrea Elliot organized her article, “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds.” She drew the reader in by including a personal account of Sheik Reda Shata. This made me curious to learn more about him and to understand what the larger picture of the story was: is his story common? How do others compare? Elliot continued her article by providing an overview of Muslims in America. I think she strategically placed the nutgraph in this subsequent section as she discussed just how many Muslims live in the United States.  After introducing the various degrees this population’s lifestyle, she referred back to Shata and how he compares. In addition to Shata’s personal story and how it fits into the larger picture, I also appreciate how Elliot frequently jumped back in history, discussing how Shata got to the United States and progressed from there. When discussing mosques, Elliot used a similar method of introducing an overview of the mosques, followed by Shata’s relation to them. She also used dialogue to further build Shata’s character. Rather than simply describing Shata’s thoughts, she said, “’ “Islam is supposed to make a person’s life easier, not harder,” Mr. Shata explained.’” Her choice to end her article with a quote was effective, considering the powerful nature of what Shata said: ‘”Here you don’t know what will solve a problem,” he said. “It’s about looking for a key.”’

What techniques does Amy Fox use in narrating this conflict story? Who are her sources? What kind of research did she do? What is the arc of this conflict story and where is the nut graf?

In her piece “Battle in Black and White,” Amy Fox employs flashbacks when talking about the story of the Stuyvesant Town Housing. She uses details from the accounts of her grandparents, mother, and other residents who used to live in the housing, as well as the current residents. She had a lot of first person accounts during her research, as well as doing archival research about the history of the housing. The arc of the story happened when the white residents in Stuyvesant Town began to stand up for the rights of the black residents in the housing, in order to support integration. Also, the arc links the historical story of Stuyvesant Town with the modern sentiments of racial tensions that are happening in the neighborhood. The nut graf of the story is the third and fourth grafs

Amy Fox’s article Battle in Black and White is unique in its nature because Fox writes the story from a personal perspective. The arc of her story covers her grandparents participation in the battle to integrate the Stuyvesant Town housing complex in 1952. Her grandparents were in danger of being evicted from their apartments because of fighting their landlord, Metropolitan Life Insurance, over their policy of rejecting the applications of black veterans.

Fox’s article included a lot of background history on her grandparents, but she was still able to tell the story without sounding biased. She included facts  on both sides of the argument backed by historical evidence and eyewitness testimony. For her article, Fox interviewed her mother, who was 5 years old at the time of the events, Dr. Lee Lorch, who was dismissed from the housincomplex and various jobs for his participation in the civil rights act, and current African Americans who currently live in the area. Fox also used the resources of the New York Public Library to fill in the missing pieces.

I appreciate how Fox was able to spin the age old battle of black and white in a narrative way. The article read more like a novel than a conflict piece. Fox also shed light on the racial tensions that still exist in Stuyvesant Town today.

In her article, Amy Fox uses a personal story-telling technique. She uses her memories, the lives of her grandparents, and the struggles they fought to narrate the story. She uses historical documents (such as eviction notices) as sources, along with a long-time resident named Leo Stevens, and Dr. Lee Lorch, a man who was a victim of the conflict decades before. Fox researched the eviction cases, the list of those who were told they had to leave, and what how grandparents reacted to everything going on. The arc of the piece is the complicated past of Stuyvesant Town and what residents did to overcome it. The nut graph is the second paragraph of the piece.