Power verbs... Again!

The following paragraph is from a short story by Frank O'Connor. It is titled "First Confession" and I had to read it for one of my English classes.

"There you are!" she said with a yelp of triumph, hurling me through the church door. "And I hope he'll give you the penitential psalms, you dirty little caffler." I knew then that I was lost, given up to eternal justice.

I'm not sure if you all feel the same way, but when I read this paragraph I thought of our assignment on verbs. I've noticed this often when reading creative and fiction writing. I don't think that better word usage or powerful verbs can make or break a piece of writing; it can improve it significantly though.

Throughout this entire short story, and this paragraph in specific, the author uses very creative and unique word choices. Instead of yell or say, he chose 'yelp'; Instead of throw or push, he chose 'hurl.' I also think with those words the author put a sound into his writing. Yelp and hurl can both be personified verbs. You can almost hear them in your head when you read the word.

The grammar mistake I found this week was something I've seen multiple times actually. I see many signs in stores that say "were open." Obviously, they are meaning "We're open," but the meaning is completely different without the apostrophe.