The Story of An Hour

Mid-Term Paper Read every word of this assignment before beginning your work. So far during this term we have, thanks to Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, considered the art of fiction writing through the examination of the building blocks from which great writing is made: words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, and dialogue. Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour” is successful as a story because of her use of dramatic irony. One can argue that Chopin used words, sentence, paragraphs, and narration in support of her use of dramatic irony. Write a 5-page paper in which you argue just that. In other words, write an essay in which you examine how words, sentences, paragraphs, and narration contribute to Chopin’s use of dramatic irony in “The Story of an Hour.” A PDF containing the full text of Chopin’s story can be found in your Moodle classroom. Organizational, compositional, and stylistic requirements: Provide an original title! Proofread your paper carefully so that it contains no errors (in grammar, diction, usage, punctuation, spelling, or mechanics). Essays will be graded not only for content and analytical technique, but also for compositional expertise. This means that grammar and style comprise a large portion of your grade. Please be aware that compositional errors, problematic organization, lack of unity and/or coherence, and lack of support in body paragraphs cannot receive a grade higher than a C. See the grading standards below. Format, citation, research, and length requirements: Use MLA format! MLA format includes strict guidelines for margins, headings, spacing, and paragraphing, in addition to guidelines for citing sources properly both in-text and at the end of a work. Even though you may only have one or two sources in your essay, your assignment must include a formal list of works cited, properly formatted, on a separate page. Failure to use MLA form may hurt your grade significantly. See the checklist at the end of this assignment. Your essay must be at least five FULL pages in length (excluding list of works cited). Papers shorter than the required length will lose a percentage off the grade based on the percentage the paper was below the required length. Papers that are more then six full pages (excluding list of works cited) in length will be penalized. Please use Times New Roman font in 12-point, or something of very similar size and type. Failure to cite sources correctly–including course texts–constitutes plagiarism. If you use information from an encyclopedia, do so on a limited basis because encyclopedias are not considered scholarly sources.