Writer’sEdna Pontellier’s “awakening.”

These aren’t research papers. You and the work (short story, novella, or play) from the prompt you choose is all you need. Become intimately familiar with it. Write your essay first, and then go back and support it with quotes, paraphrases, and summarie.

Write an essay in which you examine Edna Pontellier’s “awakening.” From what and to what has she awakened? Why? Does she undergo more than one awakening? Go beyond merely describing her awakening(s) or pointing out its stages. What does Chopin want us to understand?

• Any essay that is even minutely plagiarized from an outside source will be docked 5 to 100 points.

• Forgetting to put quotations marks around direct quotes from the work and or failing to appropriately cite ALL quoted, summarized, and or paraphrased materials will result in your essay being docked 5 to 100 points.

Blatant plagiarists WILL receive zeroes on their papers, which may result in a failing grade in the course or in the automatic failure of the course.

Make sure you don’t simply write an extensive summary or get caught in the chronology trap. Focus on the points you need to make to prove your thesis and not on the work’s chronology. In all cases, there must be some overall point (thesis) you are trying to “prove” regarding your interpretations and analysis of the texts. Bold type your thesis, and note which prompt you’ve chosen in your heading

• Your paper must be a minimum of 1200 words, doubled-spaced, and documented in MLA format. The word count does not include your heading, title, or Works Cited page. Papers that are 50 words or more too short will be dropped a letter grade. Papers that are 10-49 words too short will be dropped half a letter grade.

• These papers require no outside research and must contain a clear thesis that is illustrated and supported by examples and evidence (quotes/summaries/paraphrases) from the work and plenty of thorough, clear explanations.

• Your paper must include at least three DIRECT QUOTES from different pages of the work (you should have many, many more), in-text citations, and a Works Cited page. If you do not include the three direct quotes and their citations and/or a Works Cited page, twenty points will be deducted from your essay grade. (Each is worth five points.)

• If you draw on any outside sources, you must cite them appropriately in the text and include them on your Works Cited page. However, you may not use Wikipedia, Sparknotes, or Shmoop as sources. Again, this paper should only involve you, your brain, and the text you choose.

• Call upon your knowledge of the grammar and mechanics of Standard American English. Having numerous grammar and mechanics errors will affect your grade. An essay that isn’t strong on the sentence level can’t be strong on the essay level. Be especially mindful of the Five Deadly Sins: Sentence Fragments, Run-ons, Comma Splices, Subject-Verb errors, and Verb Tense problems.