31 6. Using the Word Processor for Revision

The following excerpt from Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” has numerous mistakes in it. I would like you to print the excerpt and type it into a Word document using 10-point font and single spacing. Then I would like you to revise the document using the list of corrections given below. Go in the order given. If you go out of order, some of the steps might be somewhat messed up. So there are two parts to this: getting the excerpt onto Word as it is written here and then correcting it using the list at the bottom Good luck. You will have to send your revised version back to me as a Word document.

The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin

(Para 1)Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was aflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.

(Para 2)She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralized refusal to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonement, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

(Para 3)It was her sister Josephine who told her in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the raileroad disaster was received. He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and he had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the message.

(Para 4)There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. It had a rip in the arm but otherwise was very attractive. She sank into this, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach her soul.

(Para 5)She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all acquiver with the new spring life. The delisious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a pedlar was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

This story features three distinct points about a woman’s reaction to her husband’s death: she is immediately stunned by the news; she needs to be alone to deal with her grief; she starts to realize it might not be as bad as it seems.

I like this story very much and can’t wait to take English 102 with Jeff Meyers, a super-duper teacher.

Instructions for Editing “The Story of an Hour.”

1. Double space the entire document.

1. Center both the title and the author.

1. Capitalize the title.

1. Italicize the author.

1. Indent each paragraph (remove paragraph number).

1. Reverse the order of the second and third paragraphs.

1. Change the word “refusal” to “inability” in the new third paragraph.

1. Put commas around the phrase “in broken sentences” in the new second paragraph.

1. Add this statement to the new second paragraph following the words “was received:” , with Brentley Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.”

1. Delete the second sentence from the fourth paragraph.

1. Change “She sank into this” to “Into this she sank.”

1. Place an extra line between the last paragraph of the story and the short explanation.

1. Bullet and list the three features discussed in the final section.

1. In the last sentence, change “super-duper teacher” to “super dupe.”

1. Spell check the paper.

1. Save the paper.

1. Close the paper and then re-open it.

1. Change the font to 12 point.

1. Type your name, course number and date in the lower right-hand corner of the last page.

1. Print a copy of the paper (you can pretend to do this, if you want).