Brit Lit Survey: 1790 to Modern Day
Path 2: Essay Guidelines & Prompt Map

“'What gets into you all? We study the problem and we've been studying it for damn well near a century,
yes, but we get no farther with our studies . . . Is it some devil that crawls inside you?'" (43).
Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962)

Essay responses to Path II prompts should . . .

• deliver a structured argument: these will not resemble personal journal entries, blog-style writing, or stream-of-consciousness reflections. Essays should be tightly organized, with main points logically ordered. The whole should be framed by a creative, short introduction and some kind of conclusion (do not wrap up by summarizing your main points).
• evince creativity: these exercises are all about effective, persuasive argumentation, and not at all about giving me some "correct" answer you think I want to hear.
• pursue a narrowly argued thesis: your essays should move in a very specific direction. Do not attempt to touch on every possible idea or supporting piece of evidence.
• provide adequate evidence: use your own ideas, textual references (with MLA-style page or line-number citations), and relevant material from secondary sources. As concerns these essays, there is no such thing as an incorrect argument--only an insufficiently supported one.
• demonstrate familiarity with not only your primary text, but also:
  • path 2 essays written by those in your group
  • path 1 discussions and topics pertinent to your argument
• articulate your argument in 400-500 words and show signs of careful revision
• appear on Blackboard by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. and immediately follow the prompt itself, which you should paste at the head of your entry. You can look over some relatively strong sample responses here.
  

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu