British & American Literature 1865-1914
Path 2: Essay Guidelines & Prompt Map

“'"Don't I see stuck up everywhere / Abundant proof that cultured taste /
Has Beauty for its only care, / And upon Truth no thought to waste?'"' (ll.389-92)
Robert Browning's "Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial" (1876)

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 piece of supporting 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 and the group with which you've been paired on Blackboard
  • 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 Saturday 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.
  

"Cliff Dwellers" (1913)
George Bellows

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu