Nicki Buscemi
English 201
Essay #2
Your aim in this second formal essay is to advance a critical argument in 5 to 7 pages regarding the
influence of eighteenth-century crime writing on Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders.
This means that your paper must include an argumentative thesis statement—something that you
need to prove to your audience—plus specific quotes and paraphrases from the texts (which you of
course will introduce and explain) to back up this thesis statement.
The topic that you’ll be considering in this essay is how Defoe’s Moll Flanders rewrites eighteenthcentury crime materials. How, in other words, does Defoe use criminal reports and popular crime stories
to help shape the events, themes, ideas, and form of Moll Flanders?
To successfully complete this essay, you must:
 Create a strong, thesis-centered argument that explains how Defoe rewrites crime. Questions to
consider include: how do crime sources seem to inspire him? how does he borrow from crime
sources? what does he add to crime sources? what does he delete from crime sources? Push your
thinking!
 Make sure that your essay does not simply become a listing of similarities and differences
between the fictional and factual narratives.
 Provide close readings of crime scenes (as well, perhaps, as other scenes) from Moll Flanders.
 Compare these scenes from Moll to:
 at least three specific crimes from the Old Bailey Proceedings, located at
www.oldbaileyonline.org. (Cite these materials by date.)
(You might also consider other parts of the Proceedings, such as the advertisements or
the organization of issues of the Proceedings.)
 at least two cultural contexts materials related to eighteenth-century crime from
Appendix B of our Broadview edition of the novel.
 Remember to move back and forth between the novel and the crime sources, making clear
comparisons.
 Use your close readings to make larger arguments about how these crime materials are
influencing Moll Flanders and / or being reworked by Defoe and thus helping to shape the novel.
Make sure you think about how the form of the criminal materials influences the novel in
addition to the themes of those materials.
Please make sure you review the tips for quoting evidence effectively that I passed out in class and that
can be found on our course website. Also review the formatting guidelines for major essays.
Due Dates and Grading
Final Draft Due: Wednesday, November 17th
This essay is worth 30% of your grade.
(5-7 pages)