Assignment
1. Instead of a research paper, your paper is a summary of a topic you like to read about in our textbook, Patterns of World History.Pick a topic that interests you from our course, chosen from:
• A) the status of women around the world, to 1500 CE ( for help, use the Index on "Women"). Pick two topics and write on them, from India, China, Europe, or Greece.
• B) the importance of religions in world history, to 1500 CE. Pick two from Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam, and write on those two.
• C) how wars are fought, to 1500 CE. Pick two from the Persian Wars, Muslim war victories, the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar, the Battle of Tours, the sack of Constantinople in 1204, or the sack of Constantinople by Muslims in 1453.
• D) the literary achievements and artistic achievements in the world, to 1500 CE. Pick tworegions from Afghanistan, China, Egypt, medieval Europe, Greece, Rome, the Olmecs, or accomplishments in writing and calligraphy. (The subject index can help you find the content.)
• Pick one topic from A-D and make notes of the relevant parts and pages in the textbook. No outside reading is necessary, though you may find it helpful for background. The goal is help you see how major issues have changed over time, and to show the reader (the professor) that you understood this story from our textbook. An essay from other sources may get a lower grade since using our textbook well is the key to a good grade.
• In 1800-2000 words (6-7 pages), write on your topic chronologically. Give an MLA or Turabian footnote for each point you find in our textbook. This is not a research paper; this a summary of a topic. As you write it, compar
• e the regions and try to compare one place with another, but it is not necessary to write a compare and contrast essay. See the grading rubric on Canvas.
• The format: the essay must be typed, using MLA or Turabian citations for each fact or idea you get from the book. There should be several citations in each paragraph, from our textbook. Spelling and grammar count in the grade. The essay should be double-spaced, with a 12-point font, one-inch margins, and numbered pages.
• Second, for the last paragraph: Was there a moral focus or was there immorality happening? Who are the winners and losers? Did women ever rise in their status over time? Did wars get more violent There are more way to assess or analyze these topics, so have fun with it, and be creative (if you want to)
What to do: Research and write a 3000-word essay, as an argument or thesis, on this topic: What led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, in the west, in the 4th and 5th centuries? Note: do not argue that the Roman Empire declined due to the rise or impact of Christianity because it is not a persuasive argument.
How: The essay must include a bibliography of six scholarly sources; no websites count as sources. Find books and journal articles. The paper should be double spaced, in a 12-point font, with page numbers, and cited either with footnotes or endnotes in the style of Turabian's Manual or The Chicago Manual of Style (the latest edition for both).