Assignment: You must review Before European Hegemony, by Janet Abu-Lughod
What are the main historical themes of the book?
The review must be at least 2000 (minimum) words in length. You may only use the book as a source. Do not use direct quotes. Paraphrase and cite the page number from the book. There needs to be citations in every paragraph except for the intro and conclusion. The easiest way to cite sources is to use parenthetical citations that include the author's last name and page number (Mayer 199). Do not use outside sources.
Your first paragraph must contain a series of opinions/assertions that you intend to historically prove in the text of your essay. Never pose rhetorical questions in your essay. Be sure in the first or second sentence to formally introduce the book and the author. Immediately give the reader your overall argument or thesis, and then, in succeeding sentences of your first paragraph list supporting arguments in chronological order. The supporting arguments should be chronological in order and build on each other.
The topic sentences of your paragraphs must do more than simply describe what the paragraph is about, they must also state why the paragraph is important to the overall argument of your essay. In other words, the topic sentence summarizes the paragraph, but also links it back to one of the supporting arguments that you listed in your introductory paragraph. Paragraphs should be one-third to one-half page in length. Finally, your essay must have a conclusion that restates your original argument in light of the data and facts that were discussed in the text of your essay. A paragraph is at least four sentences long.