Week 6 Reading

Week 6 Reading

The Making of the West
Chapter 8: The Heirs of Rome: Islam, Byzantium, and Europe 600–750 BCE – We will discover the connections that the Islamic world, Byzantium, and Western Europe have with Rome’s traditions.

Chapter 9: From Centralization to Fragmentation 750–1050 – Learn about the Byzantine, Islamic, and Carolingian Empires and how local rule emerged from a very tumultuous time.

The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Vol. 1
Beowulf – An early important work of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is a poem that narrates a tale of a great Scandinavian hero who must battle monsters in the hopes of saving a kingdom.

Week 6 Discussion

Write on one of the following topics:

Topic 1:

How do the roles of reason and belief change from ancient times through the Middle Ages? Support your view with discussion of both historical material and at least two primary texts covered in class.

Topic 2:

How does the evolution of the hero figure relate to social, political, and/or cultural changes? Discuss how Beowulf compares to two other heroes from different time periods (ancient, Greek, Roman, middle ages) covered in class. How are these heroes different? How are they specifically tied to their historical context? Which heroes are more alike? Different?

• The discussion will take place from Monday to Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET
• Post your response on the Week 6 message board
• Your response should be at least 500 words in length
• Use MLA format for any quotations or citations that you use to support your answer
• Post due by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET
• Replies to other students or the professor are due by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. ET
• In order to receive credit, you will need to submit your initial post to two locations: the discussion board and Turnitin. Use the Submit Assignment button below to submit your initial response to Turnitin.

Plagiarism

Three common types of plagiarism you need to be aware of as a student:

• Recycling a paper; “double-dipping”; self-plagiarism: Reusing a paper you have written for a previous course
• Copying directly from a source without proper quotations or paraphrasing: When you try to pass something off as your own work
• Not using proper citations

According to the Academic Integrity and Academic Dishonesty Handbook:

Your paper should have at least 80% of your own original thought, not “borrowed, paraphrased [or] quoted” from material pulled from the Internet, articles, journals, books, etc. Your thoughts, not someone else’s!