Analyze the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) per MULTIPLE modern scholarly perspectives — refusing the single-cause Gibbon 'decline-and-fall' narrative — including Peter Heather's barbarian-migration thesis, Bryan Ward-Perkins's material-decline thesis, Walter Goffart's barbarian-accommodation thesis, and Patrick Geary's continuity-of-Late-Antiquity thesis
Exercise
Difficulty 5
~9 min
hist.g6.f.ex_43
Structured Writing
Prompt
Write a 6-sentence multi-scholar argumentative paragraph on the fall of the Western Roman Empire applying English G6-Fall counterclaim concession-pivot-refutation move with at least 3 of the 4 scholars (Heather / Ward-Perkins / Goffart / Geary).
How it's presented
mode
text
Answer criteria
type
rubric scored writing
rubric
3 stars: ≥3 scholars cited with their theses + counterclaim concession-pivot-refutation structure applied + multi-causal synthesis as conclusion. 2 stars: 2 scholars + partial structure. 1 star: 1 scholar. 0: 0 scholars.
Hints
- Heather: barbarian-migration thesis. Ward-Perkins: material-decline thesis. Goffart: barbarian-accommodation thesis. Geary: continuity-of-Late-Antiquity thesis.
- Counterclaim move: 'However, X concedes Y but pivots to Z.'
Misconceptions to watch
- Single-cause Gibbon framing
- Failing to apply English G6-Fall counterclaim move
Used in lessons