Time: Section 1 (9312): Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9-9:50 a.m.
Section 2 (9313): Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 12-12:50 p.m.
Location: Section 1: Hoover 105
Section 2: Hoover 106
Instructor: C. L. Eastman
Phone/Voicemail/Email: 562. 907.4200x4402/ 909.594.5611x3049/ ceastman@whittier.edu
Office/Hours: Mendenhall 02
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Required Texts: There are three required texts, all from Greenhaven Press:
Genocide (William Dudley, editor)
Ethnic Violence (Myra Immell, editor)
The Holocaust: Death Camps (Tamara Roleff, editor)
The approximate combined cost of the three texts at the time they were ordered was $65.00.
All INTD 90/100 students are also required to purchase The Random House Handbook (Crews, ed., 6th edition).
A collegiate dictionary/thesaurus is obviously something every student should have, especially for this course.
Students who have a particular interest in the theme of this course would be interested to read A Problem from Hell: America and The Age of Genocide by Samantha Power (Basic Books, 2002), and We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Murdered with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux,1998). These materials will be on reserve in the library.
You will also need a student composition book (not spiral bound), ca. 11 by 8.
Course Description: An intensive composition course which aims to develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Procedural Ground Rules:
1. All readings and assignments are due on the date listed in the syllabus. No late or "dropped off" work will be accepted except in cases of excused absence (medical with verification or school-sanctioned trip, as per college policy).
2. It is the student's responsibility to keep abreast of all assignment deadlines, specific guidelines for particular assignments, and the inevitable changes of schedule. Towards this end the student is advised to have both the instructor's phone number as well as that of a classmate in his or her data bank.
3. All written assignments, with the obvious exception of those produced in class, should be typed or "word-processed" on white 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper.
4. I can not state this forcefully enough: Keep all returned assignments in a separate notebook until the end of the semester!
5. No student who accumulates more than 3 unexcused absences will receive credit for INTD 90. The instructor may drop a student from the roll up to the drop deadline; after that, the student will receive either a grade of "F" or "NC," depending on which is deemed more appropriate. Twice late is considered one unexcused absence. If a student arrives late to class, he or she must make sure, at an appropriate time, that the instructor has not charged a full class absence against his or her attendance record. Under no circumstances will the instructor allow class time to be used for the discussion of an individual student's grade or attendance status. The student wishing clarification or discussion of such matters must make an appointment to see the instructor outside of scheduled class time or during scheduled office hours.
Grading: All work will be given a point value based on this scale:
A=10 A-=9 B=8 C=7 D=6 F=5 Unsubmitted=0
The course grade will be determined on the following percentages:
Paragraph One-Summary 10%
Paragraph Two-Chronology 10%
Paragraph Three-Analysis 10%
Essay One-Cause/Effect 20%
Essay Two-Comparison/Contrast 20%
Essay Three--Argument 20%
Final Examination 10%
Incompletes: Because of the ephemeral nature of the relationship between part-time faculty and the college, no incompletes will be approved.
Skills Bank Obligation: Skills Bank is a self-directed, diagnostic and remedial program in basic English writing skills. All INTD 90 students are required to complete the Skills Bank Assessment test in the Center for Academic Success (Stauffer 105). The student's further Skills Bank obligation will be determined by the result of this assessment. No student will receive credit for this course if his/her Skills Bank obligation has not been fulfilled-no exceptions!
A Final Caveat Regarding Plagiarism: Plagiarism, according to the editors of the third edition of the MLA Handbook, comes from the Latin plagiarius ("kidnapper") and constitutes "the act of using another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source" (21). Depending on the severity and extent of the offense, the penalties for plagiarism in this class may include an "F" grade on the assignment for the first occurrence and an "F" grade for the course on a second occurrence.
 

The Age of Genocide
In 1915, the government of the Ottoman Empire (the nation we call Turkey today) faced a desperate domestic crisis and looming military defeat. This government responded to its myriad social problems by declaring all of its citizens of Armenian descent "disloyal" and ordering their "relocation." The result of this relocation was the virtual extermination of all Armenians within the Ottoman Empire. An exact figure can not be determined, but estimates of the number of people murdered in this action (the word genocide did not yet exist) range from 800,000 to 3,000,000. The perpetrators of these murders went virtually unpunished.
These numbers should be shocking, and they are (though they may also have the effect of making what is horrible in the concrete numbing in the abstract), but the number of dead is less important than the precedent established: A sovereign government might scapegoat and exterminate a sizeable portion of its population with impunity as "the rest of the world" sat inertly by, unwilling to become involved in "internal, domestic" affairs. And throughout the twentieth and bloodiest century of the Common Era the social solution devised by the Ottoman government would be emulated and revised in places like Germany, The Soviet Union, Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, with little change in the response from the "rest of the world" except for the designation of a new label for this crime: "Genocide."
The readings and writing assignments for this course will survey the history and causes of genocide; we will also attempt to develop theories about what interventionary steps may be taken by the global community as a whole and the United States in particular to prevent future instances.

Schedule of Readings/Assignments

WEEK 1-September 4-5
Discussion of syllabus
Writing sample

WEEK 2-September 8-12
"Topic Sentences"
read Dudley, 14-64
Paragraph one-summary (due 9/12)
WEEK 3-September 15-19
"Development patterns"
read Immell, 40-64
Paragraph two-chronology (due 9/19)

WEEK 4-September 22-26
"Conclusions"
read Roleff, 89-115
Paragraph three-analysis (due 9/26)

WEEK 5-September 29-October 3
read Immell, 14-39
Essay One--Cause/Effect (due 10/15)

WEEK 6-October 6-10
Peer Review: Essay One-Cause/Effect
read Dudley, 65-89

WEEK 7-October 13-17
Final Revision
Mid-Semester Break, October 17: No Class Meeting

WEEK 8-October 20-24
Essay Two-Comparison/Contrast (due 11/7)
read Immell, 73-105

WEEK 9-October 27-31
Essay Two-Comparison/Contrast
Immell, 106-148

WEEK 10-November 3-7
Peer Review and Final Revision, Essay Two

WEEK 11-November 10-14
Essay Three-Argument/Persuasion (due 11/26)
read Dudley, 90-128

WEEK 12-November 17-21
Essay Three-Argument/Persuasion
read Dudley, 129-168

WEEK 13-November 24-28
Peer Review and Final Revision, Essay Three
Thanksgiving Holiday-No Classes Meet 11/27-28

WEEK 14-December 1-5
Preparation for final exam

December 8-Reading Day

December 9-12-Final Exams
Our finals are currently scheduled for the following dates and times:
Section 1-December 12, 10:30 a.m. to12:30 p.m.
Section 2-December 9, 10:30 a.m. to12:30 p.m.
It is possible, however, that the December 9th final may have to be rescheduled.

I am trying to arrange for a field trip to either the Museum of Tolerance or the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum (or, if time and funding permit, both) at the time of this writing. I expect this activity will take place on a Wednesday in October, but this is obviously not confirmable at this time. Stay tuned!