Course Policy
Instructor: Sophia Kartsonis
Courses: Writing Fiction
Contemporary Literature
Email: skartsonis@ccad.edu

Textbook: Fiction Workshop: This document and its updates

Contemporary Literature: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/061853301X/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
This should direct you to a number of inexpensive options. Be sure to order one that will ship immediatly. You are looking at around $15-20 with shipping included. (Around half of the new copies.)
I would like for everyone to have the anthology as close to February 1 as possible.

Amazon has them (used) for very little and if you order them now, you should be good to go shortly.

For now, I will post links.

Attendance: will be crucial. We will be reading a lot and dealing with that reading in class with writing assignments and activities. You will be afforded one absence for reasons I will not need to know. I do not excuse any absence after that first one and if you accrue two absences or more, I reserve the right to suggest that you drop the course.
Tardies: After two you have an absence.
Grades: You will be graded heavily on class participation and attendance. Your written work also will comprise a large percentage of your total grade. I expect lively discussions and real engagement with the topics.
For those of you in my literature course or in workshops with a reading assignment please note: I hate to resort to pop quizzes, but if during discussion it becomes apparent that a few of us have done the reading and the rest are coasting, I will administer a quiz. Assignments are due (copies, typed, all aspects of the requirements that constitute the assignment) on time at the beginning of class. Class time is not an opportunity to run around or ask me to make copies or to staple etc. We are now grown-ups. We are now grown-ups. Repeat as necessary.
YOU MUST BE HERE ON THE DAY OF YOUR HAND-OUTS, PRESENTATIONS or WORKSHOP. I cannot convey to you what it does to my mood and my soul when you are not. I usually console myself with a long session with the gradebook... I will not accept late workshop pieces. It is unfair to your group and the other groups and it makes a mess of our schedule.

The bulk of your work in my courses cannot be made-up simply by "getting the assignment." You learn from discussion. What you miss is truly lost money and effort on my part and yours. Try to remember that you're here to self-edify as well as to receive a service.
Cell Phones: Please turn them off. Brain surgery can wait.
Conferences: I am available to conference with you at any time throughout the course. Please contact me in class or through the email address and we can set a time to meet. I am required to post office hours and so I do. My preferred method of meeting with students is to know I will be meeting and to meet in a setting that resembles my idea of college: ideas exchanged over some hot beverage.

Also, if you feel confused about an assignment, let me know that before the day it is due. Come talk to me or better still, raise your hand and ask about it during class. If you miss something and then tell me you didn't understand what you were to do, you will still lose the grade. It is your responsibility to find a way to understand by letting me know that you don't.

You can email me if that is easier for you but I cannot guarantee a reply if the email is last minute. It is your responsibility to discuss any difficulties you are having or foresee well before the assignment is due.