Course Policy WRITING FICTION

Catalog ID: LA490A

Section: 01
Course Name: Writing Fiction
Course Prerequisite: LA190 / Lecture or LA190 / e-Learning
Term: Autumn Meeting Day(s): Tuesday, Thursday Meeting Time(s): 12:30-1:50 p.m.
Class Location: KH215
Faculty Name: Sophia Kartsonis
Class Blog: www.zeldaville.blogspot.com
Department: Liberal Arts Division: English
Email: Skartsonis@ccad.edu
Office Hours: T 9-11, H 10-11,
Office Location: Kinney Hall

Course Description: Focuses on the art of writing stories. In short stories, words are more than characters strung together to inform. This class will examine the ways literary strategies and interesting sentence structure make language into something artful. We will be looking at the craft and technique that comprise the most accomplished stories. With a combination of writing exercises and in-class workshops, we complete a number of smaller narrative assignments and some full-length stories. 3 credits, meets for a total of 3 hours.
Course Goal To acquaint student with the craft of producing stories and to help give them the terms and tools in which to assess and help revise and edit.

Course Learning Outcomes: Students can expect to know more about a novel or short story’s composition, both as an active verb and as a noun indicating the content. There will be lessons on scene, character, voice, point-of-view, and a variety of exercises designed to increase the sense of what is possible in writing stories.

CCAD Learning Goals:
Through the writing and analysis of stories, and the workshop, the course is designed to help students connect words and images into cogent, vibrant writing. Also, through the workshop model itself, students connect with one another to create a body of work that is more powerful for their collective insight. As the workshop environment creates an opportunity for both risk and community, it provides a means in which to reflect upon the story as act of “language art.” Additionally, through mastery in the art of reading as writers and writing as astute, sensitive readers, students are better able to create writing that is powerful in both form and function.
Required Course Materials:
N/A
Required Text(s):
All links and handouts provided in class or through the blog.

Recommended Text(s):
Jacqueline Osherow’s Whitethorn
http://www.amazon.com/Whitethorn-Poems-Press-Paperback-Original/dp/0807138355/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1315098067&sr=1-1
TBA throughout

Schedule of Classes:
(See Attached)
Methods/weights of Evaluation: projects & homework assignments, any quizzes or exams 70% attendance &class participation 30%):

Course Grading Policies (this is a list of policies regarding due dates, late submissions, standards and expectation regarding work, etc.):
Due dates are crucial, particularly for those assignments that involve class-wide presentation or discussion. Late work will not be welcome and if an assignment is not turned in for a student’s upcoming or workshop or a presentation is not ready, there is no way to make that up to the whole class. For this reason, those assignments must come in on time, students must be present for their own workshops and as they are given two free absences, it is expected that students save those for such occasions and to keep the instructor informed (at least eight hours before class is to begin, where possible) that there has been an issue or emergency. After three absences, the instructor reserves the right to request the student consider dropping the course. All work unless otherwise noted is to be typed, proofread and turned in as a final, to-be-graded, copy.
CCAD Academic Policies:
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information) Academic dishonesty may assume several forms. The most common are the use of unauthorized materials during exams, acquiring information from other students during an exam, and plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined by the following actions:
• Reproducing another person’s work and submitting it as one’s own
• Lifting material from other sources, including the Internet, to use in assignments without acknowledgment
• Using another person’s original ideas without providing appropriate credit
• Misrepresenting oneself as another individual to an instructor in the context of completing assignments or tests
• Participating in co-construction of assignments without the knowledge and approval of the instructor (not to be confused with legitimate and appropriate tutoring activities, which do not include actually completing another person’s work for him/her)
In all cases, if a student is unsure about a question of plagiarism or academic misconduct, the instructor should be consulted. Please consult the appropriate section under “Disciplinary Procedures” to learn about specific procedures involved in academic misconduct cases.
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information) ADA STATEMENT If you have a documented cognitive, physical, or psychological disability, which includes learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, or mobility, as described by Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is recommended that you contact Disability Services at 614-222-3292. They will assist you in arranging appropriate accommodations with the instructor.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information) Students are required to attend all classes on their schedule. Students may receive a failing grade if they have three or more absences in courses meeting once a week or four or more absences in courses meeting twice a week. For Summer Semester, the number of absences is computed on the basis of the total number of class hours missed (nine or more hours for studio courses and six or more hours for other courses). For May Minimester or summer sessions, missing 15% or more of a class constitutes an automatic failure. Students are reminded that they will receive a failing grade if they stop attending a course without properly dropping it. Dropping courses is the responsibility of the student.
REQUESTING AN INCOMPLETE
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information) A grade of incomplete (I) is given only in cases involving serious illness or unforeseen emergencies. In case of illness, a written verification may be required from the attending physician. The student should see the director of advising to process the proper medical documentation.
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT
(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information) The college expects students to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the high ideals and standards that CCAD has set for its community and its students. Students who violate college policies, cause harm to others, commit criminal acts, or engage in disruptive behavior on or off campus premises may be subject to disciplinary sanctions by the institution.

45 Mercy Street

In my dream,
drilling into the marrow
of my entire bone,
my real dream,
I'm walking up and down Beacon Hill
searching for a street sign -
namely MERCY STREET.
Not there.

I try the Back Bay.
Not there.
Not there.
And yet I know the number.
45 Mercy Street.
I know the stained-glass window
of the foyer,
the three flights of the house
with its parquet floors.
I know the furniture and
mother, grandmother, great-grandmother,
the servants.
I know the cupboard of Spode
the boat of ice, solid silver,
where the butter sits in neat squares
like strange giant's teeth
on the big mahogany table.
I know it well.
Not there.

Where did you go?
45 Mercy Street,
with great-grandmother
kneeling in her whale-bone corset
and praying gently but fiercely
to the wash basin,
at five A.M.
at noon
dozing in her wiggy rocker,
grandfather taking a nap in the pantry,
grandmother pushing the bell for the downstairs maid,
and Nana rocking Mother with an oversized flower
on her forehead to cover the curl
of when she was good and when she was...
And where she was begat
and in a generation
the third she will beget,
me,
with the stranger's seed blooming
into the flower called Horrid.

I walk in a yellow dress
and a white pocketbook stuffed with cigarettes,
enough pills, my wallet, my keys,
and being twenty-eight, or is it forty-five?
I walk. I walk.
I hold matches at street signs
for it is dark,
as dark as the leathery dead
and I have lost my green Ford,
my house in the suburbs,
two little kids
sucked up like pollen by the bee in me
and a husband
who has wiped off his eyes
in order not to see my inside out
and I am walking and looking
and this is no dream
just my oily life
where the people are alibis
and the street is unfindable for an
entire lifetime.

Pull the shades down -
I don't care!
Bolt the door, mercy,
erase the number,
rip down the street sign,
what can it matter,
what can it matter to this cheapskate
who wants to own the past
that went out on a dead ship
and left me only with paper?

Not there.

I open my pocketbook,
as women do,
and fish swim back and forth
between the dollars and the lipstick.
I pick them out,
one by one
and throw them at the street signs,
and shoot my pocketbook
into the Charles River.
Next I pull the dream off
and slam into the cement wall
of the clumsy calendar
I live in,
my life,
and its hauled up
notebooks.

Anne Sexton

Final Days Schedule

Tuesday: Discussion of readings, possible quiz.

Wednesday: Presentation of your ekphrastic pieces. (You will be presenting and taking them with you, so feel free to work on something that you are invested in or want to do more with.)

Thursday: The Fall. Bring goodies, etc.

http://youtu.be/rPK5dnE9CS4

W 06/29

Homework: Read Robert Frost bio. and Design, The Road Less Traveled, Directive, Once, Then Something
Read Theodore Roethke bio. and My Papa's Waltz,
Allan Ginsberg bio and Howl (all parts) and A Supermarket in CA
Jack Kerouac bio. all poems and the intro to the Beats on the left side of the page.

These bios and poems are all potential quiz material. Read them carefully.

H 06/30
Homework:
The Confessionalists
Sylvia Plath bio. all poems and we'll discuss Metaphor in class. Also, on the left, the brief guide to Confessionalist poetry.
Anne Sexton bio. all poems.
Robert Lowell bio. Skunk Hour, Man and Wife.
John Berryman, bio. all posted Dreamsong poems.

Wednesday Class

I will want you guys to be ready for a quiz on all of the reading selections for Tuesday. (Biship, Moore, Stevens) Class discussion is the only way I know that homework is getting done and since I am not hearing much from most of you, I feel that I have to use other means to get a sense of where you're at with the reading and understanding of it.

Have a sense of who wrote the poems and a good feeling for the most memorable lines. Any biographical materials are also fair game.

There will be more reading assigned for this week, but you will not be responsible for it for Wednesday.

See you soon and thanks,
s

Movie Day: The Fall

Let's make this happen.