Syllabus for CRW 2100,
Introduction to Fiction Online!
Valencia College
Spring 2016
“An artist has contrived to lure me out of myself into an illusion of reality more fulfilling than any lived reality can
be.”
--Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker
Instructor:
Diane Orsini
Office:
5-145, West Campus
Course Information:
CRW 2100 Section W01 CRN 25209
Office Hours:
Click here for my schedule at Valencia’s Faculty Front Door
Phone:
407-582-1172. So that we both have a record of the question and
the answer, the best method of contact is email from your
Valencia account.
Email:
dorsini@valenciacollege.edu. I read email from Atlas only.
Required Textbooks:
Charters, The Story and its Writer, 8th ed., and Burroway and
Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, 8th ed. Get them used!
Course Web Site:
http://dorsini.typepad.com/intro_to_fiction/
Catalog Description
“Introduction to Fiction is a fiction-genre specific class. Students will write original work
to be submitted for critique and will critique the work of other students in interactive
workshops during class. Students will be introduced to the conventions of fiction
through selected readings” (Catalog).
Course Description
The goal of this course is to help students realize their artistic ambition by developing
mastery over the elements of fiction. Those elements include:




Character development
Character presentation through action and dialogue
Plot
Point of View
1




Theme
Setting and symbol
Story arc
Style
The class will also analyze published authors to learn from their techniques. In all
classes, we strive to incorporate Valencia’s core competencies of Think, Value,
Communicate, and Act. These competencies are particularly meaningful in an art class.
Attendance, Deadlines, and Deportment
Since this course is online, your ability to meet deadlines will count as your attendance.
If you miss three assignment due dates, I may choose to exercise my right to withdraw
you.
Assignments, quizzes, online discussions, and the final exam must be completed by
posted deadlines. Fiction pieces will be penalized 5 points per day for the first week;
after one week, they are no longer eligible for a grade. If a student misses the extracredit workshops during their appointed windows, he or she will forfeits the
opportunity to earn those the bonus points.
I will use the time stamp on the assignments in Blackboard to determine if your fiction
pieces have arrived on time. I must also receive readable files. A corrupted file I cannot
open is not on-time work, and late penalties will apply.
Do not ignore Business Office deadlines. You cannot make up any work missed because
the Business Office withdrew you for nonpayment.
My good manners:






I will answer your emails within 48 hours of receipt.
I will check email at least once over the weekend.
I will return your graded work fourteen days of submission.
I will always include a polite note inspired by Professor Leddy’s example in emails
containing your scored work. You will never get a blank email with an attachment.
I will post all your scores in Blackboard so you’ll always know where you stand in the
class. The best surprise is no surprise.
I will answer any of your questions to the best of my ability.
Your good manners:



When you are confused or lost, you won’t suffer in silence but instead will ask me
questions via email or office phone (407.582.1172).
You also will follow Professor Leddy’s excellent example when composing emails.
You also will compose an explanatory email to accompany the attachment whenever
you submit an assignment to me (see above). If you fail to include this explanatory
email with your attachment, you will incur a five-point discourtesy penalty; this is to
2


encourage the development of online business manners in anticipation of future
communication with an agent or publisher. This course is all about managing the
reader.
You will be polite and respectful to all the other students in the course, especially
when you disagree with their comments on your pieces.
You will upload all work as email attachments in rich text or Word formats. The file
extension will be .rtf, .doc, or .docx. If you do not know how to save in these
formats, be sure to visit a campus computer lab to get instructions. I will not
evaluate your work in any other formats.
Atlas Policy
Since the Valencia server screens all Atlas correspondence for viruses and inappropriate
material, I will open and read only those messages that you send from your Atlas. I will
delete unread any messages from other email sources.
Checking your Atlas account should become a daily priority. Do not let your mailbox
become so choked with old email from past semesters that the server cannot deliver
new messages.
Computer Issues
For your comfort, ease, and convenience, I have posted all tests in Blackboard.
Because of this, you for your part must ensure that you have reliable Internet access
when taking these tests. A student will occasionally complain that he or she has been
“kicked off” in the middle of a test; if that happens, that student must instantly contact
Blackboard per directions in the appropriate post. If a student has been “kicked off”
once, he or she should not expect to take another test on that same computer and is
advised to come to campus to take all remaining tests at Valencia. I will re-set a test
only once per student per semester, and only if the glitch is properly documented
according to the instructions within the assignments in the course-content posts. I will
not re-set a test without it. If a student is “kicked off” a second time or more times, he
or she must expect to live with whatever score he or she earned prior to the glitch, even
if that score is zero.
Once more with feeling: this re-set policy will be enacted only when that first glitch is
properly documented; it is not an offer to provide you with one free re-set in the case of
your having forgotten to take a test.
Technological problems will also not be accepted as an excuse for late written work. If
your own computer or printer is out of commission, you will be expected to drive to
campus to complete your work or take your quiz at one of Valencia’s computer labs.
3
CAVEAT: consider using Google Drive as a hedge against unimaginable computer-related
disasters such as crashes, theft, bad break-ups, etc.
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism isn’t usually a problem in a class of egotists like us (you can’t be an artist
without a healthy ego), but it is always good to know where the fence line is.
First, the definition: Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words, ideas, pictures,
design, and/or intellectual property without the correct documentation and
punctuation. All work submitted for credit in this class must be the product of the
individual student’s own original thought and creativity.
Plagiarism is morally indefensible. Any assignment showing signs of plagiarism will be
graded zero. A second offense will result in an appointment with the dean of the
Communications Department.
And here is the creative-writing fence line: recycling work submitted to other instructors
(including this one) in current or previous semesters is considered a form of plagiarism if
you turn in that piece as is. You may build on any piece you began at home or in
another course, but you are expected to deepen, develop, and refine it. If you are
worried, send me the original along with the new version. If you’re over the line, I’ll rein
you back in.
Under no circumstances have your work typed or processed for you by someone else.
Would you really let someone take control over your work like that?
Withdrawals
If you decide to drop this course for any reason, you must initiate the process yourself.
Otherwise, you will receive an F at the end of this session. The deadline this session for
withdrawing is Friday, April 1.
Grades
This is how your grades are determined and how you will receive them:




You will receive grades and commentary for stories and discussions via Atlas
email; the numerical score will be posted in Blackboard.
Look for your graded work 14 days after the deadline for the assignment has
passed.
Blackboard will score your quizzes after the deadline.
Work that you have submitted early will be graded with everyone else's after
the due date.
4
Valencia College requires that no less than a C be earned as a final grade; in this course,
that means a minimum of 700 out of the possible 1000 points.
You must complete all the written assignments, take all the quizzes in Blackboard, and
pass the final exam with a score of C or higher.
The workload includes the following:





Three fiction drafts [300 points]
One complete fiction arc [200 points]
Two online workshops [offering significant bonus points to participants]
Four multiple-choice tests in Blackboard [400 points]
Final Exam [100 points]
As you can see, there are 1000 available points.
You final course grade will be determined by the total of all points you have earned on
the writing assignments, tests, and final exam. None of these assignments is optional.
At the end of the semester, I will use the following scale:
A = 900-1000 points
B = 800-899
C = 700-799
D = 600-699
F = 599 points and below
Points are points. There is no averaging up or averaging down. If your final point count
comes in at 899 points, you will have earned a B.
Therefore, keep on top of the tests and take full advantage of the communal extracredit opportunities because this class does not offer individual extra-credit
opportunities or rewrites for assignments that received bad scores; the successive drafts
constitute the re-write opportunities. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
No grade will be dropped or curved. To earn the highest possible score, read all of the
assigned sections of your textbooks, follow all of the directions at the website, model
your own work on the student samples available for the assignments, email me from
Atlas with questions prior to submission, use the college writing centers (East, Lake
Nona, Osceola, West, Winter Park) when necessary, and proofread carefully for
sentence errors.
Before you press "Submit," confirm that you have attached the right file(s).
The wonders of Blackboard have made it possible for you to know your course average
any time you want, so it’s up to you to stay on top of your grades. The best surprise is no
surprise.
5
Final Examination
The final exam is a two-hour test of analytical ability. Students will respond to an essay
question requiring a minimum of five hundred words.
Once More with Feeling: Late or Missing Assignments
If you miss a deadline for a writing assignment, the assignment will receive a five-point
deduction per day for the first week. Any piece submitted more than seven days after
the original due date will not be eligible for a grade.
If you miss a quiz, you cannot make it up. Anyone who misses a quiz during the posted
testing window earns a zero for that component, so keep up with the course calendar.
If you miss the window for a bonus-point assignment, you cannot make it up.
If you do not submit the final examination by the Valencia College deadline, you will
receive a zero for the assignment. No exceptions.
As the student, you are responsible for keeping up with all written and reading
assignments. I will not bring to your attention what you have missed.
For Your Own Protection
Take responsibility for recordkeeping:




When you send email from Atlas, always check "Save a copy to the 'Sent' folder."
After you upload a piece in Blackboard, you will get a response from me that says
that I have received it. If you do not get this receipt within 48 hours, contact me
from Atlas immediately.
After you upload a piece, confirm that the piece did in fact upload.
In a designated folder in your Atlas account, keep copies of all the emails from me
containing your pieces and score sheets as well as all emails you have sent me until
you have received your final grade.
Format
How you present your work to me will indicate more about you than you realize, so be
sure to make a good show. How? Follow these easy directions.
 Double-space all your work.
6



Indent all your paragraphs, taking care to indent new paragraphs for each
speaker/character.
Avoid putting extra lines between paragraphs. If necessary, go to your
Page Layout tab and reduce the line spacing from 10 pt. to 0 pt.
At the top of the first page, provide the following information:
Your name
Last name/Keyword/1
Professor Orsini
Writing Assignment (for example, ‘Fiction Assignment #1’)
Date

Make sure that subsequent pages have your last name, keyword, and the
page number in the top right-hand corner:

Last name/Keyword/1 *
* The shading makes the formatting more clearly visible. Don’t feel that you have to shade your headers!
Just In Case: Valencia’s Resources
The Office for Students With Disabilities. If you’re registered with this office, remember
to give me a copy of the official OSD letter and let me know what accommodations will
work best for you.
The Online Resource for CRW 2100, Intro to Fiction, in Blackboard. Here you can find
all your quizzes and many (though not all) course materials that are also available at the
course website. Make yourself thoroughly comfortable with both.
The Library [Building 6]. If your home computer fails you during the quiz windows,
come to campus and use ours on the first and second floors.
The Computer Lab [6-101]. You are welcome to use the computer lab to word process
your stories for our class. Bring a USB Flash Drive. Use Google Drive as a back up.
Blackboard Help. If you have a problem with any of the quizzes in Blackboard, call 407582-5600.
Student Assistance Program. BayCare Behavioral Health Student Assistance Program
offers free help with stress, anxiety, depression, adjustment difficulties, substance
abuse, time management and relationship problems. Call 800-878-5470 if you are
interested.
7
Disclaimers
If your name is still on my class roll as of Friday, January 15, I will accept that as proof of
your agreement to abide by the stated terms of this syllabus.
Please note that, as the instructor, I reserve the right to alter the course syllabus and
outline. However, if I make any changes at all, I will notify you at once through Atlas
email. I will never spring a new set of rules on you at the last minute.
8