[B-Greek] "WRITE, WRITE WRITE' (was "Suggestions Please!")

James Spinti JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com
Fri May 27 16:22:58 EDT 2011


 I agree. We had one year of Latin prose composition (Bradley's Arnold),
and a semester of Greek prose composition using North and Hillard's book
in my graduate program. I wish that a year of Greek composition had been
required. It is time well-spent. Choose your preferred author and
imitate their style.

My $0.015,
James

________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 1:17 PM
To: Louis Sorenson
Cc: B-Greek List mail to all
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] "WRITE, WRITE WRITE' (was "Suggestions Please!")

My comments focus on Louis Sorenson's second response to the query. See
below.

On May 25, 2011, at 9:45 PM, Louis Sorenson wrote:
<snip>
 

> 2) Write, Write, Write in Greek. How and Where? There's a site called
> SCHOLE (http://www.schole.ning.com) where you can start talking
(writing)
> to other people interested in KOINE. Don't be scared. Just write a few
> words. Everyone on that site knows it's hard to start writing. No one
cares
> if you spell something incorrectly or it is not gramatically correct,
anyone
> who started on that path had made all those blunders, they don't care
about
> making/reading mistakes, what they want/enjoy/are thrilled with is
that someone
> else out there is learning Greek better and is talking to them in
Greek. 
> It's what many of us on SXOLE live for. Once you start using Greek to
communicate,
> it soon becomes easier and easier, and more and more exciting. Soon
you'll find
> it is a really enjoyable endeavor. 

I personally think this needs some qualification, to wit: one should aim
not simply at 
writing in Greek but rather at writing in GOOD Greek. I know that
there's an
alterantive view here: "Go ahead and start writing -- it doesn't matter
whether
you write correctly or eloquently, so long as you make yourself
understood."

My contention, however, is that, if you REALLY want to make yourself
understood
in the Greek language of the era that you want to emulate (Koine,
Classical Attic,
Homeric, Byzantine, whatever), you should strive to emulate the writing
of those
ancient texts that you admire and that you think express meaningnful
content in
a style that you find clear and free of unusual or unnecessarily complex
usage.

How do you do this? It wouldn't hurt to work through the earlier
sections of 
the classic textbooks of Greek composition such as North and Hilliard at
the
TextKit site: hhttp://www.textkit.com/greek_grammar.php -- and note that
there are answer keys for the composition textbooks offered there. The
earlier
sections of North and Hilliard focus on the standard constructions,
offering 
simple rules (including alternatives, where they exist) and phrases or
simple 
sentences to reformulate in Greek; the later sections offer connected
prose 
paragraphs from classsic English literary and historical writing.
Students who 
haven't done any writing of Greek other than the translation exercises
in a primer 
can acquire in this manner a command of essential tools for building
standard 
and intelligible Greek sentences. Writing paragraphs is another step,
precisely
because of the many Greek particles that are used to link clauses
together 
(I think many would say that the standard unit of composition in English
is
the sentence, but in ancient Greek it is the paragraph: PERIODOS, the
ancient Greek word for "sentence" really means something like "a
complete
circuitous course from beginning to end."

What's your favorite ancient Greek author? Perhaps the Luke of the NT
gospel or Acts? Then read carefully through a lengthy connected sequence
from Luke or Acts and then rewrite the narrative, perhaps in an
abbreviated
summary, emulating the style of the original author. Or take Matthew as
your model: read several chapters or narrative or read one of the five
long discourses and compose a summary of the narrative or discourse in
the same style. If you are really ambitious take a chapter of Hebrews
and
read it carefully and study how the arguments are structured -- then
write
something similar and endeavor to express that in the Greek of the
author
of Hebrews. Paul's writing is more difficult, I think, although the more
powerful pieces of rhetoric in 1 Cor 1-4 or Rom 7-8 might make good
grist for this sort of milling, kneading, and baking a loaf of Greek
text.

My own work in graduate school involved two years of required classes
in Greek composition. In the first year I worked through North and 
Hilliard myself. In the second year, my class read and discussed the
style of Plato's Symposium while at the same time writing paragraphs
from C.S.Lewis on Love and from others, including a snippet from
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. 

So I don't think it matters precisely what you read and write, but if
you
care to write something more than Pidigin Greek that's as much English
idiom and word-order as it is ancient Greek, go at it systematically and
employ authentic ancient texts, Biblical or non-biblical, as your model,
and make an effort to learn to write in the style of one or more writers
that you really like.


> 
> So READ, READ, READ (it does not matter what, even Homer would be fine
- superb!) and
> WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. The two activities together will do more for you
than
> reading through any grammar book. In time, you'll be ready to read
those 
> grammars, but for that to be a valuable endeavor, you need to feel
comfortable
> reading passages and not struggle with forms and vocabulary.
> 
> Louis Sorenson  [B-Greek Co-Chair] and enthusiast.


Carl W. Conrad, another B-Greek Co-Chair and enthusiast


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