I was wondering where from you got so much detail? I was reading George A. Kennedy's translations of various texts dealing with Progymnasmata where they seem to exercise grammar only, like inflection and this kind of variations.
I should add, of course, that directly reading the relevant texts of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian is highly advisable for all matters concerning Comp and Rhetoric.
I am familiar with relevant texts in the case of Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian. But I'm not sure which Plato dialogue deals with rhetoric and/or writing in general.
Gorgias and Phaedrus are probably the two most relevant but he has sporadic discussions about it all over the corpus of his work (you know how Socrates meanders sometimes). Though a lot of the relevant work from Plato is critical of rhetoric because of the Sophists. So it’s more on the philosophy and ethics of the art than the “how-to”. Nevertheless, there are good things to gain.
Sorry for the delayed response. There are a number of really good books (and you have one of them) that can be of used. The curriculum from Memoria Press by James Selby is a good and useful curriculum. Also there is an out of print (but still acquirable) text by Frank J. D’Angelo called Composition in the Classical Tradition which has some great stuff. See also The Office of Assertion by Scott F. Crider and The Elements of Rhetoric by Ryan N.S. Topping. Hope that helps!
Thank you for the detailed response! Don't worry about delay. We all have some real live to live :). Regarding D'Angelo choice of examples I read some comments on Amazon that they not quite suitable for children. What is your take on this? No hurry!
Yeah, that’s a fair criticism. To be fair, he had college students in mind when he wrote his text. The examples are good from the standpoint that they fit the material well but since they interact with some pretty real and gritty legal cases it’s a bit much for 7th-8th graders. I would still recommend it to teachers as a resource however.
Thank you so much for these rich examples! Until today the fable exercise has been a complete mystery.
Glad these have been helpful for you!
I was wondering where from you got so much detail? I was reading George A. Kennedy's translations of various texts dealing with Progymnasmata where they seem to exercise grammar only, like inflection and this kind of variations.
I should add, of course, that directly reading the relevant texts of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian is highly advisable for all matters concerning Comp and Rhetoric.
I am familiar with relevant texts in the case of Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian. But I'm not sure which Plato dialogue deals with rhetoric and/or writing in general.
Gorgias and Phaedrus are probably the two most relevant but he has sporadic discussions about it all over the corpus of his work (you know how Socrates meanders sometimes). Though a lot of the relevant work from Plato is critical of rhetoric because of the Sophists. So it’s more on the philosophy and ethics of the art than the “how-to”. Nevertheless, there are good things to gain.
Sorry for the delayed response. There are a number of really good books (and you have one of them) that can be of used. The curriculum from Memoria Press by James Selby is a good and useful curriculum. Also there is an out of print (but still acquirable) text by Frank J. D’Angelo called Composition in the Classical Tradition which has some great stuff. See also The Office of Assertion by Scott F. Crider and The Elements of Rhetoric by Ryan N.S. Topping. Hope that helps!
Thank you for the detailed response! Don't worry about delay. We all have some real live to live :). Regarding D'Angelo choice of examples I read some comments on Amazon that they not quite suitable for children. What is your take on this? No hurry!
P.S. I'm currently reading Erasmus' Copia.
Yeah, that’s a fair criticism. To be fair, he had college students in mind when he wrote his text. The examples are good from the standpoint that they fit the material well but since they interact with some pretty real and gritty legal cases it’s a bit much for 7th-8th graders. I would still recommend it to teachers as a resource however.