Proofreading your Greek

cwconrad
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Re: Proofreading your Greek

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
Louis L Sorenson wrote:run your content by a friend who can read/write Greek so you have a second set of eyes. i.e., get someone else to proof-read your content.
It is much easier to spot errors than to write Greek.
Amen!
There are two ways of looking at composition ... Teachers should generally be able to produce "error-free" language - agreement, idiomatic usage, staying within a register.
They should be, I agree, but they aren't.
In the end, there is a lot of guess-work. Having experience and nuts and bolts things like Paul's ἐπί distinction done well make or break the composition. Mastery of the use of the compound or simplex verbs in given situations is important too for showing finer meanings.
I wish I could write like Lucian of Samosata, but I can't. Much of what's been said here about composition is good and true. I'm amused by Barry's recommendation of caffeine and Louis' note, "And probably, if you have time, run your content by a friend who can read/write Greek so you have a second set of eyes. i.e., get someone else to proof-read your content." I can't help but recollect what Horace tells the two Piso lads about writing poetry (my loose version of Ars Poetica 385-90: "You’re not going to produce anything without inspiration, as you well know. But if you do ever get something composed, have a good critic take a look at it, let your father and me review it too, then close it up and stow it away for nine years. You can always erase what you haven’t published; once it’s out in the open, you can’t take it back."
Tu nihil inuita dices faciesue Minerua; 385
id tibi iudicium est, ea mens. Siquid tamen olim
scripseris, in Maeci descendat iudicis auris
et patris et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum
membranis intus positis; delere licebit
quod non edideris; nescit uox missa reuerti.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Proofreading your Greek

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Jonathan Robie wrote:
Barry Hofstetter wrote:Really good advice in this thread. I would add the coffee rule. Once you have composed, leave it for a few minutes and go get a cup of coffee (or whatever, but coffee works best). Come back and look again at your text -- you'll probably note things you missed. If you have time, do it again. And remember the coffee.
I'm guessing whiskey doesn't work as well.
Whiskey makes the translation look really good -- to you -- for a while.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
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