spiel: This course is designed to help you (a) to develop your growing sense of the range and scope of Greek literature, (b) to improve the ease, facility, and speed with which you read (c) get a jump on the reading list (almost all texts are drawn from the second half of the reading list; see the green cells in the syllabus-yellow cells for non-reading list readings).

screed: Translate from a clean text. You learn to read Greek by reading Greek. On Vocab Lists: The act of producing such lists may assist in acquisition of vocabulary, but in class, you should put the list away and try to remember or infer meaning. Such lists might help you get through a day’s portion, but if you really want to learn words, you should rely on repeated exposure and repeated consultation of the dictionary (reading a good dictionary is a good thing). On Heavily Annotated Xeroxes: To read Latin and Greek successfully you must learn mentally to cache meaning and syntax from the moment you start to read a sentence through to its end. A heavily annotated text invites you to get by without flexing that mental muscle. If it is your practice to bring such to class, please wean yourself from the habit by the end of week three, beyond which such are not allowed. On Heavily Annotated Books: OUCH! See above. But also, a book is a ktêma eis aiei. Store in its margins and interlinear spaces only the sort of information that you want to retain over a career. Anyway, data important enough to warrant long-term preservation and access should be stored digitally. Take a note; don’t mar a book. If it is your practice to bring such to class, please wean yourself from the habit by the end of week three, beyond which such are not allowed. On Written Translations: The act of composing a written translation is, in my opinion, the single best way to show yourself and others what you think something means. So, by all means, write out translations if it helps you grow as a reader; but do not bring them to class.

score:

1. daily translation: 45% of grade; this is the most critical feature of the course. We shall devote the bulk of each day in class to translating aloud, quickly, fluently, confidently. As a component thereof: grammar bosses: I shall appoint each of you grammar boss over some particular domain (e.g. conditions, particles, tense, even vocabulary or tone). Your job as, let's say, particle-boss will be to acquire extra sensitive control over particles in any given day's reading; to come prepared to ask and answer questions about the use of such in the day's portion; to be sensitive to change (or its absence) in deployment of particles across the readings of the course; to be a resource, a teacher, for the class (especially) in this domain.
   
   
2. author quizzes: 35% of grade; every 2 weeks you will have the opportunity to take a translation quiz. Procedure as follows:
   • I'll distribute the quiz in class on Friday;
   • take the quiz at your leisure over the weekend, spending no more than 75 minutes;
   • type; do not use notes, dictionaries, translations, or any other aids;
   • mark and grade a copy; feel free to use any aids you like while you are marking and grading
   • by 0900 on the following Monday email (or leave in my mailbox) me (1) a clean copy of the quiz and (2) your marked-up copy.
   • by Friday I'll return both, with my own marks and grades
   • compare my marks and yours
   • I'll drop the lowest grade
     
     
3. final exam: 20% of grade; translation exam, closed book.

How I grade / calculate grades:

• Grading Written Translations:
  • I assign a total number of points per passage, based on the number of lines (e.g. 4 points per line).
  • I underline words / parts of words (if, say, tense or number or case are wrong or incorrectly construed but the word’s dictionary meaning is right) in the Greek that have been translated incorrectly.
  • I squiggly-underline words that have been translated sub-optimally but are basically right.
  • I subtract points based roughly on presence of underlined passages; this is not a strictly mathematical process; one translation may have fewer underlined words and nevertheless fall far short of coherent English, while another may have slightly more underlined words, but indicate clearer control of meaning. That figure, a percentage, provides the starting point for further calculation based on fluency of English, command of Greek and English idiom, control of finer points of grammar vel sim.
  • I shall review all of this in class.
• Grading In-Class Translations
  • Immediately after every class I enter into a spreadsheet (1) a grade for the day (see scale) and (2) brief notes on your performance.
  • At the end of the semester I calculate an average daily reading grade. That figure, a percentage, provides the starting point for calculation of translation grade--scope left for adjustment for progress.
  • If at any point you want to see your daily grades, ask.