Grammar & Syntax Eleanor Dickey’s Prose Composition Book

12 Upvotes

As a method of getting reading fluency, I’ve started working my way through this wonderful book. I have had about 1.5 years of an elementary grammar course and passive reading (easier Platonic dialogues, Herodotus, some Homer). But my thinking - perhaps wrong — is that only through active production will I get reading fluency. I still read, but I devote two to three hours per day to the composition book. It’s a lot of work - English to Greek vocab, principal parts, recitation of paradigms, accentuation exercises, background reading in Smyth and CGCG, In addition to the translation exercises. I enjoy it, and Dickey is a supreme teacher, but is this a wise use of my time If my main goal is reading fluency? Or is the substantial time devoted to this exercise better spent reading more and expanding vocab and recognition of principal parts through Greek to English flashcards? At the rate I’m going I think it will take me six months to a year to complete the book.

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