Last updated: September 2, 2021

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Classics Program at BGSU
Studies in Latin at BGSU
Department of World Languages and Cultures
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Bowling Green State University


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          stylus


LAT 3510: Prose Composition

12:30-1:20 Thursdays
online

Instructor:

James M. Pfundstein, Ph.D.
Shatzel 222
phone: 419-372-8278
e-mail: jmpfund@bgsu.edu
office hours: Tues. 12:30-1:20 online, or by appointment
web page: http://blogs.bgsu.edu/pfundblog/
facebook: james.enge
twitter: jamesenge
Texts:

North & Hillard, Latin Prose Composition (8th edition; Rivingtons, 1913)
https://archive.org/details/north-m.-hilladr-a.-latin-prose-composition-1913/page/n1/mode/2up
A satisfactory Latin dictionary. (See links for some electronic options.)

A satisfactory Latin grammar (see below for an electronic option or two.)

Online Resources:
I strongly recommend Alpheios, an app which can turn any online edition into a hypertext like those at the Perseus Project.
https://alpheios.net
The Perseus Project isn't obsolete yet: it also has a vast amount of useful resources for the Latinist; hypertexts and translations of Latin and Greek authors, Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar, and a searchable edition of Lewis & Short, the best one-volume Latin dictionary.

But you can have an electronic version of Lewis and Short for your own use. It's part of the database of Diogenes, a freeware application for searching the TLG and PHI disks. If you don't know what those are, don't worry about it. The upshot is that you can use Diogenes as a standalone dictionary program (by far the best one out there for Latin or for Greek: the complete dataset of LSJ is included as well), and as a parsing program. The most recent iteration has a web-based version that works with mobile devices.
https://d.iogen.es/d/download.html
The Latin Library, as noted above, has free plain-text editions of a lot of Latin literature.
Versions of WORDS, a venerable if somewhat creaky freeware program that parses and briefly defines Latin words, can be downloaded (for Mac OS X, for Windows of various flavors, DOS, LINUX and OS/2) can be downloaded from various sites, but the best site seems to be this one. If the link doesn't work, just search around: it's archived a few places on the internet.
https://mk270.github.io/whitakers-words/
An online version is available at Notre Dame (and a few other places).

http://archives.nd.edu/words.html

The National Latin Exam has an online app that generates quizzes at differing lengths and differing levels of difficulty.
http://quiz.nle.org
Adrian Packel has written couple of great iOS apps for classicists: Grammaticus and Protagoras.
Grammaticus collects in searchable e-form a number of classical grammars, including Allen and Greenough's classic "New" Latin Grammar (first published in the late 19th C.) An oldie, now, but still a goodie.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grammaticus/id517244087
Protagoras collects in searchable e-form six Latin and Greek dictionaries, including Lewis & Short, still one of the best Latin-English dictionaries.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/protagoras-classics-lexica/id1116707290
His latest effort is Bellerophon, with hypertexts of a lot of commonly read texts in Latin (and Greek, and even Old English). It promises to be a very effective way to read these texts on the go (if you have an iPhone or iPad; I'm not sure if these have been ported to Android, or ever will be).
 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bellerophon/id1508038196
There are increasing numbers of for-pay options for mobile platforms (iOS and Android). I'm not inclined to link to these, but if you want to have a conversation about the ups and downs of them, feel free to raise the question in or out of class.

Grading:



weekly homework
 vocabulary and English/Latin translation
50%
weekly attendance
Latin to English/English to Latin translation

50%


THE FINE PRINT:

No makeups given due to absence without prior arrangement with the instructor.
No one can pass the course without taking and passing the final examination.
No incompletes issued except for pressing reasons and by prior arrangement with the instructor.
"It gets funky when you got a subject and a predicate."--Ice Cube
The instructor reserves the right to recognize significant improvement or decline in student performance when awarding final grades.
The maximum amount of extra credit which may count towards the final grade = 5% of the total course points.
The syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor; changes will be announced in class and posted on-line.





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