Schematizing Prose

AVGVSTA

Active Member

Location:
Quantum superposition between future and antiquity
Hi all
I used to be very reliant on schematizing, but also very efficient when I use it to help me reading. One of my Latin teachers last year convinced me not to schematize/diagram when reading prose. That wasn't a problem since we were doing poetry except for a term where I read Petronius with tons of glossing/annotation. I'm in a new school now, and I'm trying to avoid schematizing prose. I was doing great when we read Caesar last term and when I read Seneca excerpts with commentary. Problem is, I'm in a Cicero class this term and though I thought I improved, I felt so helpless reading some of his periods without marking up. Should I go back to schematizing? Is it a mortal sin to diagram prose?
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

  • Civis Illustris

I used to do it when I was in school but I don't think I've even been tempted to for years. Normally when I can't read a sentence it's because I don't know some of the vocab or the context.

I think if you read a sentence first in a normal way and can't understand the logical sequence, it can't hurt... maybe try doing it in an unobtrusive way, eg. with a few brackets but not a really elaborate diagram. But also it often happens that if you read the sentence two or three times it suddenly clicks, without needing to diagram it.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
While the ideal situation is, of course, being able to read fluently, if you find yourself stuck with a sentence, I guess whatever helps you to figure it out can't be a sin. So, if this diagram thing works for you in such cases, why not? Hopefully you'll need it less and less often with practice.
 

AVGVSTA

Active Member

Location:
Quantum superposition between future and antiquity
Thanks! Honestly, sometimes I'd get the sentence if I read it through once more. I'll try to diagram unobtrusively when necessary. I was trained to diagram every single word; honestly most of that doesn't help the understanding, now it's just a bad coping mechanism for insecurity...
 
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