Modern Versus Classical Writing

November 9^th, 2002

Back to Classical Christian Homeschooling Newsletter page

The most frustrating issue to a genuine classical homeschooler is the lack of any writing curriculum in existence, sufficiently in line with the classical methods we see advocated by Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian.

Classical writing should be rooted in Classical Rhetoric as codified by Aristotle and later refined by the Romans. Rhetoric consists of 5 canons invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. The latter two canons address the art of public speaking; the first three canons are relevant for both writers and speakers.

Most modern writing teaches outlining [Arrangement] and a little bit of style. That in itself makes it clear that modern writing at large is seriously lacking in the full spectrum of classical features. The canon of invention [content, thinking up arguments] is missing, which is typical of post 19th century writing pedagogy.

There are a few curricula on the classical school and homeschool market these days which attempt some basic imitation of good writing in teaching students composition. The imitation feature is an important feature in writing, but a simple outline of a passage followed by a student rewrite nowhere near rivals the rigor and complexity of the process of compositions classical style; it is ONLY a very meager start.

Most modern writing programs are not so concerned with content as they with just getting the students writing. As a result those writing programs do not spend any time addressing which sorts of subjects children should write about. This should raise a major red flag with classical homeschoolers. Content is vital. What could be more important than what we let our minds dwell on and write about? Content is not just something we wave away because we are so happy that Junior is finally writing. If he were to write on subjects ignoble and sinful, we would rather that Junior remain illiterate, would we not? If he were to write on subjects of no consequence, he would be wasting his time at best.

Secondly in modern language arts education, grammar is a measuring stick for correctness. Rarely do students get to analyze complex literary pieces for their subjects, verbs and modifiers. Modern writing teachers are mostly concerned with **use** of language, not details of its structure nor technical terms. That should be a second red flag to a classical homeschooler. Grammar is so much more than a measuring stick to correctness of speech; it is the gateway to better writing, a key tool in analysis of great literature. After proper grammatical analysis of a marvelous piece of literature, the door is open for our students to imitate this writing and let their own writing soar above what they would otherwise be able to produce.

Writing with style is much more than just inserting an adverb or adjective here or there or making sure that each sentence opens with a different part of speech or clause. Without proper judgment in proper use of style, which comes from analyzing much literature, the student's insertion of adverbs, adjectives and clauses can become quite stinted and awkward and perhaps the student might be better off inserting little style, rather than inserting a lot of style inappropriately.

Modern writing also fails to address and analyze figures of speech or other the technical grammatical details of style. A rigorous course in grammar, which in turn is addressed in the student’s literature analysis and used in the student’s writing, will make those style phrases, clauses and syntactical possibilities familiar to the student in their proper grammatical-rhetorical light. When properly understood in their grammatical-rhetorical "totality", many figures of speech are easier to remember and use appropriately.

One of the keys to proper classical writing can be found in the Jesuit Ratio, [derived from the Greeks and the Romans] which advocates detailed analysis and imitation of great writing.

Rather than just outline a passage and then rewrite it with a little bit o f awkward style added, the Jesuits choose writing by the very best writers, such as Cicero [in English probably a Shakespeare/Chaucer/Jane

Austen/Charles Dickens/Edmund Burke would do]. Secondly, the student would have to TEAR APART every last dot and tittle of that prose or poetry passage, not just outline it. This would include using grammar, logic and rhetoric to understand every last syllable of the passage, it would include finding in the passage every type and occurrence of rhetorical invention [where and how and why does the author make use of definition, comparison, cause effect, etc]. It would include analyzing choices of tenses and persons, mood in verbs, choice of nouns and modifiers, clauses and phrases, types of sentence structure, form and function, AND understanding paragraph arrangement [outlining, précis, abstract, summary, paraphrase] as well as learning the reasons for those division. On a style level it would include analyzing the author's chosen components: choice of word level, use of figurative language, differentiation between tropes and schemes, identifying appeals to ethos, pathos and logos, etc.

By the time the student was done with analysis of the passage, he would KNOW WHY the writer chose to insert a series of short sentences here there, why he used a prepositional opener there, why he made use of anadiplosis here and ALSO why the author didn't use the passive verb form in his passage.

Only when that complete rhetorical analysis was done, would the student of the Ratio begin his own imitation. In his imitation he would DECIDE how to imitate the passage, in what manner to imitate the passage... words, sentences, paragraphs?? Keep this aspect, drop this aspect?? etc. His imitation would be based in a thorough analysis of the model which then would aid him in the decision of which style/decoration components would best fit his audience, his chosen style as well as the force with which he would want to deliver his message. In his imitation work he would do several writing projects. He would do both a précis of the passage, a paraphrase of the passage, poetry-to-prose, or prose-to-poetry, chose different progymnasmata [Greek writing exercises] types of projects etc. The point here, assuming we're imitating an excellent piece of writing, is that rather than doing a lot of imitations on a lot of passages, to only choose a few very excellent passages which teach the rhetorical concepts we want the students to know and then let the students wrestle with that one familiar passage a whole lot. The aim in developing one's own style [according to the Ratio] is to know a few outstanding models inside out, not to brush over a lot of literary models a little bit.

What I am trying to get at is this, that there is so much more to writing than modern writing methods purport. For all that correct writing is a good start, it is lacking in depth because it ignores the canon of invention. This shows up especially in the areas of lack proper attention to the quality of the materials which are imitated, lack of attention to the topics of rhetorical invention of the passage, lack of attention to the depth of the arrangement of the composition [which is so much deeper and more detailed than mere outlining], lack of attention to the rationale of the arrangement, and finally lack of attention to the appropriate issues of judgment in style in the passage.

We need to teach our students first of all to write with virtue and judgment with regards to God's Truth and secondly to write with proper arrangement and a style which fits the message and its audience as well as the intended force of same. Our aim is writing with truth and grace. If we want to teach writing properly, if we want our students to develop a style which is accompanied with judgment as well as appropriate attention to subject, audience and intended force, we cannot avoid careful analysis and attention to all three Trivium arts - Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric and furthermore complete attention to the three canons of rhetoric which are instrumental in writing education – invention, arrangement and style.

Lene Mahler Jaqua, Co-Author of Classical Writing - Aesop

Email: -mailto:MikeJaqua@worldnet.att.net