Description
The word progymnasmata refers to an ancient Greek curriculum of 14 pre-rhetorical exercises that were used to prepare students for the work of rhetoric from antiquity to the Renaissance. The exercises started with easier short tasks such as writing a fable and narrative and built up to complex compositions such as proposing or opposing a law. Working in sequence, each exercise builds upon the skills acquired from the previous one. In the past few decades, a trend has emerged with numerous scholars calling for new ways to use the progymnasmata exercises for inspiration for modern curricula. Drawing from the renewed interested in the progymnasmata , my project has three goals: to trace textual evidence of the exercises historically, establishing their pedagogical importance and longevity; to review recent scholarship regarding the progymnasmata; and, finally, to offer an interpretation of the exercises for teaching college-level professional writing.
