Talk:Ronald Syme
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[edit] Schools
I don't know if this is a mistake or not: it currently reads that Syme attended the School of Lit. Hum. Is that a very old-fashioned expression, or was it written by somebody not familiar with Oxonian terminology? A School at Oxford is your course of study and more specifically the set of examinations taken at the end of that course (today "Finals" is taking over in common usage, but traditionalists and a slightly older generation say "Schools"). Thus one might say, "John got an Upper-second in Schools". However, I assume that what Syme read was actually Greats. It might be better to say, "Syme then went up to Oriel, where he took a First in Greats", or "He read for the Final Honour School of Lit. Hum." (if they called them Final Honour Schools in those days). But as I said, I shan't change it because maybe back in Syme's day this was actually an expression, e.g. "John's at Oxford attending the School of Modern History"; "Jane attended the English School". However, it does rather sound like the original writer imagined that there was a department at Oxford called the "School of Lit. Hum.", rather like other universities might have a School, Department, or Faculty of Classics etc. In modern usage, one reads a School or takes a School, but I've never heard of attending a School.--Oxonian2006 10:50, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
Seems to me that the classics faculty now refers to itself as 'Classics' rather than 'Lit Hum' as it did in my day. A couple of questions: a) I thought Greats was informal rather than the actual name of the degree? b) What does the grey book now say?. 84.9.161.17 16:05, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
- Ah, well it may be that they do call themselves Classics, but when this year's results were posted at the Exam Schools I'm pretty sure the list said "Literae Humaniores", together with "Final Honour School" or "Second Public Examination". The main point is, was it ever correct to say that somebody attended the School that he or she read? If somebody asked, "What did you read at university?", would it be correct to reply, "I attended the Honour School of XYZ"? I don't think so. You would say, "I read..." or "I took..." or "I sat..." "...the Honour School of XYZ". (Or even just, "I did XYZ"). So I was checking whether the article should be changed in this respect.--Oxonian2006 16:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
I changed the opening line from "the preeminent classicist of the 20th century" to "an eminent classicist of the 20th century." Syme was certainly one of the most notable classicists of the last century, but the preeminent? Fraenkel, Housman, Page, Shackleton Bailey, Charles Segal, Roger Mynors, and many others come to mind. Perhaps "the preeminent New Zealand classicist of the 20th century" would be better.--Cassian 15:20, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
