May 01, 2014
Retention
A method for
old-school preachers in presenting their message is to, “tell your audience
what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told
them.” Supposedly the reinforcement helps the listener retain the message; however,
it occurs to me this pattern of speaking is unique to the church. If this same
methodology were used in writing for publication the article would be rejected
by editors, publishers and readers alike. Readers would feel they were being
talked “down to” if the point of the article or book was restated three times. Certainly
the hearing audience can’t go back and re-hear the message like a reader might
re-read for clarification, but I’m wondering if the thrice telling of the point
of the sermon leaves me tuning out part of the message.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----OK. Now what do I do? I don’t know where I first heard that “tell them what you’re going to tell, then tell, then tell what you told” thing. Since I went to Bible college in my early twenties, and since you attribute this to an old-school preacher thing, and since my early twenties are pretty darned old-school by now, maybe I first heard it there. But I always thought I was going to have to learn the trick, because I thought it was standard practice. Now this goes to show you how very few news articles I read from beginning to end. I never noticed nobody was doing it.
-----I wasn’t born apt for subtleties. When I was twelve I did something stupid (again.) My brother’s friend was a fiend with wise-cracks. He immediately told me I took the cake. I thought he meant I was outstanding, like I won a prize or something. I don’t really feel dumb over that event, even though it took me a few years to figure it right. But I did learn from this a healthy respect for what influence a frame of mind will have upon any perceptions formed within it.
-----I too pondered the “bore” aspect of “tell them, tell them, and tell them.” Even more challenging was the point I learned about street-corner preaching. People drop by and leave all the time through such a sermon, so I was told anyway (God forbid that I ever try it, I hope.) Since most people would hear only snippets of the sermon its message must be completed over and over and over during the sermon. Then whatever snippet was heard would have the complete message within it. I reasoned that to avoid boring the last of everybody away, each snippet of message would have to be told from a different frame of reference with its own nuance offered which might add something to the rest of the snippets. Surely, I figured, this should also apply to the “tell, tell, tell” thing.
-----Even though I have not yet committed to telling thrice, I do try to frame my readers minds, supply the ideas I think fit that frame, then suggest either a connection or an action about it. “Tell, tell, tell” is a bit insinuatingly demeaning. But packaging a set of ideas into a handy tote bag does require some kind of pre-recognition and post-recognition of what just got put in there.
-----I’m glad to hear, maybe, that I don’t need to noodle the “tell, tell, tell” thing much anymore. But I smell something good cooking up in the “pre-recognition, post-recognition, handy bag” thing. It’s like “introduction, body, and summary.“ Seems I’ve heard that somewhere before. I’m going to keep working on it.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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