Marking The Manuscript

During the run through process I encourage pastors to mark their manuscripts but I have never said too much about it. Recently, when I was preparing a sermon and doing the run-throughs I noticed all of the different marks I have come up with over the years to identify various things and how well these marks work as memory joggers as I continue the run through process. I am putting together a sample of these marks for my next class. Since I can't write free hand in this blog I will just try to describe some of these marks to you.

I underline things, put brackets around things, put boxes around words and phrases, I use arrows, I put large stars to emphasise important points, I circle things,, some times two or three circles around the same thing. I put parenthesise around things. Numbering is a very important thing,, 1,2, 3 etc. also a. b. c. etc. I use large roman numerals sometimes. I'll put a series of numbers or letters and circle them so I can see them.

The purpose of all this is to help organize the material in my mind. I think it really makes a difference, not only in the run through process, but also during the sermon when you forget something for a moment you can look down and your brain recalls that it is an item you circled or numbered and your eye goes right to it.

You can come up with your own system or markings but I believe that it is important that you do it. It will be an invaluable thing and it is definitely going to be included in my book on Process Preaching.

Meaning Makes the Difference

Alan Baddeley, the memory expert, in his book, "Human Memory" hints that there is a connection between meaning and memory. Recently when I was doing my run-throughs for an upcoming sermon I began to see that when my brain grasped the meaning of what I had written in my manuscript I was able to speak that meaning freely. It made me see again the importance of having a focus and purpose for a sermon. I think that the point that Baddeley is making in his book is that it's harder to remember things that have no meaning such as lists of numbers etc. Once there is a meaning attached to something the brain remembers it much easier. I have always said that it is difficult to preach in the extemporaneous mode if what we have written doesn't follow and make good sense. In fact, the brain will not let us make moves from one part of what we have written to another unless what we are saying logically follows and makes sense.

Perhaps this can help an extemp preacher during the run through process. If we look at a chunk that we have written and ask ourselves what am I trying to say here it might help us be able to speak it freely more quickly.