Principal Ideas Emphasized

AN EFFECTIVE reader looks beyond the individual sentence, even beyond the paragraph in which it appears. When he reads, he has in mind the principal ideas in the entire body of material that he is presenting. This influences his placement of emphasis.

If this process is not followed, there will be no peaks in the delivery. Nothing will stand out clearly. When the presentation is concluded, it may be difficult to remember anything as being outstanding.

Proper attention to the emphasizing of principal ideas can often do much to enhance the reading of an account from the Bible. Such emphasis can impart added significance to the reading of paragraphs at a home Bible study or at a congregation meeting. And it is especially important when giving a discourse from a manuscript, as is sometimes done at our conventions.

How to Do It. In the school, you may be assigned to read a portion of the Bible. What should be emphasized? If there is some central idea or important event around which the material that you will be reading has been developed, it would be appropriate to make it stand out.

Whether the portion you are to read is poetry or prose, proverb or narrative, your audience will benefit if you read it well. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) To do this you must take into account both the passages that you are going to read and your audience.

If you are to read aloud from a publication at a Bible study or at a congregation meeting, what are the principal ideas that you need to emphasize? Treat the answers to the printed study questions as the principal ideas. Also emphasize thoughts that relate to the boldface subheading under which the material appears.

It is not recommended that you make a practice of using a manuscript for talks given in the congregation. On occasion, however, manuscripts are provided for certain convention discourses so that the same thoughts will be presented in the same way at all the conventions. In order to emphasize the principal ideas in such a manuscript, the speaker must first analyze the material carefully. What are the main points? He should be able to recognize these. The main points are not simply ideas that he feels are interesting. They are the key thoughts around which the material itself is developed. Sometimes a concise statement of a principal idea in the manuscript introduces a narrative or a line of argument. More often, a strong statement is made after the supporting evidence has been presented. When these key points have been identified, the speaker should mark them in his manuscript. There usually are only a few, probably not more than four or five. Next, he needs to practice reading in such a way that the audience can readily identify them. These are the peaks of the talk. If the material is delivered with proper emphasis, these principal ideas are more likely to be remembered. That should be the speaker’s goal.

There are various ways in which a speaker can convey the emphasis needed to help the audience identify the main points. He might use heightened enthusiasm, a change of pace, depth of feeling, or appropriate gestures, to mention a few.