Speakers and writers often say something like this: “My sermon has three points” or “I’d like to share four things.”
This book taught me not to do that:
Wayne McDill. 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching. 2nd ed. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006.
I took my first homiletics courses in college in the 1999–2000 school year, and the first edition of this book was one of my main textbooks.
That book has served me well over the last fifteen years. It taught me to use language precisely.
Below is one example that has stuck with me. McDill is giving advice about how to craft sermon divisions, but his advice applies to far more than just preaching. It applies to writing and to communication in general:
There are almost an unlimited number of terms you can use as key words [in sermon division statements]. Note that Appendix D provides a comprehensive list of possible key words. But some words should not be used.
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- Do not use things as a key word. It is too broad and nebulous to be useful.
- Neither should you use points as a key word for the same reason.
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Remember, the key word is simply a device to identify the nature of your sermon divisions as they emerge from the writer’s treatment of his subject. (pp. 111–12, numbering and formatting added)
So instead of saying that the apostle Paul “makes three points,” say, “gives three reasons” or “shows three ways” or whatever. The craft of communicating with speech and writing requires words, so if that’s your craft, you’ll want to develop your ability to use words well.
McDill lists 261 words that communicate more clearly that the ambiguous words “points” and “things” (“Appendix D: Sample Key Words,” pp. 295–96, numbering added):
- abuses
- accusations
- acts
- actions
- actualities
- admonitions
- advantages
- affairs
- affirmations
- agreements
- aims
- alternatives
- angles
- answers
- applications
- approaches
- areas
- arguments
- articles
- aspects
- aspirations
- assertions
- assumptions
- assurances
- attainments
- attitudes
- attributes
- barriers
- beginnings
- beliefs
- benefits
- burdens
- calls
- causes
- certainties
- challenges
- changes
- charges
- claims
- clues
- commands
- commitments
- comparisons
- compensations
- compromises
- compulsions
- conceptions
- concessions
- conclusions
- conditions
- consequences
- contrasts
- corrections
- credentials
- criteria
- criticisms
- customs
- dangers
- decisions
- declarations
- defenses
- deficiencies
- definitions
- degrees
- demands
- denials
- destinies
- details
- devices
- differences
- directions
- directives
- disciplines
- disclosures
- discoveries
- distinctions
- doctrines
- duties
- elements
- encouragements
- essentials
- estimates
- events
- evidences
- evils
- examples
- exchanges
- exclamations
- exhortations
- expectations
- experiences
- expressions
- facets
- factors
- facts
- failures
- faults
- favors
- fears
- features
- finalities
- forces
- functions
- fundamentals
- gains
- generalizations
- gifts
- goals
- graces
- groups
- guarantees
- habits
- handicaps
- hindrances
- hopes
- hungers
- ideals
- ideas
- illustrations
- imperatives
- implications
- impressions
- improvements
- impulses
- incentives
- incidents
- indictments
- inferences
- injunctions
- insights
- inspirations
- instances
- instruction
- instruments
- intimations
- invitations
- issues
- items
- joys
- judgments
- justifications
- keys
- kinds
- laws
- lessons
- levels
- liabilities
- limits
- lists
- losses
- loyalties
- manifestations
- marks
- means
- measures
- methods
- mistakes
- moments
- motives
- movements
- mysteries
- names
- necessities
- needs
- notions
- objections
- objectives
- observations
- obstacles
- occasions
- offers
- omissions
- opinions
- opportunities
- paradoxes
- particulars
- parts
- peculiarities
- penalties
- perils
- periods
- phases
- phrases
- pledges
- points
- possibilities
- practices
- premises
- prerogatives
- principles
- priorities
- probabilities
- problems
- processes
- promises
- promptings
- pronouncements
- proofs
- prophecies
- propositions
- provisions
- qualifications
- qualities
- questions
- realities
- realizations
- reasons
- reflections
- refusals
- remarks
- remedies
- reminders
- requirements
- reservations
- resources
- responses
- restraints
- results
- revelations
- rewards
- risks
- routes
- rules
- safeguards
- satisfactions
- secrets
- sins
- sources
- specifications
- statements
- steps
- stipulations
- successes
- suggestions
- superlatives
- suppositions
- surprises
- symptoms
- teachings
- tendencies
- testimonies
- tests
- thoughts
- threats
- topics
- totalities
- truths
- undertakings
- urges
- uses
- values
- views
- violations
- virtues
- voices
- warnings
- ways
- weaknesses
- wishes
- words
- wrongs
If “points” is an ambiguous term, why is it included in the list of acceptable less-ambiguous terms?
Good question. My guess is that it’s a typo.
This is helpful. Thx Andy!
I’m guilty of this! But I find the list of 250 other terms to use instead as being very helpful!
One of Arthur Plotnik’s passions is getting communicators’ words to do justice to their ideas. I enjoyed reading Plotnik’s book Elements of Expression this past year.
Here are some relevant quotations from the book:
“We feel like babies, unable to express the nuances of pleasure and discontent. And babies hate that feeling.”
“Reacting to life’s nongeneric stimuli, however, we find ourselves grossly unprepared. So many thoughts and passions stampede inside us, as mad for release as the bulls of Pamplona. But open the gates and see how our puny words scatter, overwhelmed and impotent. We gasp for the telling language and we choke. We rant. We go mute. We claim linguistic Fifth Amendments: ‘Words fail me.’ ‘It defies description.’ We buy sympathy cards the size oftombstones just to say, ‘WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS…'”
“Unable to express the nuances of experience, we fall back on generic language in ways that mock our humanity.”
“The more complex our experience, the more we long to unravel it in words.”
“With no more than eighteen thousand different words, Shakespeare’s writings have stimulated the Western world for four centuries; the average American commands some twenty thousand words and about four minutes of attention.”
Yes! thanks for this list, every time I preach one of the hardest parts of the sermon prep is finding terms to use instead of “things” or “points.” This list is awesome.
Yup, those are all good points.
[cough]
To the comment about the word “points” as the subject and in the word list, I the think the word is a powerful descriptive word when organizing a sermon. The problem is being over used. If I use this other other, I see no reason why the word points cannot be used sparingly.
I rarely comment on things, but I really find this article helpful.