Video Transcript: Outlines for Effective Communication

All right, we're in our communication class effective communication. I'm hoping  that, that you're learning something, but not just that you're learning something.  Hopefully, you're taking what you learn and putting it into practice right away.  The more you can put what you learn into practice, the more it gets from the  paper or from this lecture into your heart. You change only by doing that just  hearing, Jesus said, it's not just hearing the word, it's actually doing the word  that makes a difference. So the same is true here. So hopefully, you're you take  what you learn, and try it out right away, try it out, and your family, your friends,  or whoever you meet your church, your business, whatever it is that you do. All  right, we're going to look at the topic of an outline. An outline is, is a way of  organizing your thoughts, whether it's going to be a verbal speech, or whether  it's going to be something that you write down an outline helps you put your  thoughts together in a way that you can communicate effectively. Understanding the outline, number one, understanding what an outline can do. And we're going  to look at three things, an outline helps the speaker stay on topic. And outline  helps the listeners stay on topic. An outline helps connect the speaker and the  listener together. And that's really what you want in communication. The person  communicating the person listening if communication, and when they gel  together, that's when you have a connection. And finally understanding how to  do an outline. So we're going to look at what an outline does, how it helps the  speaker helps the listener, connect them. But then we're going to look at well,  how does one put together an outline. So you notice, I have an outline. And the  outline is going to help us stay on track will help us do what we want to do. All  right. An outline helps the speaker stay on point. The average conversation is if  you listen, next time you're in a conversation with someone somewhere, listen to see how it goes. In other words, you're listening for the outline. And for the most  part, average conversations, follow a word association pattern. So for example,  someone says I was playing football with my friends, whether it's American  football, or the rest of the world, what we call soccer doesn't matter. I was  playing football with my friends. Now the topic from the speakers, speakers point of view, is football. But then the speaker says, my listener says My friends and I  went out to eat last night. So what the listener did is instead of hearing the word  football, they heard the word friends. I was playing football with my friends. Now  I'm thinking that the topic is football. But the person listening, listening to me  doesn't think that the topic is football, he thinks the topic is is friends. Now he  starts talking about friends. And now someone else picks up on that, and maybe they start talking about friends. And the original thought about football goes  away. And that's how a conversation often goes. You know, whenever you bring  something up, you you actually have three or four topics in the one sentence.  And the next guy picks up what he wants to talk about. And so the conversation  meanders all over the place. It doesn't follow a pattern. And an hour later, you're  talking about something totally different than where you started. An outline helps

the speaker remember what his main topic is. This is the topic I want to talk  about. And I don't want to go off on these other tangents. And the outline helps  him stay focused on what he wants to say. And outline helps the listeners stay  on point. Note. People tend to go by word association rather than logic. So you  may have an illustration for a point you are making, but your audience grabs on  to some detail in your story and goes in another direction and that's what's going to happen. So I want to talk about something specific, but I use an illustration  and then some people go off in a different direction but my my outline pulls them back in. So even though people will go in on a tangent, whether you like them or not, they will go on a tangent, your outline, helps bring them back. An outline  helps the listeners stay on point, an outline lets the listener know how each part  of the communication contributes to the whole. So if I'm talking about this, the  outline helps the person, the listener know that it's a sub point as something  bigger. I'm talking about football. And then I'm talking about getting in shape, I  want to, I want that person to know that we're not just talking about exercise,  we're talking about getting in shape from football, we're talking about the parts of football, there's the exercise, there's the practice, there's the learning the plays,  there's the teamwork. Now teamwork can go in under different direction, but I'm  talking about football. The outline lets the listener know how far along we are in  the presentation and how much is left. And people want to know that. If you're  just if you're giving a sermon, for example, and you're just talking about the  passage, then you're making an application, and then you give an illustration,  and they have no idea Are we are we halfway through this? Are we 1/3 of the  way through this? And in where exactly? Are we in this outline? Or are we are  we making progress? Are we not? People want to know whether we're making  progress. So a lot of times, I'll say something like, here's the problem that we  want to solve today. We, we want to find out, you know what God is trying to do  with Abraham and his son Isaac, as they go to Mount Moriah to, you know, God  is going to sacrifice. So we're going to talk about three things. Number one, and  then they say something. And number two, now, when I say number two, they  know exactly where they are. And when I get to number three, they know that  we've done two thirds in the way and 1/3 to go. People want to know where you  going otherwise, they feel lost. In fact, maybe you have this random talk that's  going all over the place. So I might come to you and say, Well, today I want to  talk to you. I want to talk to you about random things. random thoughts that I  have had. That's my main topic, random thoughts, that Steve Elzinga has. We're gonna talk about five of them. Here's random thought number one. And I say  something. Here's random thought number two. And I say something. And I say,  Here's random thought number three. And I say something people know, we're  over halfway now. And at the end of the whole talk, if someone asks, well, what  was his talk about? Well, it was his random thoughts. How many were there,  there were five. And people even though you have a random thing that doesn't 

hold together at all, people will think it did hold together. Why? Because each  point goes under this main heading. An outline helps connect the speaker and  the listener. Both are literally on the same page, we know where we're going.  We know where we've been we know how much there is to do. Both have a  sense of progress. Yeah, we're getting somewhere. The gap between the  speaker and the listener closes. Remember, that's our communication problem. I have something to say you're listening, but you're not hearing what I'm saying.  Or I'm not saying it clearly. Or I'm saying in a way that's confusing, or I'm saying  something and you're going off in a totally different direction. The outline helps  pull the two together. So we're gonna go back a little a little bit review, which is  good to do when you're doing speaking from an outline. Understanding the  outline, that was our main topic, under that main topic we have understanding  what an outline can do. under that heading, we have three things. And that line  helps the speaker stay on topic. And outline helps the listener stay on topic. And  outline helps connect the speaker and the listener can notice, notice what I'm  doing. I'm having the same phrase each time. That's when you know you have a good outline. You keep the same phrase, and that line helps. An outline helps  and outline helps. What are we talking about? We're talking about how an  outline helps. And there's three different ways that the outline helps somebody  to see it's it's one topic, but there's three parts to this topic. We got A, B, C  alright. But we had our number one, understanding what an outline can do. So  the the main topic was understanding the outline. Number one, understanding  what an outline can do, I want you to notice, I kept the same phrase. Number  two, understanding how to do an outline. So the first one is understanding what  an outline can do. Now, it's understanding how to do an outline those two go  together, the wording is very close to the same thing, it's just a second part, it's a sub part of the main outline. So looking at number two, understanding how to do an outline, number one, establish the purpose of the communication. This is like, this is the most neglected one of all, you need to establish what we're doing  here. So I'm coming here to speak to you, am I giving you information, my goal  is to give you a bunch of information, these are things you must know, I want to  talk to you about this historical figure, Leonardo da Vinci, who he was, where he  was born, what he ended up doing my goal today is that when you walk out of  here, you will know some stuff, I want to pass on information. Now that kind of  speech is the weakest kind of speech there is because people might not be  interested in and that's a lot of, that's what a lot of preaching is, I want to explain to you the story of the prodigal son, I want to tell you about the Father, I want to  tell you about the culture in that day. And when the son asked for the money,  you know, Dad, I want to I want my inheritance. Now he is basically telling his  father that he wished he was dead. And, you know, explaining all the different  parts of the parable and what it meant and that day, and what in how it all  applied in that day. I'm giving you information, information information, I spend 

my whole message my whole sermon giving you information. And at the last  minute, I say, and therefore we should understand how much God loves us.  Again, I'm just trying to remind you of stuff. I'm trying to tell you illustrate God's  love for you. I'm just giving you information. I'm not asking you to do anything.  I'm not trying to persuade you about anything. I'm just giving you information.  Well, sometimes it's appropriate. Or am I trying to inspire you inspire you to do  something? Or am I trying to persuade you about something? You think this but  let me tell you, that's not the way it is? Let me pursue it now. I'm Like a Lawyer.  And I'm trying to make these points. And I'm making illustrations coming up with  stories. Because I want you to move from here to over here. See, that's a more  engaging kind of speech. Or maybe I'm trying to solve a problem. Does God  really love us? How come sometimes we don't feel like God's, that God loves us and whose problem is that? sometimes we serve God works for God really hard  and long. And it feels like, like God doesn't love us. Like the older son, who felt  like he deserved God's love, but he wasn't feeling it. And the younger son who  didn't deserve it, he was getting it and he was feeling it. So how does that  relate? You talk about a problem and you try to solve that problem see now I'm  inviting everyone. Let's talk about this problem. Write out your main point from  which all other points follow. Try to use the same basic phrase for all your points. So I might talk about you know parenting parenting the parenting father. Well,  what is that? I'm just gonna explain some things to you. Is that just information  or let's say how to be a great parenting father. Okay. So now there's a little focus to it. Otherwise, it was just so general. How can I do that? I don't know. How can you do that? So you You got to pay attention. Well, let's see. Number one. How  to become a great parenting father. How about giving, give encouragement. A lot of fathers don't give their kids encouragement, Hey, good job, wonderful, hey,  you know, catch your kids doing something, right and say something, a lot of  times, it's easy to catch kids doing something wrong because a kid, they're all  learning you, your your, your kids are learning something, they're learning all  about life, they have a lot to learn. So there's always a lot of correcting and  directing and, and fault finding. That's easy. Catch them doing something right or close to right. Encourage. So now I started with this Give. So I want to keep  going with that same thing. What else can I give? How about challenge?  Challenge. So I don't want to just encourage, I want to give you challenge. I  want to challenge you to do your schoolwork early, and then you go out and play I want to challenge you to get a better report card than you have. So that's what  you do for a while what else can I give? Give? How about responsibility? All  right. So I don't want to just challenge you, I'm actually going to trust you with  some stuff. I think you're old enough to do this. And so you challenge them, but  you challenge them by giving them certain responsibilities. So you see, I start off with a big thing. Here's what I want to do. Now, how am I going to do this? Well,  I'm going to give you this, I'm gonna give this I'm gonna give that. So you write 

out your main point from which all your other points, follow. Try to use the same  basic phrase for all your points, and then you know you're on track. All right, add an introduction that provides a grabbing question or problem or reason for  someone to listen to you or communicate. Okay, I've been saying that. So I have my main point, I have the parts that make up the whole of my argument. But  how am i How am I going to start if I just start with how to become a great  parenting Father, that might not grab people's attention. So I might start out with  a story. I might start out with a story. That something that happened to me, for  example, I visited my grandson. And then I did something or I said something I  don't remember. But I did something and he said, Grandpa, you're making me  mad. You're making me angry grandpa. And my response to him was I can't  make you anything. I can't make you angry. You're choosing to react to what I  said or what I did with anger. But that's your choice. And he got even more  angry. And maybe it was too young to get that boy, but let me tell you, if a kid  can understand that, that you don't have to react in certain ways that that's your  choice. Okay, so maybe I'll start with a story like that and say, Do you have  these issues too? Do you have grandkids that ask you that? Or do you have  kids that think that you're responsible for how they're feeling about everything?  How do you communicate these kinds of things to your kids? How do you how  do you train your kids? It's so difficult. You're trying to give them this, and they  don't get it. So today we're going to talk about how to be a great parenting  father. Are you interested in see you begin with something that sort of puts a  problem out there? Or puts a suggestion or puts a possibility? It is possible that  you could become a great parenting father. I wasn't always a great parenting  father. And then I learned a few things that made all the difference. Are you  interested? I'm creating some interests. Add a conclusion that pulls your  communication together and provides a satisfying answer to your introduction.  So you know you've succeeded, you start off with a problem. Here's a Problem.  Here's a question. And then you go through several things, several points. And  at the end, you better answer that problem. You pose the problem. And at the  end, we started with this question. We started with this problem. And here's  where we're ending. Here's how we tried to solve this problem. Alright, some  bonus material reading versus outline. Jesus went to Nazareth, where He had  been brought up and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was  his custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the  Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor,  he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for  the blind, to set the oppressed free. This is the only place where we see that  Jesus read something, open the scroll, and he read what he wanted to say. But  everywhere else, Jesus is not speaking from what is read, the advantage of  reading, you're better prepared. So some people will write out their whole 

speech, write out their whole sermon, and they can take the time, they can  figure out what they really want to say. And they can write it out exactly how they want to say it. You can craft what you want to say, and just the right way, the  right words, complete sentences, illustrations, things that follow one another,  You can sort of get it exactly how you want it. You can illustrate, you can  illuminate the fluff, the stumbles are eliminated, you can eliminate the fluff, the  stumbles, and the rambling just like what I did, okay, I had stumbling, I read the  wrong word. But if you write it all nicely out, and you just read it, you can  eliminate all the, the, I'm trying to remember what I want to say, and then I tell  the joke, but I get it in the wrong order. Those are the problems when you don't  read. You can make sure you say what you want to say. All right, the  disadvantages of reading your speech or whatever it is that you're doing. You  lose eye contact with the audience. For one year, I spent a year and I wrote all  my sermons, and I stood behind the pulpit. And I had them written out exactly  how I wanted them. And they were, I liked them. They were like this, these could be in a book. And that's right, when you write, you can write in such a way that it  could be in a book. But this is what I felt like, I'm, I'm, you know, we're gonna talk about the parable of the prodigal son today. And the younger one goes to his  father, and he says, you know, and I'm, I'm reading, and I'm looking at the  people, and I'm reading and I'm looking at the people. And it's like, I have two  audiences. I have this paper that I keep looking at, like, I can't go over here,  because I have to stay with this thing. And this thing is actually where my focus  really is. And I don't have time to look at people. Whereas when I'm free from  that, I can I can stand and I can just talk and I can look at people. So you lose  eye contact with the audience, you lose interaction with the audience. Because  you're tied to this thing that was written. I have to keep looking at the next  sentence. I haven't. I don't have the whole thing memorized. I don't I don't know  exactly what's coming next. I'm not following my own thoughts. Because I don't  have to. I just have to follow the words. You lose the potential, and the potential  ad libbing that that makes speaking in art form. Because I am tied to this. I can't  just go off and start talking because if I do, I'll go somewhere and then I won't  know how to get back. And so I tend to stick with what I wrote. Most people  cannot read well. And that's the truth. Most people when they start reading, you  can tell that they're reading. They don't pause dramatically. Because the words  are right there and you just keep reading the words read the whole sentence we  get to the end you read the next sentence. But in real speech, we don't do that.  We stop we think we say something. And then we dramatically say something  else, that the emotion of the moment dictates how we are going to say things  and the words that we come up with, but when it's written, we tend to just go  from one to the next, now really good actors, they can read in such a way that  that you feel like they're acting. But most of us can't do that we're just going to  plow through. That's why when people read the Bible, it's kind of boring, 

because they just plow through it. They get into a pattern, and it doesn't matter  what they're reading, they don't get excited when it's the exciting part. They don't get soft, when it's the soft part. They just have a certain pattern that they employ when they read and people get bored easily with the advantages of notes. You  can prepare, know, when you have notes, when you have an outline, like we  talked about? You prepared, you know what you want to do? It's logical. But you  have contact your eye contact with your audience, you can interact with them,  you can feel what's going on? Are they listening to me, you're one of the hardest things that here at CLI, I'm trying to do this particular message to you. Because I can't see you. You can see me, you can feel the energy or emotion that I have or I don't have, I can't see you, I see little black thing with a little lens that moves  around and follows me. But I don't see you smile, I don't see you laugh. I don't  see you fall asleep. And so you know, I'm talking to myself, which I do quite a bit. So it works out pretty good. This presentation be way more lively. And more  interesting. If I can see you, I can see whether you're understanding what I'm  saying. So when I'm stuck reading, I'm stuck over here, I would rather be  focused on what's going on over here. I'm trying to say these things. But I don't  know if it's connecting or not. Some interacting with you. You're more likely to  respond to the reaction of your audience and to your message. When you can  see your audience. And when you're talking and you're looking right at them.  You have a better chance of being more alive, emotional and passionate about  what you're saying. Alright, the disadvantage of notes. You may not say things,  clearly, you may forget important things. You know, you had this sermon, you  had this thing illustration, and then you forgot all about it. Transitions may not  come off as well as you hoped. You might start rambling, okay, that's the the  downside of not writing is you can ramble on you say it like five times, like we  got the point move on. But just keep talking. Optimize both. So I'm suggesting  here that you can, you can take advantage of both there is reading and writing  the whole thing out, and the disadvantages of that. And then there's keeping  notes making a great outline and doing that. And they both have their  advantages, and why not use both speak from notes. Okay, that's what I'm  suggesting. And for some of you, this is going to be difficult because you like to  write everything else down, or some of you are going well, you know, I'm going  to write it out first. And then I'm going to speak from notes. No, you won't. Once  you put the effort into writing it down, you're going to fall in love with what you  write is love how I said it that way. And I don't want to take the chance of in the  end up reading. Write out some notes, okay, speak from notes, and write out  quotes and small portions of what you might say, if you want it done in a specific manner. So I'm saying do a little bit of both use notes for the general the whole  outline. And then there might be specific things that you read. But do this  knowing that whenever you read you run the chance of boring people. Because  once you go into read mode, some people go into sleep mode. Because when 

you tell us so you know when I tell a story, you know it I've written it out. It's  really good. I want to read it. But I've forced myself to not. The story actually will  be better if I read it. It makes more sense. I'll keep it together it'll be tight. I use  the right words is wonderful. I will gain that but I will lose the connection. And so  what I tend to do is I look at it I try to get it down and Then I just live with what I  do and usually what I do might be something less than was written but it's more  powerful because I'm looking right at people and interacting with them