Task 2: Record Initial Observations and Questions
Essence of the Task
To record, in an appropriately structured system, the observations and questions you have as you begin and continue your repeated panoramic reading.
Detailed Description
It is important to get as much benefit as possible from the repeated panoramic reading you have started. In fact, one of the habits that is extremely important to perfect – when working on any aspect of your study of scripture – is that of actually closing out a task, to not leave things half-done in a way that’s going to force you to lose time a few days from now revisiting something you didn’t adequately finish. The point of this task is to take the time to develop a note storage system that will make it easier for you to access your reflections later when you need them.
What components might a useful system have?
- It holds all your reflections.
- It organizes them in a logical way.
- It allows easy access for later use.
The great danger of writing down your thoughts while reading is that those notes will not be useful to you in the end. Or that they will only be useful after some later great effort is made to go back over it all to find what may be of value for a particular lesson.
How can this be avoided?
Of course, almost any computerized system offers the option of searching. But this is not an optimal solution, since you first have to remember to do the search, then remember what you wanted to look for, and finally, take the time to incorporate what you find into the outline you’re preparing.It would be ideal if all this were more or less established from the outset.
I suggest that you set up – beforehand – a simple system that you will later «auto-complete» with useful and quickly usable content. (It may take a little more effort the first time, but with each series it will become easier).
- Make a folder for the book to be studied. (Details for digital and analog systems are elsewhere on our website, in Spanish).
- Create a document for each major section. For a series, these sections are generally of two kinds. (A) Thematic – for the book as a whole. (B) Canonical – for each pericope you are going to teach or preach.
- In the thematic folder create documents for the following sections.
- Author. Date. Origin. Audience. Situation. Theology. Structure. Major themes. Difficulties (Essentially, «the basic issues of the original context in which [the writing] emerged» [Blomberg & Kamell, p. 21]).
- For each document or major thematic section, leave a space in the most visible area of the document for the «draft» of your Section Summary. Here you will be polishing a paragraph or two that represents your working «conclusion». This will serve as your «repeated future use» content for this particular topic.
- Then, below that first area, leave a space for your questions and observations. This section will be less structured – but will end up serving as an area for developing and transitioning your thoughts as you read and, later, the notes you take about your research in Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, introductions, and commentaries.
Periodically, as you go through your initial study, go back over what you have tentatively written in the first area – the «Draft» area – and update the summary you have written to incorporate your latest findings or research.
We will discuss the «Canonical» folder when we discuss Advance Preparation, Task 6. At that point you will have distributed the pericopes or teaching portions for your series, and those will be the basis for the structure of your documents in this folder.
To Do
Like yesterday, today’s task also has two parts: (1) Develop a system for storing notes and (2) Start collecting observations and questions in that system.
- Spend a few minutes creating the folders and documents you will use. If your system is going to be primarily digital, consider the ideas in the tutorial on this task (Spanish only). If your system is going to be primarily traditional, consider the ideas in the «Traditional Example.»
- The best thing you can do to make your new system work for you is to start using it. Start reading (according to the plan you set up in the previous task) and try to record at least a few observations and questions in one of the documents you have created.
To keep in mind
It is better to have a «grade B» system that you actually use than a «grade A» system that you don’t use, or that you still need to finish designing. I know from my own experience that some of us can spend an inordinate amount of time testing first one system and then another. If the one I suggest here doesn’t quite convince you, but you don’t yet have another one in mind, before doing nothing, try this one! There will be time to improve it or replace it if you get inspiration for your ideal plan. Until then, «better a bird in the hand…»
Don’t forget to cite your sources. Whenever you pick up something from someone else, be sure to write down the bibliographic information. Then, if it appears in your presentation, you will have the reference handy for dropping in a footnote or making a verbal reference. It’s a little more work, but this is a matter of integrity.