In my award-winning book Write Like a Champion, I explain several common types of writing tasks: how-to, persuasive, definition, etc. In a “definition” paper, you seek to define a term. That came to mind while recently listening to a podcast by master communicator Chuck Swindoll. Few people are great at public speaking, few people are great at writing, and Swindoll is one of the even fewer who is a genius at both. This episode was so excellent and so chock-full of communicative “teachable moments,” I want to share it with you here.
These lessons are equally useful and applicable to either writing or public speaking. Feel free to use them liberally!
I have been consuming Swindoll’s outstanding content–both spoken and written–since at least the early 1980s, and am far the better for it. This is one reason why I chose to include some excerpts of Swindoll’s masterful writing in Write Like a Champion.
This podcast is the first part of a sermon he entitled “Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People.” A sermon is a kind of religious speech where the teacher seeks to communicate a kind of religious or spiritual truth, usually from the Bible or another sacred text. The Bible is a very long book and thus much of it is very obscure, even to Christians. However, this message is from Matthew 7:6-12, one of the most famous passages of the Bible.
You can listen to it in its entirety here. Here are a few guided questions.
1. Ponder the title, “Pearls, Pigs, Prayers, and People.” What literary device is Swindoll using?
2. How often do you hear or see the words “pearls” and “pigs” in the same sentence? Does his title make you want to hear more what he has to say?
3. The podcast host introduces the message and speaker at timestamp 3:09. What literary technique does Swindoll use in the first sentence as his “hook” to start?
4. How does he continue his hook in his second sentence?
5. Good communicators try to engage all five senses of the reader or listener. How does Swindoll do this at 3:25?
6. Normally, we are to avoid redundancy. In his introduction, however, what two words does Swindoll repeat five times? To what effect?
7. Starting at 3:51, what technique does Swindoll use over and over? Why?
(Note: an oncologist is a cancer doctor.)
8. For speakers, be careful to pronounce each word clearly, including the final syllable. Starting at 4:30, how does Swindoll pronounce the words “word,” “it,” “innocent”?
9. What device/technique does Swindoll use at 5:50?
10. Between 3:50 and 6:22, he uses focuses on six kinds of people and six crucial words. Fill in the chart below:
| Example | The kind of person involved | The word/s in question |
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. | ||
| 4. | ||
| 5. | ||
| 6. |
11. At 6:22, (and again at 8:47 and 9:00) what literary device does Swindoll employ?
12. How does Swindoll transition his message around 7:00?
13. I think we all agree, a main point of his message is the power of words. Why do you think Swindoll did not choose to use this as his entire hook?
“Words are very important, even a single word. A single word can build you up or tear you down. There are a lot of important words in the Bible. Today we will study some of those important words.”
14. What is your main “take-away” from today’s lesson?
15. Closing thought: Personification is a literary device that gives human traits to non-human items, such as “The flowers of the field were smiling.” In this case, however, Jesus is using a kind of “reverse-personification” by comparing some kinds of people to dogs or pigs. This reminds me of a brief conversation I had with a friend and neighbor some years ago. I was riding my bike home after a day teaching in our local high school. My friend was thanking me for my efforts to help the young people and wanted to support me. Commenting on his perceived difficulties being a teacher in a public high school in modern-day America, he spoke some of the truest words I have ever heard: “It’s hard to help people who don’t want to be helped.”
We are THANKFUL to be blessed with countess students at DreyerCoaching who DO want to be helped and are eager to learn! Plus, the fact that you, dear reader, have stayed with this blog post to end tells me YOU are eager to learn too!