CHECK.
CHECK YOUR IMPRESSION.
CHECK YOUR TAKE-AWAY.
Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary definition of "takeaway": "a main message or piece of information that you learn from something you hear OR READ." The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says, "a CONCLUSION to be made based on presented facts or information : a main point or key message to be learned or UNDERSTOOD from something experienced OR OBSERVED." I might ask you, "So, what UNDERSTANDING have you DERIVED FROM what you've seen here?" Here are examples of it used in sentences: - "What's the key takeaway from this discussion?" - "What is the takeaway message from that?" - "So here are the takeaway points from this book." Here's an example discussion, when someone's takeaway might not be what the "speaker" expected it to be: Person A asks, "So what's your takeaway from what I said?" Person B answers and tells the impression he has gained, and then person A, in shock, goes, "HOW ON EARTH did you get THAT from what I said? THAT is certainly not my meaning!" I have seen that quite a bit in conversations between people, "How did you get THAT out of what I said?"
It's a sad state of affairs when what people "HEAR" (or IMAGINE that they have heard) is not really what was said or written, but it is a simple fact of life that this "misfortune" occurs a million times a day around the world, between people. This miscarriage of communication is particularly grievous to people who care INTENSELY about their words being clearly understood, and "taken" correctly. If one person is keenly intent upon being "understood," but the other person only "half gets" things or frequently misses the point, it's a formula for hurt feelings on both sides of a "communication." I have sometimes considered it among the greatest calamities of my lifetime, when people have "TAKEN" some thing I said and "TURNED IT INTO" something that it was NOT. It is deeply vexing to me. I have sometimes done no more than tell people what a verse of scripture in the Bible says, and added no interpretation or spin of my own, and they have run out and afterwards claimed, "He says that bla bla bla bla bla," which never came out of my mouth, and in fact, the scripture I quoted never gets mentioned, when in fact, it (the scripture) is actually the only thing that came from me. What do you make of this? A person comes and asks you to speak to them. This may be wierd, but bear with me, let's say for whatever your reasons are, you choose to stand there and keep your mouth shut, and say not one word of your own, but instead to just say, "Thou shalt not steal. Exodus 20:15." Later you find out that that person has gone around telling people, "He SAID that WE are all a bunch of THIEVES, that we STEAL, and so, we're simply no kinda' Christians, but a bunch of criminals." I might not have even been talking about "THEM," but have another point in mind, and might have been hoping that, next, my hearer might ask me, "So, what is your point in quoting Exodus?" and then I could make my point. But no. He simply "TOOK it" the way he did. And frankly, in my opinion, the way he went and spread his "version" abroad was the sin of bearing false witness. Ironic: I did not in fact accuse him of breaking the Commandment not to steal, but he turned around and went out and broke the next Commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour," when he falsely reported, "He SAID, when in fact, "he" did NOT. I have learned that "garbage communication" and "garbage listening" are the source of much sin among Christians. Isaiah 29:20-21 says there are bad people "that watch for iniquity" and "that make a man an offender for a word." The Matthew Henry Commentary says at that verse, "They took advantage against them for the least slip of the tongue; and, if a thing were ever so little said amiss, it served them to ground an indictment upon. They made a man, though he were ever so wise and good a man, though he were a man of God, an offender for a word, a word mischosen or misplaced, when they could not but know that it was well meant. They cavilled at every word that the prophets spoke to them by way of admonition, though ever so innocently spoken, and without any design to affront them. They put the worst construction upon what was said, and made it criminal by strained innuendoes. Those who consider how apt we all are to speak unadvisedly, and to mistake what we hear, will think it very unjust and unfair to make a man an offender for a word. They did all they could to bring those into trouble that dealt faithfully with them and told them of their faults.
I have come to feel it is often very beneficial, an aid to good communication, to periodically ask a person what they think I "just said." People do not LIKE being asked that question. In almost 100% of the times I've asked it, it REVEALS that the other party DOES NOT KNOW! It REVEALS that "half listening" is going on. It reveals that the two parties aren't really "comminicating." That's why people don't like being asked. Because it EXPOSES that they are not doing their part in the communication. It can really embarrass someone, to ask them, "What did I just say?" But I almost always find that it was beneficial to ask. After all, if that party is NOT rightly taking in what is being said, perhaps the entire discourse is a waste. I find it useful to FIND OUT periodically along the way just how good our lines of communication are, or, are NOT.
Well, in putting together this website, I decided to put periodic prompts to "CHECK" (✓) on what your "takeaway" is. I may be writing something, and it strikes me that you might not "do with it" what I'm intending, in writing it.
On some pages in the site, after I've written something, you may see a box at the bottom of the page like the sample you see below here. Well, that's what it is, a simple reminder to "CHECK" (✓) yourself, check what UNDERSTANDING of me you are DERIVING at that time, from that page.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKEAWAY FROM THIS? What "impression" do you have, as to what is supposedly communicated here? What do you think I'm saying? What is your COMPREHENSION of what's on this page? Have I said anything "wrong?" What is it that is wrong? Is something here simply "not your cup of tea?" Then identify it. What do you think differently? Have you grasped the POINT of this page? Are you sure you've CAUGHT "what" I intended, "as" I intended it? Are you accidentally "READING ANYTHING IN TO IT" that is not actually SAID here? Try to make sure that the "impression" you are gathering is in fact the impression that I'm attempting to deliver.
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