If Google Docs can help me loose weight, why not Wikipedia for preaching? (Not that I’m preaching much these days.)
Not for fact-checking (though I find a well-cited article is helpful for follow-up reading) but for style. Wikipedia has a house style that helps improve reading and factual quality while smoothing out writer idiosyncrasies. While I would hate all preaching to sound alike — and that’s the limit of a common style — there are enough preachers out there (novices, the rusty, the undisciplined, the harried) who could benefit from dispassionate rules and I know there are a few congregations that would approve!
A good number Unitarian Universalist preachers I’ve known have a special set of bad habits, including making broad, unsupported claims. (A breathy, faux-spiritual delivery is another: good style can’t help everything.) Reading and abiding Wikipedia’s counsel against peacock terms and weasel words could well right help.
The full list of style articles (Wikipedia)
Comments 3
Critics say that this is one of the best blog points made today.
Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 3:02 pm ¶(snark)
thanks! good advice.
Peregrinato wrote the following, but I accidentally deleted (rather than approved) it — sorry:
I’m not sure how I feel about Wiki’s advice against weasel words. Some people might find it useful, I guess.
Oh wait, I couldn’t say that in a Wiki document…
I’m speaking specifically of their discussion about the bandwagon fallacy. I think there’s plenty of use in discussion for phrases like “some people” or “most people,” unless we’re trying to drive home a firmly empirical point which has to be supported by citable evidence. It all depends on context and application, I guess, and I hate prescriptive advice that could easily be translated as “never say ‘most people’”.
Otherwise, yes, simple speech is best.
As far as breathy faux-spiritual voice–I know what you’re talking about. I’ve heard it and I’ m not really fond of it either.
Posted 27 Jan 2008 at 5:53 pm ¶OMG! You clearly hate me!
Posted 31 Jan 2008 at 3:43 pm ¶Post a Comment