Lesson 10 | Main Point Summary
A Crystal Clear Panorama
To shift from the detective illustration for a moment, consider panoramic photography. Choosing the range of a panoramic snapshot can be challenging. To zoom in too far means missing the broad perspective, but to zoom out too far causes necessary details to be blurred. If you overwhelm it with too much noise, you may restrict the sense of grandeur, but removing detailed items produces a boring shot! For this reason, photographers have lingered for days in one location waiting for the perfect conditions to take a photo worth publishing.
Since a main point summary is, in like manner, a singular snapshot of an entire intricate and glorious passage, it is different than a sub-point summaries in the follow ways:
- Accountability – When you express to others your final take on a passage, whether in a Bible study, teaching, or discussion, they will have the Bible opened before them. If your main point summary does not reasonably align with the words of Scripture before them, they will not be convinced. You must be able to defend every word of your main point summary.
- Interpretive lens – Unlike sub-point summaries and paraphrases, a main point summary is not a processing tool. Rather, it is the final product. So it is extra important to get it right, for its words will become the lens by which you and others interpret the passage. You have built a frame and stated boldly, “Within this frame, every detail aligns.”
- Emphasis - To write a sub-point summary of four propositions is relatively easy compared to accurately capturing the main point of an entire chapter! One of the reasons for this is the difficultly in getting the emphasis right across a massive range of propositions. And it is not only what you say, but also what you don’t say that shapes the emphasis. Often, this will include distilling out 10 entire verses that are, in fact, an aside.
Therefore:
The shaping of your main point summary must be meticulous, appropriate, polished, and fitting. So let’s look at a few questions we can ask ourselves at this final stage to help us write a good main point summary.
Links: What are the broadest brackets/arcs?
The short statement you write as a main point summary must capture the broadest logic of your passage, if it is to be an accurate replication of what the author of Scripture intends to communicate. Therefore, continually revisit the relationship labels of your broadest arcs/brackets, the conjunctions that introduce them, and the sub-point summaries you have written for them.
Context: How does this passage fit into the overall thought flow of the book?
Think about how your main point summary flows together within the broader context of the book. Even if you have not completed arcs or brackets of the passages surrounding your study, read them and make observations of themes, purpose, and key words. Any contextual elements you have added to your paraphrase will be of great assistance here.
Conclusions: What is the bottom line of the passage?
Considering the passage as a whole, ask:
- What is the primary issue being addressed?
- What questions (stated or unstated) are being answered?
- What conclusion(s) does the author come to?
Often, a student may arrive at what he believes to be the main point, only to realize that he is not striking the central chord of the passage. If you have perceived that your conclusion is not the primary issue being addressed, take a step back, read through the passage again, and reconsider the relationships of your arc/bracket.
Supporting Elements: What point does everything else support?
Let the supporting statements guide you to the main point. For each piece, ask:
- What role does this piece have in the passage?
- Does it support something else?
- Is it supported by another piece?
When all the supporting points have been sifted out, the main point should stand clear.
Principles for Writing a Main Point Summary:
Test #1 (Supporting Elements and Links): Do the rest of the details support the main idea?
Test #2 (Context): Does this main idea fit into the themes and thought flow of the whole book?
Test #3 (Conclusions): Does my main point summary, in fact, hit upon the primary issue?