1. USE DESCRIPTIVE TITLES AND SUBTITLES.
For reasons beyond
my ken,
some UU preachers seem to prefer
ambiguous, puzzling, & enigmatic titles.
If we want to attract surfers on the
Internet,
the titles and subtitles must be descriptive
and enticing.
I suggest making our titles as precise
as possible.
Here is one example of an organized list
of good sermon titles:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/SERMONS.html
Adding subtitles is usually helpful.
2. BEGIN WITH A SYNOPSIS AND/OR OUTLINE.
Surfers on the Internet
are not committed ahead of time
to reading a whole sermon
(as is the case of people sitting in
the congregation).
We have literally thousands of other
things
that we could read on the Internet
(including other UU sermons)
using the same 15 minutes of our lives.
After the descriptive
title,
a short synposis of what the sermon contains
will seduce us into reading that sermon
if it seems likely to address issues
already alive in our minds.
In many cases, such a synopsis has already
been created
in the process of planning and announcing
a particular sermon.
Such a synopsis need
not be used as part
of the actual sermon as presented to
the congregation,
but it will serve as a good introduction
to readers on the Internet.
Some congregational
webmasters already follow this practice:
The sermon list itself (which gives the titles of sermons)
contains a one-paragraph
synopsis
right after each title.
Then surfers do not even need to click
the sermon title
to find out more about the content.
Simply by reading the titles and the
synopses,
we can decide which sermons to read.
A few examples of synopses and outlines
will be found here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/YO.html
If your sermons are
presented in audio or video format,
a written synopsis will help surfers
to select the most interesting sermons.
3. INCLUDE SUB-DIVISIONS IN THE POSTED TEXT.
When a sermon is crafted,
the minister knows the various points
and illustrations that make up the sermon.
These may be explicitly contained in
the outline.
If these headings are included in the
posted sermon,
they will guide Internet readers from
section to section.
And if we the readers want to read only
one part of a sermon,
we can go directly to that most interesting
part.
These sub-divisions
of the sermon
can be displayed on the screen in CAPITALS,
bold
face,
larger size, a different font, or even in
color.
Be experimental; see what readers like
the best.
The text you are reading names the seven
suggestions
in CAPITALS and red.
4. USE THE WHOLE SCREEN.
When we are posting
shorter items,
it makes sense to keep the table of contents
for the whole website present somewhere
on the screen.
But I find such extra information distracting
when I am trying to read a sermon.
You should also remember
that not everyone has a large screen.
Some of us are still using screens that
are only 12 inches wide.
Thus, the contents or index strip down one side of the screen
might
occupy 1/3 of the screen,
leaving very little space for the text
of the sermon.
Also, if you do not divide the lines of your text, but simply let them be wraped by the computer, they could become very long on a very large computer screen.
Instead of keeping part of the screen
for links to related parts of your website,
put all your related links after the end of the sermon.
If you have used meta names for each sermon
(see Suggestion #6 below),
some people will come to your site first to a particular sermon.
Then the surfer might want to know more about your congregation.
5. DIVIDE LINES ACCORDING TO MEANING.
You have been experiencing
these line-divisions thru-out this text:
Each sentence begins on the left.
When a sentence is too long for one line,
it is broken in the most logical place
for easy reading on a screen.
Here again, it might
be too much work
to insert such meaningful line-divisions
into sermons already posted on the Internet,
but preachers might discover after a
bit of practice
that this is an excellent way to compose
a sermon in the first place.
When the author selects
the line-length, rather than the computer,
the author can use line-divisions to
organize lists
and to emphasize points of importance.
6. CLASSIFY SERMONS BY SUBJECT.
Only a few websites
do this already.
When more than 50 sermons are listed,
reading thru the titles could become
an unwelcoming task.
Instead of merely listing them chronologically,
it might make sense to organize them
by similar themes.
This will be especially helpful for potential
readers
who know what subjects they are looking
for.
Here are some common themes of UU sermons:
DEATH, LOVE, MARRIAGE, MEANING,
PARENTHOOD, SEXUAL ORIENTATION
SIMPLICITY, SPIRITUALITY, & VALUES.
These 9 subjects are
just a few
of the standard subject classifications
used by the Library of Congress.
(There are over 200,000.)
You will find over a hundred of the most
useful subject headings here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/LC-SUB.html
If more webmasters
and preachers
classify their sermons by subject,
the Subject Listings part of the Cyber-Sermon
Registry
will become much more useful to surfers
on the Internet:
We who use the Internet to find interesting
ideas
will be able to click a subject on this
list
and immediately be taken to a collection
of UU sermons
on the subject we have chosen.
Here is the beginning of the Subject
Listing
of UU sermons on the Internet
---using the Library of Congress Subject
Headings:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/FCS-LC.html
It is probably too
much to ask
to have past sermons classified or re-classified
according to the Library of Congress
system,
but we are now at the dawn of Internet
communication.
Preachers and webmasters who see the
potential of the Internet
will consider classifying at least their
future
sermons
according to this standard system.
If a particular sermon were a book,
how would it be classified by the Library
of Congress?
In this connection,
it may be necessary to separate
the recent sermons from the permanent
sermons.
Many websites post just the last few
sermons.
These will be removed from the website
and replaced by newer sermons in a month
or two.
There is no point in classifying these
short-lived sermons.
But sermons that are going to remain
on the website indefinitely
could benefit from being classified and
listed in
the Subject Listing of the Cyber-Sermon
Registry:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/LC-SUB.html
Ministers and webmasters may be able
to determine
by the amount of feedback stimulated
by each sermon
just which ones deserve the immortality
of being added to the permanent collection.
If you classify sermons
for your own collection,
put the Library of Congress classification
for each sermon
in the TITLE LINE of that computer file.
The TITLE LINE appears at the very top
of your computer screen.
The TITLE LINE for the file you are now reading
says UNITARIAN
UNIVERSALIST CHURCHES.
An accurate and descriptive TITLE LINE
will help Internet surfers to go directly
to that sermon.
If you use other meta
tags for each computer file,
the classification tag can have more
than one
Library of Congress subject.
If you view the page source of this file,
you will find these classification tags:
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCHES &
INTERNET (Computer Network),
which are both Library of Congress classifications.
The keyword meta tag
allows you to add
other possible ways people might be likely
to discover your sermon on the Internet.
The keywords for this file are "UU sermons"
and "Internet".
Classifying each sermon
as it is posted
will require 5 or 10 minutes additional
work,
but if only one additional persons finds
that sermon
because of your diligence,
it will have been worth it.
After all, how many hours have you already
devoted to this sermon?
Doesn't it deserve to be more widely
read?
7. PROVIDE REFERENCES IN THE TEXT OR IN FOOTNOTES.
When a sermon is presented
verbally,
it would not be appropriate to give
complete bibliographical information
about every book or article used or mentioned
in the sermon.
But on the Internet, this is easy to
do.
And it will be very helpful to readers
who want to read more about any particular
theme.
Some UU preachers are
already including references
in the Internet version of their sermons.
Others should follow suit.
And if there are other resources on the
same theme
already available on the Internet,
put in hyper-links to these as well.
Internet readers love to be able to click
such resources immediately,
rather than going to the library or the
bookstore.
And the most scholarly
UU sermons
include annotated bibliographies
at the end.
Congratuations to all UU preachers
who give such guidance for further reading.
Here is one example of a cyber-sermon
linked with an extensive annotated bibliography:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-SSF.html
Additional suggestions
will always be welcome.
Send all responses to the webmaster:
James Park
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
We are also looking
for a congregational website
that already follows all or most of these
suggestions.
If you know of a webmaster and/or minister
who has done an especially good job
of posting sermons on the Internet,
please nominate that site,
so that it can be mentioned here.
Other webmasters and/or ministers
may be inspired to follow such examples.
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