How Much Time and Detail Should Go Into an Illustration?

I'm sure you've occasionally heard a teacher or pastor use an illustration, and thought, "That was too long," or "I need more detail to understand that." And when an illustration works well for the learner, those thoughts don't come to mind. In other words, the teacher has matched the amount of detail and the length of the description well, so it "feels" right to us.

So how does a teacher figure this out?

Peter Mead provides an excellent framework for categorizing illustrations, which then helps you as a teacher understand how much time and detail to provide.

Level 1 illustrations come from the experience of both the speaker and listeners. (The least time and detail will be required.)

Level 2 illustrations come from the experience of the listeners, but the speaker has to learn about them since they have not personally experienced the same. (You as a teacher have to study more to accurate communicate, but it may not require a lot of detail for the listeners.)

Level 3 illustrations come from the experience of the speaker, but must be learned by the listeners. (You need to provide enough texture and detail to the listener, because they have to learn about something before the illustration is useful.)

Level 4 illustrations lie outside the experience of both speaker and listener. (Requires the most work for both teacher and listener -- in most cases I would recommend another level of illustration!)

Review the past few illustrations you've used that worked well, and maybe some that didn't work well, and see how they line up in the framework. This exercise will help you think about how much detail and time to provide in your next illustrations.

Also, this framework helps explain why an illustration from one of those "5 Thousand Illustrations for Speakers" collections may require editing (more or less details) before you can use it effectively with your listeners.