This project is complete, but I haven’t put the graphs in or finished editing the post – sorry!
In everyday life there are various written works or genres that are observed and read by people. Most of the time native speakers of the language for which the genres are written don’t even notice the characteristic styles that are evident within these genres. However, there is in fact a system by which most genres are written or put together in order to meet the needs of the writer or the audience the specific genre is intended. In accordance with this order, the genre is meant to be read or looked at in a certain way by its audience in order to gain maximum comprehension or efficiency.
Here in the United States of America the church bulletin is a common genre that many people have experienced at one time or another in their lives. The church bulletin is made up of many features and requires the reader to have at least some contextual knowledge and culture of the church in order to fully comprehend the genre. In the following paragraphs and pages of this paper the church bulletin will be the primary focus and, in particular, how people read and comprehend the church bulletin.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the sections of the church bulletin and the organizational features contained within the bulletin for various reasons. The author of this paper also seeks to find out how people who are familiar with this genre derive information from it and comprehend it and how people unfamiliar with this genre try to understand the information within. Perhaps this research will be useful to churches who seek to make their information as clear as possible to everyone or to those who design and organize church bulletins. Insight into how people in general read this type of genre is the number one goal of this project.
Methods
A number of bulletins were acquired from a church in Mankato, Minnesota with the sole purpose of giving them to people in order to complete a survey. The surveys were conducted in three different locations. The first location was in a classroom at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota. The participants in the first survey were international students with various religious and cultural backgrounds. Many of the participants in this survey had never seen a church bulletin before or any other genre similar to it, but were happy to look through the bulletin and complete the survey. The second location was in the author’s home located in North Mankato, Minnesota. The participants in this survey were all people who were familiar with the genre, but not with the particular church that the bulletin was from and varied in age from 26 years old to 81 years old. The final group of participants consisted of members from the church where the bulletin was created and varied in age and background. The survey was taken by a particular Sunday school class during the church’s Sunday school hour. All of the participants understood the reason for the survey and were happy to give their insights.
BULLETIN SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
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Bulletin Survey 1. What’s the first thing you notice about the bulletin? 2. What do you think this bulletin is for? 3. What sections does the bulletin contain? 4. Do the sections help you read and understand the bulletin? 5. Did you read the entire bulletin? If yes, why? If no, what sections did you read? |
Figure 1. These are the survey questions that were asked to international students about the church bulletin.
BULLETIN SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR CHURCH MEMBERS
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Bulletin Survey 1. What’s the first thing you notice about the bulletin? 2. Do you read the entire bulletin? If yes, why? If no, how do you decide what information to read? 3. What do you normally read first? What’s your reading sequence? 4. What sections does the bulletin contain (in your opinion)? 5. Do you feel that the sections help you decide what to read? |
Figure 2. These are the survey questions that were asked to church members about the church bulletin.
Results
The survey of the international students showed various details about how they processed the information in the bulletin. The answers to question one included: a religious theme, colors, prayer, information/schedule of church, the cross and inserts. “A religious theme” was the most popular answer as five out of the fourteen students who answered the question wrote this answer in the survey.
QUESTION I
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT GRAPH
Figure 3. This graph shows the international students’ responses to question number one of the survey.
The answers to question two included: to attract people, classes, worship/prayer and information. “To attract people” was the most popular answer as eight out of the fourteen students wrote this answer.
QUESTION II
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT GRAPH
Figure 4. This graph shows the international students’ responses to question number two of the survey.
The answers to question three were all different and, therefore, only show that the sections of the bulletin were not very clear to this group. The bulletin has clearly defined sections within it, but the international students may have thought that the sections meant the inserts as well. The answers to question number four included thirteen “yes” answers and one “no” answer. For the most part the students found what they perceived to be the sections helpful in the reading process.
QUESTION IV
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT GRAPH
Figure 5. This graph shows the international students’ responses to question number four of the survey.
The answers to question number five included three “yes” answers with their reasons being that they found the bulletin interesting and to be able to fully answer the questions in the survey. The sections that the participants read include: the bookmark, welcome/news, Holy Communion, schedule, green insert and events. The most popular section read was the welcome/news section as four out of eleven people chose this section.
QUESTION V
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT GRAPH
Figure 6. This graph shows the international students’ responses to question number five of the survey. The students were asked, “Did you read the entire bulletin? If yes, why? If no, what sections did you read?
The survey of the regular church goers also gives some insight into how people who are familiar with this genre process the information in a church bulletin. The answers to question one included: inserts/pages, the cross, location/date, items that relate, color, verse and outline of events. The “inserts/pages” answer was the most popular, as five out of thirteen people wrote that answer.
QUESTION I
CHURCH MEMBER GRAPH
Figure 7. This graph shows the church members’ responses to question number one of the survey.
The answers to question two included ten “yes” answers and only three “no” answers. It appears that most people who are familiar with this genre feel the need to read the entire bulletin. All ten of the people who said that they read the entire bulletin read it in order to be informed, while those who do not read the entire bulletin only read what relates to them or the scripture/prayer list for the week.
QUESTION II
CHURCH MEMBER GRAPH
Figure 8. This graph shows the church members’ responses to question number two of the survey. The church members were asked, “Do you read the entire bulletin? If yes, why? If no, how do you decide what information to read?”
The answers to question number three include: front to back, handouts/coming events/missions/praise and prayer/sermon notes, upcoming events/rest, first the inside page, first the prayer list and weekly activities. The most popular answer was “front to back” as eight out of the thirteen people wrote this answer.
QUESTION III
CHURCH MEMBER GRAPH
Figure 9. This graph shows the church members’ responses to question number three of the survey.
The answers to question number four included: news, what?, general outline/upcoming activities/news/sermon notes/church employees, contents/calendar/news/sermon/inserts, worship/mission/information and today/events/news/prayer and praise/sermon notes/youth stuff/inserts. The most popular answer was “What?” As six out of fourteen church members wrote this answer. The question may not have been worded correctly, because it is obvious that the majority of the church members did not understand it. It is also possible that the majority of the church members have never taken the time to really look at the bulletin and discover that it is broken up into sections.
QUESTION IV
CHURCH MEMBER GRAPH
Figure 10. This graph shows the church members’ responses to question number four of the survey.
The answers to question five were included nine “yes” answers and four “no” answers. This is somewhat surprising due to the fact that the majority of those surveyed did not understand that the bulletin was divided into sections. It is possible that they believed the bulletin was divided into sections, but did not know what to call those sections, thus the confusion.
QUESTION V
CHURCH MEMBER GRAPH
Figure 11. This graph shows the church members’ responses to question number five of the survey.
Conclusion
It is understood that the data obtained was limited in its scope. However, one can draw a few different conclusions. The majority of the international students after reviewing the bulletin came to the conclusion that the bulletin was designed to attract people to the church. This directly contrasts with the church members’ reasoning for reading the bulletin, which was in order to be informed. It could be that the international students have seen many flyers or advertisements having the same shape and size of the bulletin and, therefore, came to the conclusion that the bulletin must be associated with this type of genre. It is also interesting to note that the majority of church members, that is, those familiar with the genre read the entire bulletin, while the majority of international students only read different portions of the genre. This could be due to the fact that the church members knew the genre contained information in it that was pertinent to them, while the majority of international students believed that the bulletin was an advertisement of some sort and felt that they didn’t need to read it. All that being said, it is obvious that much more research into the reading of church bulletins needs to be done in order to obtain quality research and conclusions.
