WHAT IS TAKEAWAY?

Usefulness of Anything

The success of a speech or a written text depends upon the degree to which it offers new points or ideas to take back home.

DURING a walk along a street in London, a board in front of a shop with the words 'TAKEAWAY' written in bold expression triggered the mind to think further. Initially, this expression was used to indicate that a restaurant offered you the facility of paying for food which you would then take home instead of sitting down and eating it on the premises. Later, this word came into common parlance and was alternatively used to refer to the gist of something worth remembering, some key fact, point, or idea which you had heard at some lecture or meeting, or read in some book or article.

The success of a speech or a written text depends upon the degree to which it offers new points or ideas to take back home. On the contrary, if it offers you nothing fresh which you could regard as a takeaway, then listening to such a speech, or such a book or article should be deemed a sheer waste of time.

A writer or a speaker must think deeply beforehand about finding something worth sharing with others and then expressing it in clear language. The criterion of success for an article or a speech is that it offers a real ‘takeaway’—something that may be beneficial for the reader or hearer, and will contribute to his intellectual development.