For me, this word immediately conjures up images of a cardboard box brimming with rice with a pair of chopsticks poking from its top. Alas, that's not the take away we're talking about here.
In writing, a take away is really the answer to "so what?" It may be something deeply inscribed by the writer, or totally ascribed by the reader.It might not even be directly related to the article written. What matters is that it matters to you. Supposedly all works have this. I don't want to disagree, I just can't support it with personal experience.
If there is one thing I learned from a semester of Journalistic Writing, it is that not everything that matters to you will matter to everyone else; that, not every story you deem worthy of writing or talking about will find a listener; that not all jokes will get a laugh; not all dramas will invoke a tear. Strange (and quite stupid, actually) of me not to understand that earlier, right?
My theatrical and personal communication backgrounds are rearing to contradict every thing I just said. What, with calling myself stupid; saying that my stories aren't worth telling; yada yada yada. I will content myself by ending with some food for thought.
Not all the stories I choose to tell may be worth sharing, but maybe I'm sharing it with you because I thought you were worth sharing it with.
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