A good explanation helps another person understand the subject while preserving their freedom to ask an ordinary question.
Find the actual starting point
Someone asks how a process works. You begin with its history, specialist vocabulary and all the exceptions you have learned over years. The account is accurate, but the listener still cannot see the first step. Expertise has supplied too many possible beginnings.
Ask what they already know and what they need to do with the explanation. A person choosing whether to use a tool needs a different account from somebody responsible for maintaining it. Starting at the relevant point is not oversimplification. It is a decision about what this particular conversation is for.
Make the route visible
Offer a short outline before adding detail. ‘There are three stages: collecting the information, checking it and deciding what follows.’ The listener now has somewhere to place each explanation. Use an example that resembles the task they face, rather than one chosen mainly to demonstrate how much you know.
Introduce a technical term when it helps, and explain it without treating unfamiliarity as a failing. Avoid ‘obviously’ and ‘as everyone knows’ when the very reason for the conversation is that someone does not yet know. The subject can be demanding without the explanation becoming a test of belonging.
Check understanding without staging an examination
Instead of asking ‘Do you understand?’ and moving on after a polite nod, invite the listener to apply the idea. ‘How would the first step work in your example?’ Their answer may show where your explanation needs adjusting. Treat that as information about the explanation, not an opportunity to expose them.
For practice, explain a familiar task in five sentences, then remove one unnecessary assumption. The aim is not to make every subject effortless. It is to make the route through difficulty visible enough that another person can participate, ask a question and eventually work without needing your permission at every step.
A question to take with you
What knowledge does my explanation assume, and have I checked that assumption?
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First published by JustLearn (JL). Part of our Life Skills & Relationships collection.