
The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence

What, if anything, do we know about how they like to receive information?
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
The second reason why engaging in the complexities matters is that you can much better judge what to include. And whether you choose to include the complexity or not, your confidence in your explanation will be greater because you made that decision from a position of strength.
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
These days, in my sights are superfluous adjectives, obscure or complex vocabulary, unnecessary detail, long sentences. They all have to go.
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
‘Simplicity is the key to understanding. Short words in short sentences present the listener or reader with the fewest obstacles to comprehension.’
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
It demands that we choose just the right words and that we clear away anything around them that might distract.
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
To avoid this trap, select visual elements that explicitly support what you’re saying. If you want to quote someone, pull up the quote. If you want to show an event, show a picture of it. If you want to reference a statistic, show the statistic.
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
However, if high-impact explanation is our goal, I’d argue precision is essential.
Ros Atkins • The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence
Next, we’re going to look at each subject strand in turn. Read through all the elements you have in it and ask yourself these questions: • What do I hope each strand of the explanation will achieve? • Within each strand, which of the elements are the most important? • Which should I start with? • Which elements do you think will follow on from anot
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what is the detail I need to include to properly explain this?