How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence with The Art of Explanation by Ros Atkins

In his groundbreaking book “The Art of Explanation,” renowned journalist and communicator Ros Atkins deftly unlocks the secrets to crafting crystal-clear explanations that captivate audiences. This indispensable guide is a must-read for anyone seeking to enhance their communication skills and effectively convey complex ideas.

Discover the transformative power of effective explanations by diving into Ros Atkins’ illuminating book. Keep reading to learn the key takeaways and insights that will revolutionize your approach to communication.

Genres

Non-fiction, Communication, Self-help, Business, Education, Psychology, Journalism, Public Speaking, Writing, Personal Development

In “The Art of Explanation,” Ros Atkins provides a comprehensive framework for creating powerful explanations that resonate with audiences. The book delves into the fundamental elements of effective communication and offers practical strategies for breaking down complex ideas into easily digestible concepts.

Atkins emphasizes the importance of understanding your audience, using clear language, and leveraging storytelling techniques to engage and persuade. Throughout the book, he shares real-world examples and case studies to illustrate the principles he discusses. Atkins also explores the role of visual aids, analogies, and metaphors in enhancing explanations.

By the end of the book, readers will have a robust toolkit for crafting compelling explanations in various contexts, from professional presentations to everyday conversations.

Review

Ros Atkins’ “The Art of Explanation” is an exceptional resource for anyone seeking to improve their communication skills. The book is well-structured, with each chapter building upon the previous ones to create a cohesive and comprehensive guide.

Atkins’ writing style is engaging and accessible, making even the most complex concepts easy to grasp. The real-world examples and case studies provide valuable insights and demonstrate how the principles discussed can be applied in practice.

One of the strengths of the book is its emphasis on understanding and empathizing with your audience, a crucial aspect of effective communication often overlooked in other resources. Additionally, Atkins’ exploration of storytelling techniques and the use of visual aids is particularly illuminating.

While the book is primarily focused on verbal explanations, the principles discussed are applicable to written communication as well. Overall, “The Art of Explanation” is an essential read for anyone looking to enhance their ability to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively.

Recommendation

The ability to explain yourself well is a vital skill – not only in public speaking scenarios but in all your daily interactions, says BBC News analysis editor Ros Atkins. Yet many people cannot explain themselves clearly and concisely. Master the art of explanation to enhance every interaction in your life, help yourself achieve your goals, and make better use of your and others’ time and energy. Whether you’re preparing for a job interview, crafting an email, addressing a rapt audience or trying to teach your children, the ability to explain is a critical, learnable skill.

Take-Aways

• The ability to explain yourself well is an essential skill that many people lack.
• To craft a quality explanation, start with the right questions.
• Familiarize yourself with your audience and their needs.
• In controlled scenarios, preparation is the secret ingredient to excellent explanations.
• You can train yourself to communicate clearly, even in unpredictable situations.
• Verbalize and memorize your dynamic explanation ahead of time.
• Anticipate questions or feedback that others might have regarding your explanation.
• Prepare for short-form explanations in just a couple of minutes.
• Make the art of explanation work for your unique circumstances, transforming your everyday life.

Summary

The ability to explain yourself well is an essential skill that many people lack.

Have you ever felt that your communications don’t hit their intended target or generate their desired results? Say, for example, that you regularly send out emails but receive few replies, and the responses you do receive focus on the wrong issues or fail to address the questions you asked.

“Explaining yourself well does not guarantee your desired outcome. You could do it perfectly and still not get the job, make the sale or win the argument. But when you convey what you mean with clarity and impact, you give yourself the best chance of being understood and achieving whatever goals you may have.”

Learning to explain yourself well improves how you communicate, powerfully transforming every interaction in your life and helping you achieve your goals. For instance, entrepreneurs are more likely to attract investors if they can explain their business models clearly; teachers enhance students’ enjoyment and understanding when they explain complex information simply; a patient is likelier to stick to a diet plan if a doctor explains its benefits clearly; government agencies see greater interest in their services when they explain how to access them; and so on. Whatever your goal, learning to explain yourself clearly increases the likelihood of achieving your desired results.

To craft a quality explanation, start with the right questions.

When you master the art of explanation, you remove obstacles to others’ ability to understand you. Communicating engagingly is crucial, as you must compete for your audience’s attention.

“Explanation is relevant whatever you’re making the case for. It not only improves how you promote an idea, a request or a point of view – it will also improve the very thing you’re promoting as well.”

The best explanations share two attributes: They contain relevant information and make complex topics more accessible. To ensure you explain a topic well, consider these 10 questions:

1. “Simplicity” – Could you phrase your explanation in a way that is easier to comprehend?
2. “Essential detail” – Which details are most important to communicate your message?
3. “Complexity” – Are there aspects of your subject you don’t understand?
4. “Efficiency” – Could you phrase your message more succinctly?
5. “Precision” – Do your words convey precisely what you want to say?
6. “Context” – Why does your explanation matter to your audience?
7. “No distractions” – Have you omitted all redundant words and graphics that could distract your audience from your explanation?
8. “Engaging” – Can you identify any points where your audience could lose interest in your explanation?
9. “Useful” – Does your explanation address people’s questions in a helpful way?
10. “Clarity of purpose” – What is your message trying to achieve?

Familiarize yourself with your audience and their needs.

If you want your message to resonate, first learn about your audience. For example, determine the attendees’ demographics if you’re speaking at a symposium. If you’re addressing a school, find out the age range of the children. Consider what your audience members already know and what they would like to know.

“There is a direct connection between how well you communicate to an audience that this is for them and their level of engagement.”

Craft a bespoke message and present it in a way that your audience likes to receive information. Apply what you already know about your readers or listeners to hold their attention and connect with them. For instance, include the addressee’s name in the subject line of an email. Even if you are communicating to a mass audience, you can target questions to engage subsections of the audience – for example, “For those of you living in the United States,” or “For those of you who make podcasts.” Finally, communicate your credibility on the subject matter.

In controlled scenarios, preparation is the secret ingredient to excellent explanations.

When giving a speech or sharing a written explanation (for example, an essay), these seven steps can help you persuade your audience:

1. “Set-up” – Clarify who your audience is and what your explanation is trying to achieve. If you’re unsure of your audience’s makeup, ask the event organizer. Identify parameters such as how long you’ll need to speak or how many words you’ll need to write.
2. “Find the information” – Gather the following aids: a summary of what you hope to explain and to whom; a list of any questions your audience wants answered; a list of any areas you need to research to formulate an excellent explanation; a list of subjects your message ought to broach; and a pile of information sources on the subject matter.
3. “Distill the information” – Screen your information. Filter out anything that isn’t relevant to your explanation. Spend some time studying the information you’ve kept. As you sift through the data, ask yourself why it matters. Then do a second evaluation to eliminate elements that don’t contribute to your goal.
4. “Organize the information” – Divide your information into specific “strands” or sections. Look for high-impact elements or stories that could provide your explanation with a strong beginning or ending. Experiment by opening your explanation with different strands and testing different narrative structures to figure out which works best. Organize your strands like headings in an outline, adding relevant information and visual elements below each heading. Create a separate section for information that you’re unsure you’ll use.
5. “Link the information” – You are ready to prepare your first draft. It helps to write down your explanation, even if it is a speech, to ensure it flows smoothly and sounds authentic. Your chosen words should build momentum. Avoid awkward “hard stops.” Pepper your explanation with signposts so your audience knows what to expect.
6. “Tighten” – A good explanation becomes exceptional when you take time to tighten it. Eliminate any elements that aren’t vital to your explanation.
7. “Delivery” – Rehearse your explanation thoroughly if you’re delivering it verbally, ensuring you can comfortably articulate it within your allotted time limit. You can read from a script, use flashcards or visual aids, or memorize your explanation. Each option requires an abundance of practice. Record yourself running through your explanation, and workshop any elements that fall short.

You can train yourself to communicate clearly, even in unpredictable situations.

More often than not, you’ll have to explain yourself in “uncontrolled scenarios.” Improve the clarity of your communication in uncontrolled settings, such as negotiations or meetings, by taking time to prepare your information. Follow the same first three steps that you would for controlled settings – “set-up,” “find the information” and “distill the information.”

“Many situations require us to access and communicate large amounts of detailed information. Doing this work in advance will vastly improve your chances of doing that really well.”

However, as you won’t have notes in uncontrolled contexts, you’ll need to approach the fourth step – “organize your information” – slightly differently. You shouldn’t have more than five strands in a dynamic setting, as you need to be able to memorize each strand. For each strand, prepare a primary point, three supporting facts and relevant context. For example, say you are preparing for a job interview and know you want to touch on your experience organizing large events. Your primary point might highlight your extensive and varied experience organizing such events. To support this point, you would detail three specific projects you managed. For relevant context, you might explain that your current company made you the head of events.

Verbalize and memorize your dynamic explanation ahead of time.

In dynamic, uncontrolled settings, you need to prepare to deliver information in a way that seems improvised and intuitive. Start familiarizing your brain and tongue with the words and phrases you want to say. Think of your mind like a computer processor running too many programs in the background: If you’re struggling to find the right words to use when responding to someone, you limit your capacity to listen and engage in conversation. Prepare your dynamic explanation by talking through one strand aloud. Then, practice moving from one strand to another using bridging phrases – such as, “Another thing I’d stress is…” or, “There’s more than one dimension to this…” – which allow you to connect different elements and communicate your desired information seamlessly.

“Being able to access and organize interconnected information by memory is invaluable.”

Dabble in different memory techniques until you find one that works for you. For example, perhaps you create a “memory palace”: Imagine a house with each room decorated symbolically to remind you of elements of an information strand. Practice communicating different strands of your explanation until you can do so without referring to your notes. In a dynamic context, you can’t typically control the order in which you relay information, so think of each strand like a block sitting on a shelf. When others ask you questions or make comments, you can visually imagine this shelf and respond with the block that best serves the situation.

Anticipate questions or feedback others might have regarding your explanation.

When giving dynamic explanations, prepare for the possible questions people might ask. People tend to be predictable and pattern-based. For example, if you know a person you’re addressing has already questioned someone else on the topic you hope to discuss, that person will likely pose similar questions to you. You can also predict possible questions by imagining how you might respond if the roles were reversed. What questions would you have for yourself?

“If you’ve done the preparation, you’ll be ready – both for what you hope will happen and what may surprise you.”

Prepare for the worst-case scenario: What are the most challenging, awkward questions you can imagine someone asking you? Which questions would you prefer others didn’t ask? Preemptively formulate answers. Do your research, and take time to get to know as much as you can about the people with whom you’ll be conversing. Can you get insider knowledge from, say, your colleagues? Can you find out which issues they view as a priority ahead of time? To avoid sounding too rehearsed and disconnected, practice active listening and consider mirroring the language of the person to whom you’re speaking. If you get asked a question that you don’t know how to answer, be honest: Saying something like, “I’m going to look into that, but I don’t have it on hand,” is better than faking expertise.

Prepare for short-form explanations in just a couple of minutes.

You can’t spend hours preparing for every explanation. Sometimes you have to make explanations quickly and more spontaneously. But preparation reaps rewards even in situations that demand rapid verbal explanations, such as talking to your bank on the phone or discussing a local issue with your neighbor. Ask yourself three questions before an impending interaction that requires an explanation:

1. “What subjects do I want to discuss?”
2. “What do I want to say?”
3. “What do I want to ask?”

Quickly jot down the answers to each question, so you can include the right details, even if you only have a few minutes to prepare.

“It’s not just for selfish reasons that short emails are good – they are good for everyone.”

Pause to consider what you want to say, even with short explanations, such as texts and emails. When you communicate poorly in such messages, you waste time explaining yourself and clarifying misunderstandings. When writing emails, make your first sentence and subject line engaging, or people may not read your message. Your email’s paragraphs should be short and concise. Using formatting, such as bold text, can help you highlight important details. Sometimes, you don’t need to write in complete sentences, as email can mirror natural speech. Explain your needs or objectives clearly, so others understand the function of your message. Don’t add recipients who don’t need to be included in the conversation. People are less likely to respond to group emails.

Make the art of explanation work for your unique circumstances, transforming your everyday life.

Preparing and delivering high-quality explanations is a multifaceted process that you must adapt based on your context and circumstances. You might find that, in time, you become faster and more confident in crafting your explanations. But even the best speakers and writers can benefit from practice in giving strong explanations. Find an approach that works for you and go forward from there.

“All our lives are shaped, in part, by the information we share, the information we seek and the information we receive.”

Much like a home chef who tests recipes from a cookbook, you get to pick and choose which aspects of your life you transform first with the art of explanation. Perhaps you opt to start by improving your emails or how you explain work-related matters in meetings. Whatever your goal, you’ll likely feel a sense of thrill, joy and achievement when you start explaining things better.

About the Author

Ros Atkins is the analysis editor at the BBC. He presents Outside Source, Ros Atkins on the Week and Ros Atkins on… for BBC World News and the BBC News Channel.