PDF Summary:The Art of Explanation, by Ros Atkins

How can you be heard when your audience wakes up to a flood of push notifications, wades through endless social media updates over breakfast, and listens to rapid-fire news coverage during their commutes? In this age of information overload, the ability to explain complex ideas is essential to cut through the noise. In The Art of Explanation, BBC journalist Ros Atkins shares his approach for breaking down complicated news stories for diverse audiences.

Whether you’re delivering work presentations, teaching students, or simply trying to be understood in everyday conversations, Atkins’s framework will help you communicate with greater clarity, precision, and impact. Our guide covers his key principles, showing you how to understand your audience, distill information to its essentials, and craft a coherent narrative. Along the way we’ll explore how these techniques connect to insights from cognitive science, artistic creation, literature, and the scientific method.

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(Shortform note: One way to clarify the purpose of your explanation might be to consider the form it will take. In literary analysis, form refers to the fundamental nature of a work: what kind of thing it is. For example, fairy tales announce their form with openings like “There was once,” telling readers what kind of story they’re entering. Artist statements do the same for visual art: They help audiences recognize the essential nature of a work. Just as telling a visitor to look for “the white house in a row of brownstones” helps them find it more easily than its address alone, telling your audience what form your explanation will take helps them recognize its nature and purpose—whether it’s a how-to guide or conceptual overview, for example.)

Step 2: Gather Your Information

With your purpose defined, gather enough information to understand the topic thoroughly, but focus on what serves your specific purpose. Atkins notes that at this stage, it helps to collect more information than you think you’ll need: Research the subject from multiple perspectives, identify key concepts and relationships, gather potential examples and analogies, and note any conflicting viewpoints. Don’t worry about organization yet; it’s better to have excess information that you can later refine than to miss crucial elements. As you collect information, identify any gaps in your understanding that you need to address—concepts you don’t fully grasp or areas where more evidence would strengthen your explanation.

Beyond Collection: Finding Patterns in Information

Assemblage artist Joseph Cornell’s approach to organizing his research materials adds a new dimension to Atkins’s information-gathering process. Cornell created shadow boxes of carefully arranged collections of everyday objects in unexpected combinations, like clay pipes mounted beside star maps or Renaissance portraits placed near hotel advertisements. To arrive at these juxtapositions, Cornell kept an elaborate system of files and storage boxes that arranged materials not only into obvious categories (like birds, hotels, and maps), but by their emotional and thematic resonances.

Cornell viewed organization as a creative process of seeking connections, rearranging materials, and allowing intuitive associations to emerge. To try Cornell’s techniques as you gather information for your explanation, you might create visual maps of how concepts connect, create different organizational schemes beyond the obvious categories, and see what new insights emerge. Your explanation gains depth both from the breadth of material collected, as Atkins emphasizes, and from the unique patterns and relationships you uncover within that material.

Step 3: Extract the Key Points

Next, Atkins recommends refining your raw information into its most usable form through a two-sweep process. The first sweep assesses relevance: Go through all the information you’ve gathered and ask whether it directly helps accomplish your purpose. For information that passes this test, strip away unnecessary details and keep only the most important. Discard anything that doesn’t serve your purpose.

With your refined information, conduct a more rigorous second sweep, asking: Does this actively help achieve your purpose? Is this the most compelling example for your point? Would removing this significantly weaken your explanation? Atkins emphasizes that including non-essential information doesn’t just waste time—it actively distracts from your core message. Be ruthless. Finally, check for any remaining gaps. If you identify important concepts or questions that aren’t adequately addressed, return to Step 2 for targeted information gathering.

(Shortform note: Atkins’s method for keeping only the information that’s most essential to your explanation flips the traditional writing process on its head, applying what’s often considered an editing technique before you even begin drafting. Most writers are familiar with the process of cutting beloved passages, or “killing your darlings.” Atkins advocates this same ruthless selection before you begin writing. But if you find his two-sweep process difficult, Matt Bell explains in Refuse to Be Done that you might instead try completely rewriting the manuscript rather than trying to edit it. Wherever you fit it into your process, the goal of this stage is to cut phrases, examples, or tangents that don’t serve the purpose of conveying your core message.)

Step 4: Create a Logical Structure

With your essential information identified, Atkins recommends arranging it into a coherent structure that will guide your audience through the explanation. Begin by listing the main components or sections—the key topics and concepts you need to cover. Atkins suggests creating two additional categories: uncertain placement (information you’re not sure how to use yet) and high-impact information that might work well at the beginning or end.

Next, arrange your sections in the most logical order. Atkins suggests thinking about how you would explain the topic to a friend: Consider a chronological sequence, a problem-solution format, moving from general to specific, or showing cause and effect. The goal is to create a narrative flow that builds understanding progressively, with each section laying the groundwork for what follows. Once you’ve established the sequence, organize the individual pieces of information within each section, focusing on creating a logical progression. If you use visual elements, determine what visuals will support each section and how you’ll integrate them.

(Shortform note: The Four-Square Writing Method provides a simple approach to organizing information into the kind of logical structure Atkins recommends, using a visual organizer divided into four quadrants surrounding a center box. The center box contains your main idea or topic sentence, and the four surrounding squares are used to develop supporting ideas. Within each supporting square, you can add details, examples, or pieces of evidence that elaborate on that point. While this visual framework was developed for teaching writing to students, research shows it improves organization, helps writers generate and connect ideas, and reduces writing anxiety, making it easier to create the structure and flow that Atkins says is crucial.)

Step 5: Connect the Dots

After you’ve organized your information, Atkins recommends connecting your elements into a smooth explanation. Develop clear transitions that show the relationships between different pieces of information. Use signpost language to indicate where you’re going (“Next, we’ll examine...”), show connections between ideas (“This relates to our earlier point about...”), and explain why you’re moving to a new topic.

Write or outline your explanation following the structure you’ve created. Focus on clarity and precision, ensure each section flows logically from the previous one, and use examples strategically to illustrate complex concepts. If you get stuck, identify why: Are you unclear about what you want to say? Is there missing information? Is the order not quite right? Once you have a complete draft, review it from beginning to end to assess the overall flow. Does each point build naturally on what came before? Are there any logical gaps? Does the explanation point toward a clear conclusion? Make adjustments as needed to ensure a smooth progression.

The Importance of Precise Transitions

When crafting transitions between ideas, Atkins emphasizes the need to articulate the exact relationship between concepts rather than relying on vague connective phrases. When connecting ideas, it’s easier to use vague terms like “extends,” “supports,” or “is relevant to” than to do the real work of explanation: articulating precisely how one idea relates to another. However, when we say something merely “relates to,” “involves,” or “echoes” a previous point, we’re not actually explaining the relationship between the two ideas. We’re just asserting that a connection exists without defining its nature.

When we struggle to precisely define relationships between ideas, it may be because we haven’t fully developed our understanding of how ideas connect. Using precise language forces us to clarify these relationships for ourselves: Does one idea cause another, exemplify it, contradict it, qualify it, or build upon it in some other defined way? This precision in articulating relationships between ideas isn’t just a matter of style—it’s essential for clear thinking and communication.

Step 6: Refine for Clarity

Next, Atkins recommends polishing your explanation to make it as clear, precise, and efficient as possible. Review it sentence by sentence, looking for unclear statements, unnecessary jargon, overly complex sentences, or undefined terms that might be unfamiliar to your audience. Look for opportunities to make your explanation more concise by removing redundant information, combining related points, replacing lengthy descriptions with more efficient phrasing, and eliminating tangential details.

Atkins recommends paying special attention to your opening and conclusion. Does your introduction clearly establish what you’ll be explaining, and will it engage your audience? Does your conclusion effectively summarize the key points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway? Finally, evaluate your explanation against your original purpose. Have you answered all the questions identified in Step 1? Is the explanation appropriately tailored to your audience? Have you removed all distractions and non-essential elements?

The Buddhist Art of Editing

The act of refining an explanation can become a practice in mindfulness. When author and longtime Buddhist practitioner George Saunders describes his writing process, he frames editing as a spiritual discipline that requires setting aside your ego and seeing what’s actually on the page, rather than what you intended to write. According to Saunders, effective editing requires confronting what he calls “our normal crap”—the habitual thinking patterns and fixed ideas that prevent us from perceiving clearly. Like meditation, editing demands that you continuously return to the present moment (in this case, the text as it exists) with fresh attention, looking for phrasings that are unclear, unnecessary, or too complex.

This approach aligns with Atkins’s advice to review your explanation sentence by sentence. Both processes require intellectual humility: the willingness to recognize that your first attempt isn’t perfect and that improvement comes through rigorous self-examination. Through hundreds of small, deliberate decisions, your explanation evolves into something clearer and more precise than your initial draft—and often better than what you alone could have produced in a single attempt. In Buddhist terms, this might be seen as moving beyond the limited viewpoint of the “self” who created the first draft to find a more comprehensive truth.

Step 7: Prepare to Present Your Explanation

Finally, Atkins recommends thinking through how you’ll present your explanation, whether in writing, in person, or through other media. If you’ll be delivering it verbally, read it aloud to check that it sounds natural and authentic. Mark places where emphasis would help understanding, identify natural pauses, and note where to introduce visual elements. Create annotations for yourself, highlighting key transitions and points where you might need to adjust your delivery. Rehearse your explanation, focusing on clear articulation, natural pacing, smooth transitions, and effective use of visual elements. Consider potential challenges and how you’ll handle them, such as technical difficulties, time constraints, or unexpected questions.

(Shortform note: The final preparations can be more than rehearsal: To fashion designer Miuccia Prada, they’re the perfect time to finally understand what a Prada or Miu Miu collection means, right before she presents it to the world. Prada creates instinctively, and it’s only in the final days before a show that she articulates the conceptual framework that ties it all together—and determines how she’ll explain it. This mirrors what happens when you prepare to present an explanation: Rehearsing doesn’t just polish your performance; it can also help you find new connections and meaning in your material, solidifying your understanding of what you want to communicate.)

How to Create an Explanation for Any Situation

Atkins’s explanation framework can be adapted to diverse settings. Whether you’re preparing a formal presentation, responding to questions in a meeting, or crafting a quick email, here’s how you can apply his core principles to communicate clearly and effectively.

Adapt Your Approach to the Communication Context

How you implement Atkins’s method depends on whether you’re preparing an explanation or responding dynamically. For prepared explanations—like presentations or educational materials—you can follow the seven-step framework. But dynamic explanations require a more flexible approach: In meetings, interviews, or conversations, you need to respond to questions and adapt to changing circumstances. For these situations, Atkins recommends organizing your information differently. Instead of creating a linear narrative, break your content into distinct topic areas that you can address in any order, based on what’s needed. Each topic area should contain no more than five key points for easier recall.

For example, if you were preparing to explain how to build a treehouse during a community workshop, you might organize your knowledge into separate topic areas: “Safety Considerations,” “Material Selection,” “Basic Structure,” “Weather Protection,” and “Creative Additions.” Within your “Material Selection” topic, you might memorize five key points: types of weather-resistant wood, appropriate fasteners, platform materials, roofing options, and eco-friendly alternatives. This organization allows you to jump directly to any relevant topic based on the questions you receive, rather than having to work through a fixed sequence.

Atkins recommends practicing each topic area separately and rehearsing smooth transitions between any two topics to develop the flexibility to respond to whatever direction the conversation takes. He also suggests committing key points to memory using techniques like mental imagery or acronyms. One practice method he advocates is to write topic headings on paper slips, draw one randomly, and explain that topic immediately—building your ability to access information quickly regardless of order. Most importantly, anticipate questions by creating and preparing for a comprehensive list. Even in dynamic situations, Atkins says that if you prepare well, you can typically predict 70-80% of the questions you’ll get.

Memory Techniques for Dynamic Explanations

When Atkins recommends organizing information into topic areas and using mental imagery to remember the key points, he’s tapping into principles similar to those behind the “memory palace” technique described in Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein. Just as you can navigate your home or another familiar building by moving between rooms, the memory palace technique involves imagining a physical space and placing the various points of your explanation into distinct “rooms” which you can access flexibly. This approach leverages your brain’s natural strengths in spatial navigation and visual memory.

In Metaphors of Memory,Douwe Draaisma explains that throughout history, we’ve understood memory through the metaphors of our time, from wax tablets to photographs to digital storage. These metaphors shape not just how we talk about memory but how we use it. Today’s digital metaphors often reduce memory to simple storage, but effective explanation, as Atkins points out, requires something more sophisticated. When you thoroughly understand and recall each area of your explanation separately, and can connect them in any order, you’re free to focus on adapting to your audience’s needs (and answering their questions articulately) rather than struggling to remember your next point.

Streamline Your Approach for Brief Communications

For everyday communications like emails and brief conversations, Atkins offers a streamlined approach based on realistic assumptions about how people consume information: They may not read it at all; if they do, they likely won’t read all of it; they’ll skim rather than read carefully; they’re looking for functional information; and if it doesn’t feel personally relevant, they’ll disengage. Given these realities, put your main point or request in the first sentence and use a subject line that clearly communicates your purpose. Format for skimmability, with short paragraphs, bullet points for multiple items, and visual emphasis on key information.

Atkins also recommends making it easy for the recipient to respond to an email or memo by being specific about what you need and providing clear options rather than open-ended questions. Always personalize your message by referencing relevant context and tailoring details to the recipient’s specific needs. Atkins notes that poorly crafted communications force people to work harder than necessary to extract essential information. Crafting a clear and efficient message shows you respect the recipient’s time.

The Neuroscience Behind Our Email Habits

When Atkins observes that recipients may not read your email or will skim rather than read carefully, he’s describing neurological limitations rather than simple bad habits. By understanding these neurological limits and crafting messages accordingly, you’re doing more than being polite: You’re working with human biology rather than against it. Research shows that our brains have a strict information processing capacity: about 120 bits per second. This creates a bottleneck that makes it impossible to process all the information coming our way. The average office worker receives more than 100 emails daily, but reading and comprehending each one thoroughly is neurologically impossible.

Further, eye-tracking studies reveal that we can only extract information from a small visual window of about seven character spaces at a time. This means we can only read 300-400 words per minute: Read faster than that, and understanding drops precipitously. What many call “speed reading” is just skimming: sacrificing comprehension for velocity. The brain’s natural response to information overload is to develop shortcuts. When overwhelmed by emails, we resort to strategies like judging importance based on sender name or subject line—which validates Atkins’s emphasis on clear subject lines, putting your point in the first sentence, and making it easy for readers to understand what you need or expect from them.

Embrace Continuous Improvement Through Iteration

You can develop your explanation skills through deliberate practice and refinement. Atkins emphasizes viewing explanation as an iterative process: Each attempt gives you an opportunity to improve. For important explanations, plan for multiple drafts. Create an initial version focused on getting your ideas down, then critically evaluate it for logical gaps, unclear sections, and potential confusion. Make deliberate improvements in subsequent versions, continuing until you’ve achieved the clarity and impact you seek.

Atkins explains that seeking external feedback is invaluable for this improvement process. Ask others specific questions about your explanations: Was anything unclear? Did it answer your questions? Were there logical jumps? Did the organization make sense? When possible, test your explanations with members of your intended audience and observe their responses. You can use this feedback to identify patterns in your explanation style. Perhaps you consistently overlook certain types of information, rely too heavily on jargon, or struggle with particular transitions. Recognizing patterns allows you to address them thoughtfully.

The Reality of Revision

While Atkins recommends planning for multiple drafts, many of us resist this approach and assume the goal is to eventually be able to write a perfect explanation on the first try. But academic writing specialist Katherine Firth reports that in reality, as writers gain experience, they often increase rather than decrease the number of drafts they write, completing anywhere from six to 12. This approach produces better results more quickly than attempting perfection the first time. Similarly, in Seven Drafts, Allison K. Williams recommends a structured approach to revision, with each of seven drafts focusing on a different aspect of the work, from getting ideas down to refining technical elements to incorporating feedback.

Even at the highest levels of creative achievement, taking the time to reread and revise your work remains essential. When US Poet Laureate Ada Limón was tasked with writing a poem to accompany NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, she struggled through more than a dozen drafts before creating the final version that will travel 1.8 billion miles through space. Her breakthrough came when she asked for external feedback, as Atkins recommends: Her husband encouraged her to approach the poem as if it were a piece she would write anyway, for herself. NASA’s spacecraft is expected to reach Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in April 2030 with Limón’s extensively revised poem aboard.

Develop an Explanation Mindset

Beyond specific techniques, Atkins encourages cultivating an “explanation mindset” that prioritizes clarity and understanding in all communications. He states that when you have an explanation mindset, your primary goal is understanding. This mindset ultimately transforms not just how you communicate but also how you think, because the process of crafting clear explanations forces you to understand topics more deeply. The skills you develop—identifying essential information, organizing ideas logically, and expressing concepts precisely—enhance your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

This mindset also changes how you approach the explanation process: You recognize that effective explanations rarely happen spontaneously but require thoughtful preparation. Similarly, your perspective on audience response transforms. Rather than seeing questions and confusion as signs of failure, you welcome them as feedback that helps you refine your approach. This openness to improvement becomes integral to how you think about explanation—not as a one-time performance but as an ongoing dialogue aimed at deepening understanding.

Train Your Brain to Explain

In recommending that you develop an explanation mindset, Atkins touches on something deeper than a communication strategy. Neuroscience research suggests explanation isn’t just something we do: It’s fundamentally how our brains work. Your brain doesn’t passively receive information and then react to it. Instead, it constantly predicts what it expects to experience, using past knowledge to anticipate and interpret the present. When you develop an explanation mindset, as Atkins suggests, you’re aligning your conscious approach with your brain’s natural functioning and sharpening the same neural mechanisms that your brain already uses unconsciously to make sense of the world.

The traditional boundaries we draw between concepts like “understanding” and “experiencing” are more blurred than we realize. As philosopher Mark Johnson suggests, there’s no such thing as disembodied understanding: Our neural, chemical, and bodily responses are in continual conversation. Similarly, when you craft an explanation, you’re not simply transmitting information; you’re constructing a shared reality with your audience and anticipating the questions that will arise. Cultivating an explanation mindset helps you become a better communicator and trains your brain to build more accurate models of reality. This enhances your understanding and your skill in sharing that understanding with others.