Grammaropolis
The Writing Company · with the Mayor

Write to Explain

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Write to Explain

When your purpose is to explain, you are giving your reader a tour. A good guide never skips a stop.

Every explanation is a trip you take your reader on. Here is what a good one carries, and what each part does for the reader.

  1. A clear destination
    Your topic, in one sentence the reader cannot misunderstand. They should know exactly where this tour is going before it starts.
  2. Stops in the right order
    Your points or steps, at least three, in the order that helps the reader most. A good guide never doubles back.
  3. What to notice at each stop
    For each point, one more line: a fact, a detail, or why it matters. The noticing is what makes it a tour and not a bare list.
  4. An ending that leaves them knowing the way
    Wrap it up and remind the reader what they now know how to do. They should walk away able to do it themselves.

Spend your tools

The craft moves you already know still do the work, pointed at an explanation.

Nelson portrait

Nelson · Specific nouns

A noun names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. "Cousin" is a common noun; "Maya" is her proper name, and it earns a capital M. "Tree" is common; "the old oak" is precise. Name the exact thing, and use the real name when you have one.

My cousin and I built it near the tree. Maya and I built our fort under the old oak.

Vinny portrait

Vinny · Strong verbs

Two jobs here. Pick the precise verb: not "put up" but "raised." And keep your tenses in step. If the story already happened, "comes" should be "came." One slip in tense trips the reader.

We put up the fort, and then rain comes. We raised the fort, and then the rain came.

Connie portrait

Connie · Compound sentences for rhythm

A short sentence lands hard. A compound one, two thoughts joined with a comma and a conjunction, gives the reader room to breathe. Let them take turns, and your writing finds a rhythm.

We built the walls and we built the roof and then it rained. We built the walls. We built the roof, and then the rain came.

The Mayor portrait

The Mayor · The paragraph as a small machine

A good paragraph is a small machine. The topic sentence is the switch, the body sentences are the moving parts, and the closer shuts it off clean. If a sentence has no job, it jams the works. Every part pulls its weight.

Sentences that sit near each other but do not work together. The topic sentence starts it, each body sentence adds a part, and the last sentence closes it.

The Explain Plan

Same three moves as always, new trip. When your purpose is to inform or to explain, the Plan it move is the Tour.

The Mayor's Power Plan

  • Pick it. Choose the idea worth explaining, and the reader who needs it.
  • Plan it. Map your stops before you go.
  • Pour it on. Write, and keep going: more detail at every stop the reader needs it.

The Tour

Plan the route, and the reader can follow it with their own two hands.

  1. Introduce where we are going: your topic, in one sentence.
  2. Develop the points, in order: at least three, each with a fact or detail.
  3. What to notice at each point: one more line for each.
  4. Conclude and leave them knowing the way: an ending that ties it together.
Watch the Mayor plan it

Watch me run the plan on something I learned in Grandma's backyard: how to build a fort, for a reader who has never made one.

Pick it. How to build a backyard fort, for a reader who has never tried. That reader is my cousin Maya before we started. I am writing this for the beginners of the world.

Plan it.

  • Introduce where we are going A good backyard fort needs three things, and you can build one in an afternoon: a frame, a cover, and a floor.
  • Develop the points, in order 1. A frame to hold it up: a low branch of an oak, or two chairs a few feet apart. 2. A cover: an old blanket draped over the frame and weighed down with rocks. 3. A floor: a mat or an old towel so the ground stays dry.
  • What to notice at each The frame has to be steady, or the whole thing leans over. Weigh the blanket down with rocks so the wind does not lift it off. Pick a spot on higher ground so rain does not pool under your floor.
  • Conclude and leave them knowing the way With a frame, a cover, and a floor, your fort will stay up. Now find a good spot and build one this week.

Pour it on. When I write this out, I keep the three points exactly and I add what the notes left out: the way the blanket bellies in the wind, the reminder to check the sky first. But I never rearrange. On a tour, the reader is following me one point at a time.

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