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 steps or facts, at least three, in the order that helps the reader most. Steps go in the order they happen, and a good guide never doubles back.
  3. What to notice at each stop
    For each step, one more line: what it means, why it matters, or what happens if you skip it. 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, so name it precisely. "Food" files under vague. "Fried eggs and mashed potatoes" files under done.

We made food. We fried eggs and mashed potatoes.

Vinny portrait

Vinny · Strong verbs

A weak verb just stands there. A strong verb charges in and rescues the whole sentence. The smoke did not go everywhere. It filled the kitchen.

The smoke went everywhere. Smoke filled the kitchen.

Connie portrait

Connie · Sentence variety

A short sentence lands hard. A longer one, joined with a conjunction, gives your reader room to breathe. Try both, and let them take turns.

The butter burned and the kitchen filled with smoke and we opened a window. The butter burned. Smoke filled the kitchen, so we threw open a window and kept going.

The Mayor portrait

The Mayor · Three-part structure

A story stands on three parts: a beginning that opens the door, a middle where something goes wrong, and an ending that earns its feeling. Point to all three, and you have built a story.

A pile of things that happened, in no real order. We decided to cook. The kitchen fell apart. They ate every bite, and I was proud.

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 pouring: 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. Name where we are going: your topic, in one sentence.
  2. The stops, in order: your steps or facts, at least three.
  3. What to notice at each stop: one more line for each.
  4. Leave them knowing the way: an ending that hands over the skill.
Watch the Mayor plan it

Watch me run the plan on something our writer learned in Garvin's kitchen: how to fry an egg, for a reader who has never done it.

Pick it. How to fry an egg, for a reader who has never tried. That reader is Garvin. I am writing this for the Garvins of the world.

Plan it.

  • Where we are going Frying an egg is one of the first skills every cook learns, and you can learn it in five careful steps.
  • The stops, in order 1. Pan on medium heat with a small pat of butter. 2. Crack the egg gently on the flat rim, just above the pan. 3. Let the white turn from clear to solid. 4. Slide a spatula under the whole egg and lift it out. 5. Turn off the stove.
  • What to notice at each Medium, not high, or the butter burns and the kitchen goes gray. Squeeze the shell and you wear the egg. Watch the white, not the clock. The spatula goes under the whole egg, or the yolk stays behind.
  • Leave them knowing the way Five steps, one hot pan, and now you can make breakfast for someone. Start with a friend who claims it cannot be done.

Pour it on. When I write this out, I keep the stops exactly and I add what the notes left out: the sizzle that tells you the pan is ready, the reminder to wash your hands after the shell. But I never rearrange. On a tour, the reader is following me step by step.

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