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, and never leaves the reader wondering why.

Every explanation is a trip you take your reader on. At this level it is a trip that explains itself as it goes. Here is what a good one carries, and what each part does for the reader.

A clear destination

Your topic, in one sentence the reader cannot misunderstand. They should know exactly what this tour will help them understand before it starts, not just what it will list.
Stops in the right order

Your steps, facts, or factors, at least three, in the order that builds understanding. Steps go in the order they happen, but an analysis can also move from cause to effect, from smaller to larger, or from what is true to why it is true. A good guide never doubles back.
What to notice at each stop

For each stop, the analysis: not just what is true, but why it is true, what it costs, or who it affects. The noticing is what makes it a tour and not a bare list, and at this level the why is the point.
An ending that leaves them knowing the way

Wrap it up and remind the reader what they now understand, and how the stops fit together. They should walk away able to explain it themselves, tradeoffs and all.

Spend your tools

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

Nelson · Specific nouns

Every noun carries three things: its plain meaning (its denotation), the feeling it drags along (its connotation), and the register it fits. "Kids" and "bosses" are casual and a little loaded; "students" and "the administration" fit a formal argument and stay fair. Nelson would fit all three to the reader.

The kids wanted the bosses to change the rule. Students asked the administration to reconsider the schedule.

Vinny · Strong verbs

The verb you attach to a claim reveals your stance. "Said" is neutral; "argued" leans in; "questioned" stays measured. A careful writer picks the verb that carries exactly the tone they mean, no more heat than the argument earns. Vinny knows the verb sets the temperature.

The council said the schedule was a problem. The council argued the schedule was failing us, or, more carefully, questioned whether it still served students.

Connie · Cadence and sentence architecture

A paragraph has a rhythm you can architect. A run of short sentences drums; one long, well-built sentence opens the lungs. Once the comma rule is second nature, you may even drop the comma before a coordinating conjunction when two clauses are very short and closely tied ("He swung and he missed"), but only on purpose. Learn the rule first, then bend it knowingly.

We lost. We tried again. We learned. We kept going. We won later. We lost. We tried again, learned what we had missed, and kept going, and by spring the schedule had actually changed.

The Mayor · Sustained structure across paragraphs

A short piece stands on three parts; a long one stands on the same three, sustained. Each body paragraph carries one move of the argument, one of them turning to answer the other side, and the whole holds because every paragraph knows its job. Structure is what keeps a long piece from becoming a pile.

Paragraphs that each make sense but do not add up to one argument. An opening that frames the question, body paragraphs that each advance one part of the case (including the one that answers the other side), and a close that earns its call to action.

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.

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

Watch the Mayor plan it

Watch me run the plan on something I learned the hard way in eighth grade, when I ran for student council: how a school-schedule decision actually gets made, for a reader who assumes the principal just picks a time.

Pick it. How a school start time actually gets decided, for a reader who thinks it is one person's choice. That reader was me, before the campaign. I am writing this for everyone who thinks change is as simple as being right.

Plan it.

Where we are going A school start time is not chosen by one person; it is the outcome of several systems that have to agree, and understanding those systems explains why change is slow.
The stops, in order 1. The sleep research, which is why anyone wants a later start. 2. The bus system, which shares drivers and routes across schools, so one school cannot move alone. 3. The after-school system: jobs, sports, and pickups that all sit at the end of the day. 4. The decision itself, made by a board weighing all three.
What to notice at each The sleep research explains the goal but not the cost. The buses explain why a single school cannot just shift: move one, and you have to move them all, or buy more buses. The after-school stop explains who feels the tradeoff most, because a later start pushes the whole day later. The board stop explains why the answer is usually a compromise, not a clean win.
Leave them knowing the way Now you can see a start time for what it is: not a preference, but a balance among sleep, buses, and everything families do after the last bell. That is why my campaign won a small pilot instead of the big change, and why that was the honest outcome.

Pour it on. When I write this out, I keep the stops exactly and I add the analysis the notes only gestured at: why the buses are the real constraint, how a later start ripples into after-school jobs. But I never rearrange, because the reader is following me from cause to effect, one stop at a time.

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