The Art of Explanation

One of the key challenges in modern days is how to communicate something so that our message is delivered and how to explain a key idea so that readers understand what we want them to understand. This is as important in science communication or intelligence work. The cost or penalty of our inability to explain a key point can have disastrous effects.

In his book “The Art of Explanation”, Ros Atkins distills his life experience in radio and television on how to better. Throughout the book, he explains how “Explanations can be undone by distractions of our own making”. It is a fast read, with a nice mix of introducing new concepts and real-life stories and examples.

I purchased this book as I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of material I had to go through for my master’s studies, where each module includes a series of ‘must-reads’ within the 3-month duration of each module, which can go between 10 to 15 books per class. Ros’ book shows how, in his job, they have to become experts in a topic overnight. How they are able to comb through large quantities of material and reduce it to a couple of sentences that can clearly convey a certain point or message or explain a topic in just a few minutes of time.

I read the book online, and got the printed version as well to be able to consult the book on-demand while I am writing my essays.