An explanation is written to explain how and why something in the world happens. It is about actions rather than about things. Explanations play a valuable role in building and storing our knowledge. Technical and scientific writing are often expressed in this form.
Explanations are an important part of instruction and learning. The Cambridge Dictionary defines an explanation as, “the details or other information that someone gives to make something clear or easy to understand.” Researchers differentiate between generic explanations and instructional explanations.
the details or other information that someone gives to make something clear or easy to understand: [ C ] She gave a detailed explanation of the administration's health-care proposal. An explanation is also a reason or an excuse for doing something: [ C ] He had no explanation for his absence the day before.
An explanation is a set of statements usually constructed to describe a set of facts that clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts. It may establish rules or laws, and clarifies the existing rules or laws in relation to any objects or phenomena examined.
Explain the topic to the audience
Define and explain to the audience how to use the information—letting your listeners know how the information can be used will help make them active listeners.
noun. the act or process of explaining. something that explains; a statement made to clarify something and make it understandable; exposition: an explanation of a poem.
Explanation paragraphs provide detail about how or why things happen by explaining relationships between processes, events or other phenomena. Sequential explanations explain how things happen, for example, through various stages in a process. Explanations that explain why things happen can be causal or consequential.
An explanation is a way of providing information or clarifying a concept, process, or situation. It involves presenting details, facts, or reasoning in a concise and understandable manner. The aim is to make something clearer or easier to understand by breaking it down into simpler parts or by providing context.
There are several reasons why we engage in explanations and seek them out. The most commonly offered reason is to be able to predict similar events in the future (Heider 1958).
Research in education and cognitive development suggests that explaining plays a key role in learning and generalization: When learners provide explanations-even to themselves-they learn more effectively and generalize more readily to novel situations.
Evidence doesn't speak for itself, but often needs to be explained, analysed and interpreted so that the reader understands how it supports your point. You might feel that the reader can work it out for themselves, but it's your job as the writer to do that work, not the reader.
Basic purposes of a text include: to inform – to describe, explain, or teach something to your audience. to persuade/argue – to get your audience to do something, to take a particular action, or to think in a certain way.
Benefits of generating explanations
Explanations convey information about concepts or processes with the goal of making clear and comprehensible an idea or set of ideas. Explanations may involve a variety of elements, such as the use of examples and analogies (Roscoe & Chi, 2007).
Among the most common forms of explanation are causal explanation (see causation); deductive-nomological explanation (see covering-law model), which involves subsuming the explanandum under a generalization from which it may be derived in a deductive argument (e.g., “All gases expand when heated; this gas was heated; ...
1) The purpose of commentary and explanations in an essay is show what you are talking about and to describe what that topic is. 2) The difference between commentary and explanation is commentary shows what you believe and think about the topic, meanwhile an explanation can be factual and tell you what something is.
Social psychologists and philosophers have argued that, in revealing the past, explanations help to predict and control the future 1, 6, 16, 34. The work reviewed below suggests that explanations often support the broader function of guiding reasoning.
Explanation texts often tell you about the parts of a process, usually written in chronological order – this means the process is described in the exact order that things happen or are done.
Giving explanations help to make things clear especially for students learning at school. Moreover,giving explanations is being able to communicate our thoughts and feelings to others especially to our significant other if we have one.
There are three general purposes that all speeches fall into: to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. Depending on what your ultimate goal is, you will start by picking one of these general purposes and then selecting an appropriate speech pattern that goes along with that general purpose.
A general purpose to inform would mean that the speaker is teaching the audience about a topic, increasing their understanding and awareness, or providing new information about a topic the audience might already know.
Speeches of explanation detail processes or how something works, often explaining an otherwise complex, abstract, or unfamiliar idea to the audience. This approach is common in industry-settings or professional contexts where a speaker needs to explain the process, data, or results of a study or program.