brisebois blog

An explanation problem exists when there is a mismatch between what is heard and what matters to the target audience.

(…) Often, when someone asks “what is…”, they really mean “Why does it matter to me?” By considering what matters to someone, the answer becomes different and more likely to give them information they can act on.

(…) [E]xplanation sometimes means answering a different question than was asked. It’s not always “what is it?” as much as “why should I care about it?” (common craft)

An excellent explanation of what wikis are and how they work.

Thanks to the people at Common Craft.

You achieve plain English when you use the simplest, most straightforward way of expressing an idea. You can still choose interesting words. But you’ll avoid fancy ones that have everyday replacements meaning precisely the same thing.
- Bryan Garner on “Plain English”

And you will find several excellent tools at the plainlanguage.gov website.