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Analyzing Concept Explanations

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As you read the selections in this chapter, you will see how different authors explain concepts:

Jonathan Potthast explains the devastating consequences that would follow the eruption of a supervolcano.
Anastasia Toufexis analyzes the biological basis of love.
John Tierney explains the hidden danger of decision fatigue.
Susan Cain examines the benefits of introversion.

Analyzing how these writers develop a surprising or interesting focus for their explanation, how they organize the explanation to draw readers in and keep them reading, how they use examples and other writing strategies to make the topic compelling, and how they integrate sources to make their claims convincing will help you see how you can employ these same techniques to make your own concept explanations successful.

Determine the writer’s purpose and audience.

How well a writer analyzes and explains a concept can demonstrate how well he or she understands it. That is why this kind of writing is so frequently assigned in college courses. But it is also a popular genre outside of the classroom, where effective writers manage to make the most esoteric topics interesting and important. These authors understand that a concept explanation risks being dry and uninteresting to those not already intrigued by the topic, so they make an effort to zero in on a focus that will excite the curiosity of their readers. When reading the concept explanations that follow, ask yourself questions like these:

What seems to be the writer’s main purpose?

to inform readers about an important idea or theory?
to show how a concept has promoted original thinking and research in an area of study?
to better understand the concept by explaining it to others?
to demonstrate knowledge of the concept and the ability to apply it?

What does the writer assume about the audience?

that readers will be unfamiliar with the concept and need an introduction that will capture their interest?
that readers will know something about the concept but want to learn more about it?
that the primary reader will be an instructor who knows more about the concept than the writer does and who is evaluating the writer’s knowledge?

Basic Features

A Focused Explanation

A Clear, Logical Organization

Appropriate Explanatory Strategies

Smooth Integration of Sources

Assess the genre’s basic features.

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As you read the concept explanations in this chapter, evaluate how effectively different authors employ the genre’s basic features. The examples that follow are drawn from the reading selections that appear later in this Guide to Reading.

A FOCUSED EXPLANATION

Read first to identify the concept. Ask yourself:

“What is the focus or main point?” This point is the thesis of a concept explanation, comparable to what we call autobiographical significance in remembered event essays and perspective in profiles. The point answers the “So what?” question: Why are you telling me about this concept? Why is it interesting or important?
“What should I include and what should I leave out?” These decisions are often dictated by readers—how much they already know about the topic and how interested in the topic they are. For college writing and some other contexts, the focus may be dictated by a specific question or prompt. For example, Jonathan Potthast’s instructor asked students to analyze a concept they had learned about in another course, conducting additional research as needed to explain the concept to a reader with little or no background in the subject.

A CLEAR, LOGICAL ORGANIZATION

Consider whether the concept explanation is clearly and logically organized. Notice how each writer develops a plan that does the following:

States the thesis or main point early on

Concept

Main point

Let’s put love under a microscope. . . . When rigorous people with Ph.D.s after their names do that, what they see is not some silly senseless thing. No, their probe reveals that love rests firmly on foundations of evolution, biology, and chemistry. (Toufexis, pars. 1–2)
Divides the information into clearly distinguishable topics and forecasts them in the order in which they will be discussed

Topic

Forecast

Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. (Tierney, par. 5)
Guides readers by providing cues or road signs

Transition

Even more astounding, ash in the air after a volcano can temporarily cause dramatic changes to the climate. (Potthast, par. 7)

Afterward, all the participants were given one of the classic tests of self-control: holding your hand in ice water for as long as you can. (Tierney, par. 9)

If, in nature’s design, romantic love is not eternal, neither is it exclusive. (Toufexis, par. 8)

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APPROPRIATE EXPLANATORY STRATEGIES

Look for explanatory strategies, such as definition, classification, comparison-contrast, example, illustration, and cause-effect, that help readers understand the topic:

Defining characteristic

Term being defined

Terms being contrasted

Cues

Cue

Cues

Examples

Reference to a visual in the text

Effect

Cause

DEFINITION	Each person carries in his or her mind a unique subliminal guide to the ideal partner, a “love map,” . . . (Toufexis, par. 17)
COMPARISON-CONTRAST	Shyness and introversion are not the same thing. Shy people fear negative judgment; introverts simply prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments. . . . (Cain, par. 9) In contrast,. . . (Cain, par. 19)
EXAMPLE	Despite . . . side effects—nausea, loss of sex drive, seizures —drugs like Zoloft . . . (Cain, par. 3) We find them in recent history, in figures like Charles Darwin, Marcel Proust and Albert Einstein, and, in contemporary times: think of Google’s Larry Page, or Harry Potter’s creator, J. K. Rowling. (Cain, par. 11)
ILLUSTRATION (WITH VISUAL)	Like hurricanes, the power of volcanoes is measured using an exponential scale (see the Volcanic Explosivity Index, or VEI, in Fig. 1). (Potthast, par. 1)
CAUSE-EFFECT	To a fatigued judge, denying parole seems like the easier call not only because it preserves the status quo. . . but also because it leaves more options open. . . . (Tierney, par. 11)

(For more on writing strategies such as definition and classification, see Chapters 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.)

SMOOTH INTEGRATION OF SOURCES

Notice how writers draw on research, as well as their own experiences and observations, to explain the concept. How do writers establish their authority by smoothly integrating information from sources into the explanation? Does the writer quote, paraphrase, or summarize the source material? How does the writer establish the source’s expertise and credibility? The examples below demonstrate some strategies:

Signal phrase plus credentials

Parenthetical citation

QUOTE	According to Joel Achenbach, a reporter on science and politics for the Washington Post,. . . a super-eruption 2.1 million years ago . . . “[left] a hole in the ground the size of Rhode Island” (1). (Potthast, par. 9) In the wake of the . . . eruption, a pyroclastic flow “swept down the mountain, flattening forests, overtaking escaping vehicles and killing several people who stood absolutely no chance of moving out of its path” (“Lahars”). (Potthast, par. 2)
PARAPHRASE	It is the difference between passionate and compassionate love, observes Walsh, a psychobiologist at Boise State University in Idaho. (Toufexis, par. 14)
SUMMARY	Decision fatigue is the newest discovery involving . . . ego depletion, a term coined by the social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister. . . [who] began studying mental discipline in a series of experiments . . . [that] demonstrated that there is a finite store of mental energy for exerting self-control. (Tierney, par. 6)

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How writers treat sources depends on the writing situation. Certain formal situations, such as college assignments or scholarly publications, require writers to cite sources in the text and document them in a bibliography (called a list of works cited in many humanities disciplines and a list of references in the sciences and social sciences). Students and scholars are expected to cite their sources formally because readers judge their work in part by what the writers have read and how they have used their reading. They may also be interested in locating the sources and reading more about the topic for themselves. (Jonathan Potthast’s essay provides an example of academic citation.) For writing in popular sources, like magazine and newspaper articles for example, readers do not expect references or publication information to appear in the article, but they do expect sources to be identified and their expertise established in some way. (The articles by Toufexis, Tierney, and Cain provide examples of informal citation.)