What, then, is explanation? The purpose of explanation, you learned at the beginning of Part III, is to make more definite certain thoughts-to explain them. Like argument, explanation deals mainly with the inner world of thoughts and the relation of thoughts. Like argument, also, explanation appeals to the understanding, its object being chiefly to teach the reader. Unlike argument, however, explanation is concerned with what a thought is, rather than with the truth or falsity of a thought. When you try to convince a fellow-camper that it is harder to make a smudge than it is to build a camp cooking-fire, you argue the truth and falsity of a thought, but when you tell some one who has never camped how to build a smudge, you incidentally explain what a thought is in this case, what the thought "smudge " is. Here, by the way, is an explanation of “smudge": HOW TO MAKE A SMUDGE 1 The smudge is called into being for the express purpose of creating [a thick, nauseating, intolerable smoke], which is as disagreeable to the mosquito, and black-fly, and the midge as it is to the man whom they are devouring. But the man survives the smoke, while the insects succumb to it, being destroyed or driven away. Therefore the smudge, dark and bitter in itself, frequently becomes, like adversity, sweet in its uses. It must be regarded as a form of fire with which man has made friends under the pressure of a cruel necessity. It would seem as if it ought to be the simplest affair in the world to light up a smudge. And so it is- if you are not trying. An attempt to produce almost any other kind of fire will bring forth smoke abundantly. But when you deliberately undertake to create a smudge, flames break from the wettest timber, and green moss blazes with a furious heat. You hastily gather handfuls of seemingly incombustible material and throw it on the fire, but the con 1 Printed by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. flagration increases. Grass and green leaves hesitate for an instant and then flash up like tinder. The more you put on, the more your smudge rebels against its proper task of smudging. It makes a pleasant warmth, to encourage the black-flies; and bright light to attract and cheer the mosquitoes. Your effort is a brilliant failure. The proper way to make a smudge is this. Begin with a very little, lowly fire. Let it be bright but not ambitious. Don't try to make a smoke yet. Then gather a good supply of stuff which seems likely to suppress fire without smothering it. Moss of a certain kind will do, but not the soft, feathery moss that grows so deep among the spruce trees. Half-decayed wood is good; spongy, moist, unpleasant stuff, a vegetable wet blanket. The bark of dead evergreen trees, hemlock, spruce, or balsam, is better still. Gather a plentiful store of it. But don't try to make a smoke yet. Let your fire burn a while longer; cheer it up a little. Get some clear, resolute, unquenchable coals aglow in the heart of it. try to make a smoke yet. Don't Now pile on your smouldering fuel. Fan it with your hat. Kneel down and blow it, and in ten minutes you will have a smoke that will make you wish you had never been born. That is the proper way to make a smudge. But the easiest way is to ask your guide to make it for you. — HENRY VAN DYKE, Fisherman's Luck. Now, just what has Dr. Van Dyke done in this explanation? For one thing, he has made clear his notion of the thought "smudge," and he has done this most entertainingly by telling us how a smudge is made. Though he has used many particulars in his explanation—things, he has been mainly concerned with making clear his notion of smudge in general, a thought that had no existence outside his own mind. For had he written about some particular smudge- the smudge his guide made at Lunge Lake, or the smudge he himself made at Mill Bend, say — he would have written about a thing that did exist outside his own mind, and what he wrote would most likely have been a description colored with bits of narration. He would then have told us, doubtless, just the sort of material used in that particular smudge, how long the smudge was in making, the density of the smoke, the success or failure of the experiment in that particular instance, and so on. His purpose would then have been quite different, and the resulting piece of writing would have been just as different. SECTION 79 Methods of Explanation All the while you were working through Parts I and II of this book, you were really studying and practising explanation, for the first two parts of the book are based on the explanatory paragraph and the explanatory sentence. When you learned how to construct a paragraph by telling what a thing is, for example, you learned at the same time how to explain a term1 by means of definition (Section 16); when you learned how to construct a paragraph by telling what a thing is not, you learned then how to make clear a term by means of reversion (Section 17); and so with comparison (Section 18), and contrast (Section 19), and example (Section 20), and restatement (Section 21). At that time, however, it did not seem best to say anything about explanation as such, or to distinguish it from the other kinds of writing. Your chief concern then was with the paragraph. But now that you know what explanation is, you can apply directly to it the methods you 1 A term is defined in Section 81. learned in Sections 16-21.1 More often than not probably, in explaining a term, you will need to combine some two or three of the methods treated in Chapter II, and you may even discover and apply some method not treated in this book, for, as was said in Section 15, only the most typical methods are here treated. But whatever method or methods you make use of in your explanations, you will do well to remember that the secret of all good explanation lies in the sorting and grouping of facts in such a way that one group can be considered before the next group is taken up. Dr. Van Dyke, for instance, in his explanation of a smudge (Section 78), first sorted all his facts into groups, so that related thoughts were brought together, and then took up one group at a time, considered it as if it were a distinct and separate step in the process of making a smudge, and, after that, went on to the next group. First, he stated the purpose of a smudge, then the difficulties of making a smudge, and next, chiefly in the order of time, each particular thing to do in the actual making of a smudge, from the first slow fire to "the smoke that makes you wish you had never been born." At last you understand what a smudge is, and you understand because you see all the facts about a smudge brought together and arranged in order. You understand because you have stood by while the painter filled in his canvas. Dr. Van Dyke's explanation is clear in style, too, and anything but dull, facts that suggest two valuable lessons in the making of good explanations. Since the essence of all explanation is to make clear to others the thoughts in our own minds, an explanation is poor indeed that is not 1 Select your subjects from Exercise 93. clear in style. Unless we can explain our thoughts clearly to others, it is useless ever to pretend that our thoughts are clear to ourselves.1 That an explanation should not be dull is evident enough. Indeed, if it is to arouse and hold the interest of the reader, it must have about it a certain air of liveliness. A writer with a lively imagination will have no difficulty here, but a person of even ordinary talent can enliven an explanation by now and then dashing in a touch of his own personality, by making frequent and apt allusions to things familiar and yet not commonplace, and by using enough specific and figurative words to break up any monotony that may arise from the discussion of general principles. Exercise 93 EXERCISES IN EXPLANATION 1. Read the following paragraph, and then explain in a similar manner how some other game is played; as, bunching eggs, telling fortunes, trying for a raisin, the Fairy's gifts, forfeits, choosing up and "It," counting out, some game of tag, hop-scotch, plug in the ring, town-ball, house-ball, tip-cat, or anything of the like: "JACK'S ALIVE!" Having built a small bonfire in some vacant lot, all the boys squat around it like so many Indians about their campfire. A cork on the end of a stick is thrust into the blaze and allowed to remain there until it becomes well lighted. Then, by using the stick for a handle, 1 A simple diagram or outline drawing, with a few letters or numerals for reference, is sometimes an invaluable aid in making an explanation clear. To the engineer who explains the workings of a machine, to the architect who devises a plan for a building, or to the man of science who illustrates, say, the structure and anatomy of some animal, diagrams and figures are indispensable. Without such devices as these, dictionaries and text-books in science would lose much of their value. |