How to know you are over-explaining and oversimplifying a subject?How do you build good per-book *and* global...

Can a Way of Shadow Monk use Shadow Step to teleport to a dark ceiling and then body slam another creature?

Why don't programs completely uninstall (remove all their files) when I remove them?

Sed-Grep-Awk operations

Whats happened with already installed GNOME apps if I install and run KDE to Ubuntu 18.04?

What is the reward?

Was the Soviet N1 really capable of sending 9.6 GB/s of telemetry?

Is the percentage symbol a constant?

What does an unprocessed RAW file look like?

Including proofs of known theorems in master's thesis

Minimum Viable Product for RTS game?

How can guns be countered by melee combat without raw-ability or exceptional explanations?

Why don't you get burned by the wood benches in a sauna?

Why write a book when there's a movie in my head?

Coworker is trying to get me to sign his petition to run for office. How to decline politely?

Have any astronauts or cosmonauts died in space?

How can I differentiate duration vs starting time

Disk space full during insert, what happens?

Taking an academic pseudonym?

Integral problem. Unsure of the approach.

Boss asked me to sign a resignation paper without a date on it along with my new contract

Protagonist constantly has to have long words explained to her. Will this get tedious?

What sort of grammatical construct is ‘Quod per sortem sternit fortem’?

Why is it that Bernie Sanders always called a "socialist"?

How to store all ctor parameters in fields



How to know you are over-explaining and oversimplifying a subject?


How do you build good per-book *and* global indexes?How to use “I think, therefore I am” in a more fluent manner?What's the difference between the American and the European style in essay writing?Are essays supposed to be formal?How do you convey a term or idea that exists in the modern world, but not in the setting of the story?Documenting the no-args call of a command line programIs writing “Bad practice”-notes in tech guides bad style?How should one write a thesis statement for a paper with many points?Comparing writing style and clarity of instructional languageThird Person POV: What level of telling is acceptable for character motivation?













4















Recently, I started writing articles about different subjects I learn on my own (programming, logic ...etc).



While writing, I have this tendency to overexplain, I know that readers are smart, but I still think that there is room for misunderstanding, so I tend to repeat myself and oversimplify things unconsciously.



Is is just a feeling? how do I know if I am over-simplifying and over-explaining the material?



Edit



This is an example :




The first argument is a Deductive Argument, in that it has Premise 1,
Premise 2, and a conclusion .. And we may also consider it an
Inductive Argument, in that we can verify Premise 1 and 2 inductivly,
by means of observation, to determine whether Socrates has a beard, or
whether all Greeks have beards, and to conclude whether the conclusion
is probably true or false.



So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be
also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way
inductively :



Premise 1: Socrates is a Greek (Inductively Probably True, because
most records and accounts about Socrates refer to him as a Greek, and
his name is a Greek name).



Premise 2: All Greeks have beards. (Inductively False, because many
Greeks today apparently do not have beards, and many statues of
ancient Greeks have no beards, therefore the statement is false).



Conclusion: Socrates has a beard. (The statement is probably
Inductively True, since we have statues, paintings and references
depicting Socrates as a man with a beard, therefore we know that this
is probably True). Notice that our argument, although deductively
valid, has one inductively false premise (Premise 2), and this does
not make the conclusion necessarily inductively false.



Which means that the relationship between induction and deduction is
very tricky.











share|improve this question









New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 2





    Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

    – Liquid
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago











  • @Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I edited my question, thank you both.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

    – Galastel
    1 hour ago
















4















Recently, I started writing articles about different subjects I learn on my own (programming, logic ...etc).



While writing, I have this tendency to overexplain, I know that readers are smart, but I still think that there is room for misunderstanding, so I tend to repeat myself and oversimplify things unconsciously.



Is is just a feeling? how do I know if I am over-simplifying and over-explaining the material?



Edit



This is an example :




The first argument is a Deductive Argument, in that it has Premise 1,
Premise 2, and a conclusion .. And we may also consider it an
Inductive Argument, in that we can verify Premise 1 and 2 inductivly,
by means of observation, to determine whether Socrates has a beard, or
whether all Greeks have beards, and to conclude whether the conclusion
is probably true or false.



So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be
also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way
inductively :



Premise 1: Socrates is a Greek (Inductively Probably True, because
most records and accounts about Socrates refer to him as a Greek, and
his name is a Greek name).



Premise 2: All Greeks have beards. (Inductively False, because many
Greeks today apparently do not have beards, and many statues of
ancient Greeks have no beards, therefore the statement is false).



Conclusion: Socrates has a beard. (The statement is probably
Inductively True, since we have statues, paintings and references
depicting Socrates as a man with a beard, therefore we know that this
is probably True). Notice that our argument, although deductively
valid, has one inductively false premise (Premise 2), and this does
not make the conclusion necessarily inductively false.



Which means that the relationship between induction and deduction is
very tricky.











share|improve this question









New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 2





    Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

    – Liquid
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago











  • @Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I edited my question, thank you both.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

    – Galastel
    1 hour ago














4












4








4








Recently, I started writing articles about different subjects I learn on my own (programming, logic ...etc).



While writing, I have this tendency to overexplain, I know that readers are smart, but I still think that there is room for misunderstanding, so I tend to repeat myself and oversimplify things unconsciously.



Is is just a feeling? how do I know if I am over-simplifying and over-explaining the material?



Edit



This is an example :




The first argument is a Deductive Argument, in that it has Premise 1,
Premise 2, and a conclusion .. And we may also consider it an
Inductive Argument, in that we can verify Premise 1 and 2 inductivly,
by means of observation, to determine whether Socrates has a beard, or
whether all Greeks have beards, and to conclude whether the conclusion
is probably true or false.



So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be
also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way
inductively :



Premise 1: Socrates is a Greek (Inductively Probably True, because
most records and accounts about Socrates refer to him as a Greek, and
his name is a Greek name).



Premise 2: All Greeks have beards. (Inductively False, because many
Greeks today apparently do not have beards, and many statues of
ancient Greeks have no beards, therefore the statement is false).



Conclusion: Socrates has a beard. (The statement is probably
Inductively True, since we have statues, paintings and references
depicting Socrates as a man with a beard, therefore we know that this
is probably True). Notice that our argument, although deductively
valid, has one inductively false premise (Premise 2), and this does
not make the conclusion necessarily inductively false.



Which means that the relationship between induction and deduction is
very tricky.











share|improve this question









New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












Recently, I started writing articles about different subjects I learn on my own (programming, logic ...etc).



While writing, I have this tendency to overexplain, I know that readers are smart, but I still think that there is room for misunderstanding, so I tend to repeat myself and oversimplify things unconsciously.



Is is just a feeling? how do I know if I am over-simplifying and over-explaining the material?



Edit



This is an example :




The first argument is a Deductive Argument, in that it has Premise 1,
Premise 2, and a conclusion .. And we may also consider it an
Inductive Argument, in that we can verify Premise 1 and 2 inductivly,
by means of observation, to determine whether Socrates has a beard, or
whether all Greeks have beards, and to conclude whether the conclusion
is probably true or false.



So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be
also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way
inductively :



Premise 1: Socrates is a Greek (Inductively Probably True, because
most records and accounts about Socrates refer to him as a Greek, and
his name is a Greek name).



Premise 2: All Greeks have beards. (Inductively False, because many
Greeks today apparently do not have beards, and many statues of
ancient Greeks have no beards, therefore the statement is false).



Conclusion: Socrates has a beard. (The statement is probably
Inductively True, since we have statues, paintings and references
depicting Socrates as a man with a beard, therefore we know that this
is probably True). Notice that our argument, although deductively
valid, has one inductively false premise (Premise 2), and this does
not make the conclusion necessarily inductively false.



Which means that the relationship between induction and deduction is
very tricky.








style technical-writing






share|improve this question









New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 55 mins ago







SmootQ













New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 2 hours ago









SmootQSmootQ

1214




1214




New contributor




SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






SmootQ is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 2





    Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

    – Liquid
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago











  • @Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I edited my question, thank you both.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

    – Galastel
    1 hour ago














  • 2





    Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

    – Liquid
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago











  • @Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I edited my question, thank you both.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

    – Galastel
    1 hour ago








2




2





Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

– Liquid
1 hour ago





Hi SmootQ, and welcome to Writers SE. Your question is certainly legitimate, but it relies a bit too much on the external links. Could you please elaborate more in the question itself?

– Liquid
1 hour ago




1




1





Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

– Spectrosaurus
1 hour ago





Liquid took the words out of my mouth. The articles are also very long, maybe you could provide a specific example where you think you might be overexplaining. That would be very helpful!

– Spectrosaurus
1 hour ago













@Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





@Liquid , thank you so much, I will edit my question.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago




1




1





I edited my question, thank you both.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





I edited my question, thank you both.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago




1




1





Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

– Galastel
1 hour ago





Hi SmootQ! Welcome to Writing.SE. There is sort of a problem with your question. "How do I avoid over-explaining" or "how do I know when I've explained the subject adequately, and when I'm over-explaining" are great questions. "Do I over-explain" borders on being a critique request, which we don't do. Since my guess is you're not interested only in whether you over-explain, would you like to edit your question? You can find out more on what we consider "great questions" under How to Ask. :-)

– Galastel
1 hour ago










3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes


















3














Your approach might be too fundamentalist for general use.



Try to gauge your audience. Beginners need simple, easy-to-follow steps that focus on how to, rather than why. They also need a 10,000-mile overview of the entire process, without too much granular detail.



The fundamentalist approach is not for beginners. Even though it is extremely thorough, it is more for an intermediate or advanced user who is already familiar with the 10,000 mile view and needs to know more about the details and the whys (the "fundamentals").



Beginner audiences receive less information over a broader view, fundamental audiences get granular detail about a narrower topic (or sub-topic).






share|improve this answer
























  • Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • And the second option would make the article longer.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

    – wetcircuit
    1 hour ago











  • that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago



















2














The example you give is not overexplained. I assume that shortly before this section you define deduction and induction, and now you are giving an example for it. This is fine. Especially when it comes to logic and science, it is actually often quite important to emphasize the points of the explanation that are different from what we intuitively think to be true. You do that here by giving an explicit example and going through it piece by piece. That is a good thing.



However, I agree with wetcircuit that the bigger picture is something that is very important. There is a rule for scientific talks: Only ever dip shortly into the complex stuff, and then come back to the big picture. This means: Start at the surface, with things that are easy to comprehend for laymen. Then slowly go deeper to explain the first complexity of the topic you are talking about. Then go back up to the surface, i.e. to the big picture. Repeat this pattern until you have explained every complexity that needs to be explained to this audience, then summarize again in Big Picture Mode.



There's another rule: Assume that your audience is clueless. If you give a talk in front of scientists, assume they are not scientists, but students who have never heard of your topic. The reason for this is that we always underestimate how difficult it is to follow someone else's reasoning. If you design your explanation in a way that you think a child can understand it, you have actually designed an explanation that a teenager can understand, etc.



So these would be my tips for the complexity of the content. Now to the style itself - I think what you interpret as "overexplaning" is actually redundancy and imprecision. Example:




So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way inductively :




"To some extent"? "Some"? This is imprecise bloat. Consider using a bold font and to keep the statement on point, i.e.




Conclusion: Deductive Arguments can also be Inductive Arguments.




And I am not quite sure what "You can think of our argument this way inductively :" is supposed to mean. I believe what you mean here is that the argument, which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true.



In general I am not quite sure whether the content is correct here. As far as I know, a conclusion is logically false if it is based on a wrong deduction, even if the statement itself is true.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





















  • Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • "which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago








  • 1





    I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago



















2














Are you over-explaining? No.



The rule of thumb in explaining something technical is to assume your reader is intelligent, but lacks expertise in your subject. Such a reader probably needs an example of something fitting a definition, and (as per your excerpt) only one example. Sir Gilbert Ryle had an unfortunate habit of giving 3-5 examples of most of his points, at least in The Concept of Mind. There's one context you may need to discuss more than one application of the idea: if you know people tend to erroneously think X is an example of Y, highlight that and explain why it isn't.



Another general point about explanation, not necessarily applicable here:



Stephen Pinker's The Sense of Style defends classic style for this purpose. Classic style tries to orient a reader's perspective so they can "see" that which they're asked to reason about. Pinker calls such an approach "congenial to the worldview of the scientist"; good exposition is symptomatic of good understanding. He quotes examples of authors, such as Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene, who use this to address an intelligent but inexpert reader when explaining scientific concepts. I'm not saying you should read the whole book, but classic style is worth learning about, if only to give you some ideas.



Are you over-simplifying? Yes.



One other idea I think would help with the case at hand is to make sure you spell out your points well enough you can't be accused of misunderstanding something you haven't. If you can flesh out what you know that well, your reader's less likely to get confused. Essentially, the point you're making in the above excerpt is that a concise deductive argument's premises may have inductive justifications separate from that deductive argument. It'd be all too easy to misread you as implying this threatens the classification of arguments themselves. Plus you haven't mentioned other kinds of reasoning (e.g. abductive), which may give the false impression there aren't any.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1





    Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

    – SmootQ
    17 mins ago











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "166"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});






SmootQ is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fwriting.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f42481%2fhow-to-know-you-are-over-explaining-and-oversimplifying-a-subject%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes








3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









3














Your approach might be too fundamentalist for general use.



Try to gauge your audience. Beginners need simple, easy-to-follow steps that focus on how to, rather than why. They also need a 10,000-mile overview of the entire process, without too much granular detail.



The fundamentalist approach is not for beginners. Even though it is extremely thorough, it is more for an intermediate or advanced user who is already familiar with the 10,000 mile view and needs to know more about the details and the whys (the "fundamentals").



Beginner audiences receive less information over a broader view, fundamental audiences get granular detail about a narrower topic (or sub-topic).






share|improve this answer
























  • Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • And the second option would make the article longer.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

    – wetcircuit
    1 hour ago











  • that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago
















3














Your approach might be too fundamentalist for general use.



Try to gauge your audience. Beginners need simple, easy-to-follow steps that focus on how to, rather than why. They also need a 10,000-mile overview of the entire process, without too much granular detail.



The fundamentalist approach is not for beginners. Even though it is extremely thorough, it is more for an intermediate or advanced user who is already familiar with the 10,000 mile view and needs to know more about the details and the whys (the "fundamentals").



Beginner audiences receive less information over a broader view, fundamental audiences get granular detail about a narrower topic (or sub-topic).






share|improve this answer
























  • Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • And the second option would make the article longer.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

    – wetcircuit
    1 hour ago











  • that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago














3












3








3







Your approach might be too fundamentalist for general use.



Try to gauge your audience. Beginners need simple, easy-to-follow steps that focus on how to, rather than why. They also need a 10,000-mile overview of the entire process, without too much granular detail.



The fundamentalist approach is not for beginners. Even though it is extremely thorough, it is more for an intermediate or advanced user who is already familiar with the 10,000 mile view and needs to know more about the details and the whys (the "fundamentals").



Beginner audiences receive less information over a broader view, fundamental audiences get granular detail about a narrower topic (or sub-topic).






share|improve this answer













Your approach might be too fundamentalist for general use.



Try to gauge your audience. Beginners need simple, easy-to-follow steps that focus on how to, rather than why. They also need a 10,000-mile overview of the entire process, without too much granular detail.



The fundamentalist approach is not for beginners. Even though it is extremely thorough, it is more for an intermediate or advanced user who is already familiar with the 10,000 mile view and needs to know more about the details and the whys (the "fundamentals").



Beginner audiences receive less information over a broader view, fundamental audiences get granular detail about a narrower topic (or sub-topic).







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 1 hour ago









wetcircuitwetcircuit

10.6k12154




10.6k12154













  • Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • And the second option would make the article longer.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

    – wetcircuit
    1 hour ago











  • that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago



















  • Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • And the second option would make the article longer.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago






  • 1





    I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

    – wetcircuit
    1 hour ago











  • that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago

















Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





Thank you ! I see, so .. what to do when you feel as if the reader will not understand you easily (or misunderstand) , would that mean that you will have to re-write the previous paragraphs, or you continue and add in more explanation? +1

– SmootQ
1 hour ago













And the second option would make the article longer.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





And the second option would make the article longer.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago




1




1





I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

– wetcircuit
1 hour ago





I think you have to respect the limits of how much the audience can take in and still be 1 topic. Better to sectionalize fundamental discussions so they are separate sub-topics. No matter the topic or level of detail, readers want to understand HOW MUCH information they are taking in, and HOW MUCH TIME it will take to get through it. Obviously a technical book, is not an online tutorial…. Medium and format (practical limitations outside your control) will dictate how much scope will fit within 1 section.

– wetcircuit
1 hour ago













that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





that's the mistake I fall in, I start writing and when I finish I find that what I write is quite long... As if I write it for me.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago











2














The example you give is not overexplained. I assume that shortly before this section you define deduction and induction, and now you are giving an example for it. This is fine. Especially when it comes to logic and science, it is actually often quite important to emphasize the points of the explanation that are different from what we intuitively think to be true. You do that here by giving an explicit example and going through it piece by piece. That is a good thing.



However, I agree with wetcircuit that the bigger picture is something that is very important. There is a rule for scientific talks: Only ever dip shortly into the complex stuff, and then come back to the big picture. This means: Start at the surface, with things that are easy to comprehend for laymen. Then slowly go deeper to explain the first complexity of the topic you are talking about. Then go back up to the surface, i.e. to the big picture. Repeat this pattern until you have explained every complexity that needs to be explained to this audience, then summarize again in Big Picture Mode.



There's another rule: Assume that your audience is clueless. If you give a talk in front of scientists, assume they are not scientists, but students who have never heard of your topic. The reason for this is that we always underestimate how difficult it is to follow someone else's reasoning. If you design your explanation in a way that you think a child can understand it, you have actually designed an explanation that a teenager can understand, etc.



So these would be my tips for the complexity of the content. Now to the style itself - I think what you interpret as "overexplaning" is actually redundancy and imprecision. Example:




So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way inductively :




"To some extent"? "Some"? This is imprecise bloat. Consider using a bold font and to keep the statement on point, i.e.




Conclusion: Deductive Arguments can also be Inductive Arguments.




And I am not quite sure what "You can think of our argument this way inductively :" is supposed to mean. I believe what you mean here is that the argument, which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true.



In general I am not quite sure whether the content is correct here. As far as I know, a conclusion is logically false if it is based on a wrong deduction, even if the statement itself is true.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





















  • Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • "which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago








  • 1





    I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago
















2














The example you give is not overexplained. I assume that shortly before this section you define deduction and induction, and now you are giving an example for it. This is fine. Especially when it comes to logic and science, it is actually often quite important to emphasize the points of the explanation that are different from what we intuitively think to be true. You do that here by giving an explicit example and going through it piece by piece. That is a good thing.



However, I agree with wetcircuit that the bigger picture is something that is very important. There is a rule for scientific talks: Only ever dip shortly into the complex stuff, and then come back to the big picture. This means: Start at the surface, with things that are easy to comprehend for laymen. Then slowly go deeper to explain the first complexity of the topic you are talking about. Then go back up to the surface, i.e. to the big picture. Repeat this pattern until you have explained every complexity that needs to be explained to this audience, then summarize again in Big Picture Mode.



There's another rule: Assume that your audience is clueless. If you give a talk in front of scientists, assume they are not scientists, but students who have never heard of your topic. The reason for this is that we always underestimate how difficult it is to follow someone else's reasoning. If you design your explanation in a way that you think a child can understand it, you have actually designed an explanation that a teenager can understand, etc.



So these would be my tips for the complexity of the content. Now to the style itself - I think what you interpret as "overexplaning" is actually redundancy and imprecision. Example:




So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way inductively :




"To some extent"? "Some"? This is imprecise bloat. Consider using a bold font and to keep the statement on point, i.e.




Conclusion: Deductive Arguments can also be Inductive Arguments.




And I am not quite sure what "You can think of our argument this way inductively :" is supposed to mean. I believe what you mean here is that the argument, which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true.



In general I am not quite sure whether the content is correct here. As far as I know, a conclusion is logically false if it is based on a wrong deduction, even if the statement itself is true.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





















  • Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • "which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago








  • 1





    I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago














2












2








2







The example you give is not overexplained. I assume that shortly before this section you define deduction and induction, and now you are giving an example for it. This is fine. Especially when it comes to logic and science, it is actually often quite important to emphasize the points of the explanation that are different from what we intuitively think to be true. You do that here by giving an explicit example and going through it piece by piece. That is a good thing.



However, I agree with wetcircuit that the bigger picture is something that is very important. There is a rule for scientific talks: Only ever dip shortly into the complex stuff, and then come back to the big picture. This means: Start at the surface, with things that are easy to comprehend for laymen. Then slowly go deeper to explain the first complexity of the topic you are talking about. Then go back up to the surface, i.e. to the big picture. Repeat this pattern until you have explained every complexity that needs to be explained to this audience, then summarize again in Big Picture Mode.



There's another rule: Assume that your audience is clueless. If you give a talk in front of scientists, assume they are not scientists, but students who have never heard of your topic. The reason for this is that we always underestimate how difficult it is to follow someone else's reasoning. If you design your explanation in a way that you think a child can understand it, you have actually designed an explanation that a teenager can understand, etc.



So these would be my tips for the complexity of the content. Now to the style itself - I think what you interpret as "overexplaning" is actually redundancy and imprecision. Example:




So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way inductively :




"To some extent"? "Some"? This is imprecise bloat. Consider using a bold font and to keep the statement on point, i.e.




Conclusion: Deductive Arguments can also be Inductive Arguments.




And I am not quite sure what "You can think of our argument this way inductively :" is supposed to mean. I believe what you mean here is that the argument, which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true.



In general I am not quite sure whether the content is correct here. As far as I know, a conclusion is logically false if it is based on a wrong deduction, even if the statement itself is true.






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.










The example you give is not overexplained. I assume that shortly before this section you define deduction and induction, and now you are giving an example for it. This is fine. Especially when it comes to logic and science, it is actually often quite important to emphasize the points of the explanation that are different from what we intuitively think to be true. You do that here by giving an explicit example and going through it piece by piece. That is a good thing.



However, I agree with wetcircuit that the bigger picture is something that is very important. There is a rule for scientific talks: Only ever dip shortly into the complex stuff, and then come back to the big picture. This means: Start at the surface, with things that are easy to comprehend for laymen. Then slowly go deeper to explain the first complexity of the topic you are talking about. Then go back up to the surface, i.e. to the big picture. Repeat this pattern until you have explained every complexity that needs to be explained to this audience, then summarize again in Big Picture Mode.



There's another rule: Assume that your audience is clueless. If you give a talk in front of scientists, assume they are not scientists, but students who have never heard of your topic. The reason for this is that we always underestimate how difficult it is to follow someone else's reasoning. If you design your explanation in a way that you think a child can understand it, you have actually designed an explanation that a teenager can understand, etc.



So these would be my tips for the complexity of the content. Now to the style itself - I think what you interpret as "overexplaning" is actually redundancy and imprecision. Example:




So, to some extent, we can consider some Deductive Arguments to be also Inductive Arguments. You can think of our argument this way inductively :




"To some extent"? "Some"? This is imprecise bloat. Consider using a bold font and to keep the statement on point, i.e.




Conclusion: Deductive Arguments can also be Inductive Arguments.




And I am not quite sure what "You can think of our argument this way inductively :" is supposed to mean. I believe what you mean here is that the argument, which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true.



In general I am not quite sure whether the content is correct here. As far as I know, a conclusion is logically false if it is based on a wrong deduction, even if the statement itself is true.







share|improve this answer








New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer






New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









answered 1 hour ago









SpectrosaurusSpectrosaurus

3018




3018




New contributor




Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Spectrosaurus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.













  • Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • "which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago








  • 1





    I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago



















  • Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • "which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago











  • Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

    – SmootQ
    1 hour ago








  • 1





    I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

    – Spectrosaurus
    1 hour ago

















Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





Thank you, this is the article, it is very long and I do not know if this is supposed to be good, otherwise there is something I oversimplified : mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic/… +1

– SmootQ
1 hour ago













That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





That's exactly what I feel I am doing : "Assume that your audience is clueless." ... But I think that it leads to long articles.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago













"which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

– SmootQ
1 hour ago





"which was probably something like "Socrates had a beard because he is Greek and all Greeks have beards", can be analyzed on the basis of whether the individual statements are inductively true." - Yes that's what I mean, I will re-write this article ... Deductive Arguments can be studied on two levels : the logical form (deduction), and then the premises themselves (and whether they are inductively true or not).

– SmootQ
1 hour ago













Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago







Now that I read that portion, I see a potential for confusion.

– SmootQ
1 hour ago






1




1





I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

– Spectrosaurus
1 hour ago





I do not feel that you overexplain in the example. I would even say, looking at the article itself, that you should add some general explanations of deduction and induction before diving into the example. It is also unclear how that all connects to evidence. So there are some problems here, but I do not think overexplaining is the problem. Rather staying on topic, being concise and clear, not reiterating what you already explained, etc. But overexplaining as in "Everybody knows inductive reasoning, just get on with it!!"... nope, that's not a problem here.

– Spectrosaurus
1 hour ago











2














Are you over-explaining? No.



The rule of thumb in explaining something technical is to assume your reader is intelligent, but lacks expertise in your subject. Such a reader probably needs an example of something fitting a definition, and (as per your excerpt) only one example. Sir Gilbert Ryle had an unfortunate habit of giving 3-5 examples of most of his points, at least in The Concept of Mind. There's one context you may need to discuss more than one application of the idea: if you know people tend to erroneously think X is an example of Y, highlight that and explain why it isn't.



Another general point about explanation, not necessarily applicable here:



Stephen Pinker's The Sense of Style defends classic style for this purpose. Classic style tries to orient a reader's perspective so they can "see" that which they're asked to reason about. Pinker calls such an approach "congenial to the worldview of the scientist"; good exposition is symptomatic of good understanding. He quotes examples of authors, such as Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene, who use this to address an intelligent but inexpert reader when explaining scientific concepts. I'm not saying you should read the whole book, but classic style is worth learning about, if only to give you some ideas.



Are you over-simplifying? Yes.



One other idea I think would help with the case at hand is to make sure you spell out your points well enough you can't be accused of misunderstanding something you haven't. If you can flesh out what you know that well, your reader's less likely to get confused. Essentially, the point you're making in the above excerpt is that a concise deductive argument's premises may have inductive justifications separate from that deductive argument. It'd be all too easy to misread you as implying this threatens the classification of arguments themselves. Plus you haven't mentioned other kinds of reasoning (e.g. abductive), which may give the false impression there aren't any.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1





    Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

    – SmootQ
    17 mins ago
















2














Are you over-explaining? No.



The rule of thumb in explaining something technical is to assume your reader is intelligent, but lacks expertise in your subject. Such a reader probably needs an example of something fitting a definition, and (as per your excerpt) only one example. Sir Gilbert Ryle had an unfortunate habit of giving 3-5 examples of most of his points, at least in The Concept of Mind. There's one context you may need to discuss more than one application of the idea: if you know people tend to erroneously think X is an example of Y, highlight that and explain why it isn't.



Another general point about explanation, not necessarily applicable here:



Stephen Pinker's The Sense of Style defends classic style for this purpose. Classic style tries to orient a reader's perspective so they can "see" that which they're asked to reason about. Pinker calls such an approach "congenial to the worldview of the scientist"; good exposition is symptomatic of good understanding. He quotes examples of authors, such as Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene, who use this to address an intelligent but inexpert reader when explaining scientific concepts. I'm not saying you should read the whole book, but classic style is worth learning about, if only to give you some ideas.



Are you over-simplifying? Yes.



One other idea I think would help with the case at hand is to make sure you spell out your points well enough you can't be accused of misunderstanding something you haven't. If you can flesh out what you know that well, your reader's less likely to get confused. Essentially, the point you're making in the above excerpt is that a concise deductive argument's premises may have inductive justifications separate from that deductive argument. It'd be all too easy to misread you as implying this threatens the classification of arguments themselves. Plus you haven't mentioned other kinds of reasoning (e.g. abductive), which may give the false impression there aren't any.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1





    Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

    – SmootQ
    17 mins ago














2












2








2







Are you over-explaining? No.



The rule of thumb in explaining something technical is to assume your reader is intelligent, but lacks expertise in your subject. Such a reader probably needs an example of something fitting a definition, and (as per your excerpt) only one example. Sir Gilbert Ryle had an unfortunate habit of giving 3-5 examples of most of his points, at least in The Concept of Mind. There's one context you may need to discuss more than one application of the idea: if you know people tend to erroneously think X is an example of Y, highlight that and explain why it isn't.



Another general point about explanation, not necessarily applicable here:



Stephen Pinker's The Sense of Style defends classic style for this purpose. Classic style tries to orient a reader's perspective so they can "see" that which they're asked to reason about. Pinker calls such an approach "congenial to the worldview of the scientist"; good exposition is symptomatic of good understanding. He quotes examples of authors, such as Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene, who use this to address an intelligent but inexpert reader when explaining scientific concepts. I'm not saying you should read the whole book, but classic style is worth learning about, if only to give you some ideas.



Are you over-simplifying? Yes.



One other idea I think would help with the case at hand is to make sure you spell out your points well enough you can't be accused of misunderstanding something you haven't. If you can flesh out what you know that well, your reader's less likely to get confused. Essentially, the point you're making in the above excerpt is that a concise deductive argument's premises may have inductive justifications separate from that deductive argument. It'd be all too easy to misread you as implying this threatens the classification of arguments themselves. Plus you haven't mentioned other kinds of reasoning (e.g. abductive), which may give the false impression there aren't any.






share|improve this answer













Are you over-explaining? No.



The rule of thumb in explaining something technical is to assume your reader is intelligent, but lacks expertise in your subject. Such a reader probably needs an example of something fitting a definition, and (as per your excerpt) only one example. Sir Gilbert Ryle had an unfortunate habit of giving 3-5 examples of most of his points, at least in The Concept of Mind. There's one context you may need to discuss more than one application of the idea: if you know people tend to erroneously think X is an example of Y, highlight that and explain why it isn't.



Another general point about explanation, not necessarily applicable here:



Stephen Pinker's The Sense of Style defends classic style for this purpose. Classic style tries to orient a reader's perspective so they can "see" that which they're asked to reason about. Pinker calls such an approach "congenial to the worldview of the scientist"; good exposition is symptomatic of good understanding. He quotes examples of authors, such as Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene, who use this to address an intelligent but inexpert reader when explaining scientific concepts. I'm not saying you should read the whole book, but classic style is worth learning about, if only to give you some ideas.



Are you over-simplifying? Yes.



One other idea I think would help with the case at hand is to make sure you spell out your points well enough you can't be accused of misunderstanding something you haven't. If you can flesh out what you know that well, your reader's less likely to get confused. Essentially, the point you're making in the above excerpt is that a concise deductive argument's premises may have inductive justifications separate from that deductive argument. It'd be all too easy to misread you as implying this threatens the classification of arguments themselves. Plus you haven't mentioned other kinds of reasoning (e.g. abductive), which may give the false impression there aren't any.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 23 mins ago









J.G.J.G.

6,75511632




6,75511632








  • 1





    Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

    – SmootQ
    17 mins ago














  • 1





    Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

    – SmootQ
    17 mins ago








1




1





Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

– SmootQ
17 mins ago





Thank you so much, I will check Stephen Pinker's work ... By the way , my bad I removed the link to the lessons , I started them and now I feel I do not like my style, there is a lesson on abductive reasoning too mohamedtaqi.com/learn/logic/introduction-to-logic thanks again, +1

– SmootQ
17 mins ago










SmootQ is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










draft saved

draft discarded


















SmootQ is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













SmootQ is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












SmootQ is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















Thanks for contributing an answer to Writing Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fwriting.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f42481%2fhow-to-know-you-are-over-explaining-and-oversimplifying-a-subject%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







Popular posts from this blog

Szabolcs (Ungheria) Altri progetti | Menu di navigazione48°10′14.56″N 21°29′33.14″E /...

Discografia di Klaus Schulze Indice Album in studio | Album dal vivo | Singoli | Antologie | Colonne...

How to make inet_server_addr() return localhost in spite of ::1/128RETURN NEXT in Postgres FunctionConnect to...