Show And Tell An Effective Approach To Explaining Complex Concepts

Show and Tell: An Effective Approach to Explaining Specialised Complex Concepts

A key component of being a successful academic is developing the ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to people who fall outside of one's area of expertise. However, it is often the case that within the bounds of specialised fields of study, we find the development of 'tribes' with their own distinct dialects. Such tribalism gives rise to jargon, along with localised knowledge that often gets taken for granted, making the communication of complex concepts a difficult task that requires serious thought. Without developing tools for successful communication, specialists may do themselves, and their disciplines, a disservice. Namely, they run the risk of alienating themselves from a wider audience, reducing the likelihood of fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration, and causing difficulties obtaining funding for future studies, which often requires attracting and holding the attention of non-specialists (Sword 2012: 3-11).

Show and tell prompts the writer to illustrate complex ideas by anchoring them in the real world (Sword 2012: 99). That is, specialists can illuminate concepts by painting pictures using analogies. Doing so takes a complex concept from being merely abstract and brings it into the real world by evoking the reader's lived experience (Sword 2012: 100-102). In essence, the approach of show and tell rests on the simple formula that, “abstract concepts become more memorable and accessible the moment we ground them in the material world, the world that our readers can see and touch” (Sword 2012: