ABSTRACT
Research is reviewed, findings include those primarily concerned with explaining to a group, such as a lecture, class, or a group of managers and dyadic encounters, such as doctor-patient consultations. This chapter is based on the premise that explaining is a skill. This skills-based approach is a powerful heuristic for practitioners and it provides a useful theoretical framework in which to explore the subtleties of explaining. The chapter provides a conceptual framework for the exploration of explaining, and brought together studies of explaining from a variety of professions. Given that explaining is an attempt to give understanding, it is necessary to explore the nature of understanding. The literature abounds with typologies of explanations. A robust and simple typology consists of: interpretive, descriptive and reasongiving explanations. The covering law model is used for scientific explanations based on strong scientific laws or in a weaker form for highly probabilistic explanations or for generalisations believed by an individual or group.
