Explaining a Complicated Situation in Plain English With The Lincoln Lawyer
Learn a four-part plain-English method for explaining complicated situations clearly, keeping the facts that matter and cutting the details that do not.
You do not need simpler thoughts; you need a clearer order for the same facts.
The hardest part of plain English is deciding what not to say without cutting a fact that changes the meaning. If your explanation has three names, two dates, four “and thens” and one mysterious “he”, the listener is doing detective work instead of listening.
Use one structure first: Situation → Change → Reason or limit → Consequence. Call it the Meaning Spine. Then use one editing rule: keep a detail if removing it changes who did what, the order, the cause, the certainty, or what happens next. Everything else can wait for the second pass.
Start with the meaning, not the memory dump
Imagine you are explaining a messy work situation:
The client emailed on Tuesday, although I think it was Tuesday afternoon, and they asked for a colour change after testing had already started, and Maya had spoken to Dev about the earlier version, and the weekly meeting is usually at ten, so now we need another test pass, and maybe delivery is Monday instead of Friday.
Almost every fact may be true. The problem is hierarchy. The listener cannot tell which details carry the situation.
A plain-English first pass could be:
- Situation: The client changed one requirement after testing had started.
- Change: The team now needs another test pass.
- Reason or limit: Because testing is not finished, the new delivery date is not confirmed.
- Consequence: Friday is unlikely, and Monday is possible.
That is not “dumbed down”. It is organized for the listener. Current U.S. plain-language guidance recommends putting the bottom line early, arranging process information in a logical order, and moving unnecessary background later. It also recommends breaking overloaded sentences into smaller units when the information is complex. Digital.gov’s organization guidance and its guide to clear, shorter units make the same basic point for public communication.
The Meaning Spine: four questions that stop an explanation from wandering
Situation: what is the listener entering?
Give the smallest amount of context needed to understand the problem. Usually this means one person, team, document, request or plan—not everybody who has ever touched the story.
Change: what is different now?
This is often the sentence the listener actually needs. The date moved. The payment went to the wrong card. The document came back. The requirement changed. The meeting was cancelled.
Reason or limit: why did it change, or what stops you from saying more?
Use this slot for cause, a condition, a missing fact or uncertainty. “Because testing started already” is a cause. “We are still waiting for approval” is a limit. “Monday is possible, but not confirmed” protects uncertainty.
Consequence: what matters next?
Finish with the effect the listener should carry forward. Do not make them calculate the consequence from six earlier facts.
British Council guidance on spoken storytelling similarly encourages brief background, clear sequencing, links such as because and so, forward movement and an ending that explains why the event matters. See the British Council storytelling guidance.
The Keep/Cut test: is this the plot or the furniture?
Plain English is not permission to hide relevant facts. It is permission to stop giving every fact equal weight.
Try this before opening the answer. A project has these eight details:
- The client requested a colour change on Tuesday.
- Testing had already started on Monday.
- The developer was working from home.
- The change requires another test pass.
- The team usually meets at 10 a.m.
- Delivery moves from Friday to Monday if the new test passes.
- Monday is not yet confirmed because testing is incomplete.
- The project manager drinks terrible coffee.
Choose the details that must survive the first explanation.
Show the meaning-changing facts and why
Keep the client’s change because it changes the situation. Keep the fact that testing had already started because it explains the cost of the change. Keep the conditional delivery effect because it tells the listener what may happen next. Keep the uncertainty because “Monday is possible” and “Monday is confirmed” are not the same message.
The work location, normal meeting time and coffee can wait. They may be true; they just do not hold up the Meaning Spine.
This is close to the audience-first principle in current plain-language guidance: challenge information that your listener does not need yet, while keeping the facts that change their understanding. Digital.gov’s short-and-simple guidance also recommends cutting unnecessary material and using consistent terms for the same thing.
Repair 1: fix the mysterious pronoun
Pronouns make English efficient, but only when the listener can recover the reference. Cambridge notes that pronouns stand in for nouns or noun phrases; it, this and that can also point back to earlier topics or ideas. The useful question is not “Did I use a pronoun?” It is “Can the listener identify it immediately?” Cambridge on pronouns and Cambridge on it, this and that give the grammar background.
Original practice example
Sam called Leo after he left the office.
Classification: Context-dependent. The sentence is grammatical, but he can refer to Sam or Leo. A listener may understand either man as the person who left. If you mean Sam, say: “After Sam left the office, he called Leo.”
Use the original only when the surrounding conversation makes the reference obvious. In a dense explanation, repeat the name once rather than making the listener guess.
Micro-check: after drafting your explanation, circle every he, she, they, it, this and that. If two different people or ideas could reasonably fit, name the referent once.
Repair 2: separate order from cause
“Then” tells us order. “Because” tells us cause. “So” introduces a result. Mixing these jobs is one reason a complicated explanation feels slippery even when the vocabulary is easy.
Original practice example
Testing started on Monday. The client changed the requirement on Tuesday. Because of that change, the team needs another test pass.
This version keeps chronology and cause separate: first the earlier event, then the change, then the consequence of the change. You do not need an “and then” before every sentence.
Use this pattern when a listener must understand not only what happened, but why one event created the next problem.
Repair 3: do not simplify uncertainty into a fact
A shorter sentence can be less accurate. That is the trap.
Original practice example
The client said Monday might work. So delivery is Monday.
Classification: Grammatically valid with a different meaning. A listener hears the second sentence as a firm conclusion. The likely intended meaning is weaker: “The client said Monday might work, so Monday is possible, but it isn’t confirmed.”
Keep the original firm conclusion only if Monday was later confirmed. If your source gives possibility, your summary must not silently promote it to certainty.
Protecting uncertainty is part of protecting the Meaning Spine. A neat explanation that changes “possible” into “confirmed” is not clearer; it is a different claim.
Repair 4: explain jargon instead of showing it off
Technical vocabulary is not automatically bad. The problem is technical vocabulary your listener does not need or cannot decode. Plain-language guidance begins with the audience: use language they understand and give specialized detail when it helps them act or understand.
Original practice example
The procedural remediation has been effectuated.
Classification: Unusual/overly formal/non-idiomatic. In an ordinary explanation, this sounds inflated and hides the action. If you simply mean the process is finished, say: “The process is complete.” If a specific technical term matters, keep it and explain it.
Use formal institutional wording only where that register is genuinely required. In everyday professional English, name the action before the label.
One more trap: missing the consequence
Some explanations are perfectly ordered and still feel unfinished because the learner stops after the cause.
Original practice example
The form came back because one signature was missing. The deadline is still the same, so we need the signature today.
The second sentence turns background into a usable explanation. It tells the listener what the missing signature changes now.
Finish with the next relevant consequence when the listener needs to make a decision, reply, wait, send something or change a plan.
Production lab: explain this in four lines
Here is a new fictional situation:
- A supplier originally promised parts for Thursday.
- On Wednesday, the supplier reported a transport delay.
- Friday is now possible, but not guaranteed.
- Your team cannot finish installation until the parts arrive.
- The supplier’s office is near the airport.
- Your colleague called the supplier twice.
Say only four lines:
- What is the situation?
- What changed?
- Why, or what is still uncertain?
- What happens next?
Show one possible plain-English version
The supplier was meant to deliver the parts on Thursday. A transport delay pushed the delivery back. Friday is possible, but the supplier has not confirmed it. We cannot finish the installation until the parts arrive.
Now add one optional detail only if your listener asks. That habit matters: first build the listener’s map; then open the filing cabinet.
If you want to move from editing to speaking, practise your four-line explanation out loud. The first step after opening the page is to choose a general speaking-practice path; this exact Lincoln Lawyer exercise is not preloaded.
For the broader approach of turning scenes and shows into deliberate language practice, see media-based language learning.
Sources
- Digital.gov — Organize the information
- Digital.gov — Clear and short
- Digital.gov — Short and simple
- Cambridge English Grammar Today — Pronouns
- Cambridge English Grammar Today — It, this and that in paragraphs
- British Council — Tell a story or personal anecdote
- British Council — Dealing with a problem
Clear does not mean incomplete
A strong plain-English explanation is not your full memory with smaller words. It is a better map. Give the situation, the change, the reason or limit, and the consequence. Protect the facts that hold those relationships together. Let the furniture wait.