Explain It to A Child

I've heard it said that if you can't explain something to a small child (or to your grandmother), then you don't truly understand it. You may know it well enough to use it and work with it, but it is not a full knowledge.

This is, of course, a subjective test, but a good benchmark. If you can break something down into its smallest, most basic parts, can explain them in a simple and straightforward manner, starting from the principal concepts and moving forward into their larger purposes, then you definitely understand what you're talking about. If you get flustered or frustrated or honestly don't know how or why something works, then you are lacking in your knowledge.

Don't think that you absolutely need to have a complete and thorough understanding of a subject in order to talk about it or do it, but do realize what you are and aren't aware of. If you have trouble, maybe it can be solved by looking deeper and breaking it down into smaller parts.

You will have the most control in what you do and will be able to do the most fine-tuning with it. Breaking writing down into the Levels of Writing that I did was a first step toward explaining the sheer complexity and vastness of writing. They could certainly be made even simpler, but I'll save that for when I have to actually explain it to a child.