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ANSWERS: 11
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Excuses are lies or manipulations used to get yourself out of doing something you don't want to do, or getting yourself out of some sort of predicament. Explanations are when you honestly and thoroughly summarize and walk the person you are explaining to through something that might need a little more clarity. When you are explaining something to someone, make sure that it is completely reasonable, true, and most importantly unbiased. Because if it is biased, that is usually what leads people to think you are making an excuse.
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A real excuse excuses you from something - the opposite of accuse. A false or poor excuse attempts to do so but fails. An explanation simply states the facts. An excuse for killing spomeone is that it is the only way you could stop him killing you - it removes guilt (if true). An explantion might be that you didn't like him - it would explain the facts, but would not remove any guilt.
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In my opinion, the only way to explain something with out it sounding like an excuse, is to say "Sorry, I screwed up". Even if it wasn't your fault. Followed by "Next time I'll try better". Most people don't want to hear a detailed explanation about why something didn't turn out the way you intended it to. Also, explanations can make you look stupider. So keep it simple, and get it behind you as quickly as possible.
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If you have a good excuse, then you don't have an excuse, you now have an explanation
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An explanation tells why someting happened. I am wearing a cast b/c I broke my foot. An excuse gives a resson for the purpose of not taking responsibily. I was in the hosiptal so I couldn't take the test. Takes away the responsibily of not taking the test.
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An explanation is an account of what happened without any attempt to avoid responsibility for ones actions. The person giving the explanation would preface and/or follow it up with something like, "what can I do to make it right?" An excuse is an account of what happened given in an attempt to avoid responsibility for ones actions. An excuse usually includes a sentiment along the lines of, "It not my fault."
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An explanation can sometimes be used as an excuse, but an excuse doesn't always offfer an explanation. Example: You were late for a meeting because you got stuck in traffic due to an accident on the motorway- this explanation of the facts might be offered as an excuse for your lateness. Its simple and truthful and gives the reason (road accident) that led to the consequence (lateness). The lateness for the meeting could probably not have been prevented. An excuse for behaving badly at a party might be "I had too much to drink"- this is an excuse because it attempts to justify unacceptable actions by using a reason (drunkness) which begs further questions (namely, "well, why did you get drunk then?"), and attempts to squeeze out of responsibility for the consequences, which are still obviously just as bad even with the excuse offered. The bad behaviour that you're attempting to excuse could have been prevented via your own actions. Make sense?
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An explanation works better than an excuse.
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Actually the definition I found for "excuse" was that an excuse actually is an explanation. But what separates an excuse from other explanations is that an excuse is explaining a fault or an offense in hopes of being forgiven or justified.
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well lets look at some definitions, shall we? "ex·cuse - An explanation offered to justify or obtain forgiveness." "ex·pla·na·tion - The act or process of explaining: launched into a detailed explanation." According to dictionary.com, they're really similar. I would guess that an excuse is more of a plea for forgiveness while an explanation is a telling of the facts?
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"Excuse" has only become a pejorative in the age of can-do managerial speak and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps self-help books. An excuse IS an explanation, but a particular sub-class that provides reasons why person "A" could not realize responsibility "X".
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