The phrase "able to explain and defend" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when discussing someone's capability to articulate and justify a position, argument, or concept.
Example: "As a candidate for the position, she must be able to explain and defend her research findings during the interview."
Alternatives: "capable of articulating and justifying" or "competent in explaining and supporting".
Having a view and, of course, being able to explain and defend it, is a sign of strength and intellectual capability, nothing less.
To be able to explain and defend their statements and behavior in a dignified, respectful manner without mercilessly attacking the proverbial messenger.
Mulvaney has spent the past few years learning Spanish and has been one of just a handful of GOP lawmakers able to appear on Spanish-language television programs to explain and defend Republican policies.
The idea is to teach kids to explain and defend their ideas, not just regurgitate answers to study-guide questions.
The struggle to explain and defend deficit spending has a proud history as well.
Around the dinner table, the young Ralph was called on to explain and defend his beliefs.
Olivier Metzner, a lawyer for Mr. Messier, played down the detention, saying in a statement that it was "a normal step in the ongoing procedure, is part of the request made by Mr. Messier himself, three months ago on March 29, to be placed under formal investigation so as to be able to explain himself and better defend his former colleagues".
Study up on String Theory, and other physics theories; be able to explain these to anyone who asks and defend your own theories.
She said she was able to explain her situation and "ask personally for Speaker Boehner not to defend DOMA because I may not have time to see this through the legislative process".
You should be able to explain it simply and know every feature," she explained.
In his thesis defended in Berlin on 18 February 1869 and devoted to the microscopic anatomy of the pancreatic gland, Paul Langerhans reported the presence of some cell groups that were not in connection with the ducts and quite genuinely wrote, "I admit frankly that I am not able to explain the nature and function of these cells... .......... (10).
