Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines using “explanation” communication goals in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired explanation communication goal such that the narratives will express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given explanation communication goal.