title: Normalization in plain English
body: <p>I understand the concept of database normalization, but always have a hard time explaining it in plain English - especially for a job interview.  I have read the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wikipedia</a> post, but still find it hard to explain the concept to non-developers.  "Design a database in a way not to get duplicated data" is the first thing that comes to mind.</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone has a nice way to explain the concept of database normalization in plain English?  And what are some nice examples to show the differences between first, second and third normal forms?</p>
  
  <p>Say you go to a job interview and the person asks:  <em>Explain the concept of normalization and how would go about designing a normalized database.</em></p>
  
  <p>What key points are the interviewers looking for?</p>