Scope: Narrowing Your Focus
Most work with scope comes in the earlier stages of the writing process, often before you begin putting words on the page. Finding a suitable scope for your topic allows you to delve deeply into your argument, and that depth will give you the opportunity to contribute something original to a critical discussion. If your scope is too broad, you will not be able to fully engage with your issue. The key is narrowing your focus.
Scope refers to the breadth and complexity of the central concern of your paper, including all of the points that you must establish for your readers to understand your central concern, as well as all of the significant issues that you must address in order to present a fair, well-considered argument.
Flexibility is the key to determining scope.
- Be willing to set aside or throw out ideas that don't fit your developing topic.
- Be prepared to develop your paper around one sub-point rather than around the main points you originally conceived of.
Most people think too big. When an instructor requests a paper 10-25 pages in length, don't panic. Filling up space can seem daunting, but don't respond by adding fluff or choosing a big topic.
Narrowing your scope helps you to write more.
- If your scope is too big, the paper will be filled with sweeping generalizations. Because you will only be able to glaze the surface of your points, you will likely fall well short of the page limit.
Tips for narrowing your focus
Make yourself define key terms in your topic, even if they seem simple.
- Original Topic: The reactions of the Indian people to colonialism during the Victorian Era
- Ask yourself:
What do I mean by "reactions?"—emotional reactions of the colonized
What do I mean by "colonialism?"—the spread of a foreign culture by force
What do I mean by "the Indian people?"—academics within Indian society - New Topic: The effects of English educational practices on Indian universities in the Victorian Era
Avoid writing about abstract categories such as "society," "life," "death," "love," "time," etc. If you use the term "society," defining what you mean will automatically narrow your focus.
- For example, don't write about how society harms women. Write about how the values of a particular religious sect in a particular time and place (i.e., a branch of society) lead women to feel ashamed if they do not want children (i.e., one way in which society harms women).
Talk to your instructors and Writing Center tutors. Instructors want you to narrow your scope. They will be glad to help you.
Examples of scope for papers of different lengths
- 5-page paper:
- No: Nature imagery in the poetry of Robert Frost
- Yes: The image of snow in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
- 10-page paper:
- No: How Plato and Aristotle's philosophies differ
- Yes: Why art that imitates life is problematic for Plato but not for Aristotle
- 20 + page paper:
- No: The effects of child labor on children in industrial England
- Yes: Evidence of psychological disturbance in child laborers of industrial England
- Dissertation or book-length projects:
- Images of the afterlife in 16th century Flemish women's painting
- Causes and effects of homelessness in Atlanta
- Examples of scope too big for any project:
- Women in society
- Love, death, beauty, and time in the novels of Virginia Woolf
No. 66 in the Writing Center Handout Series