Lecture 04 | Narrowing the topic-01

Many students often come up with broader topics such as "Political scenario in Pakistan", "The Mode of Electronic Media in Pakistan", "Climate Change and Pakistan" etc. We should bear in mind that these are way too broad and too vast and it is not possible to write on them in a couple of thousand words.  Someone can write a book on those subjects instead. For example, "Climate Change in Pakistan" has many aspects to be covered. This subject can be approached from the lens of political science, economics, gender studies, sociology, psychology, geography and much more. 

So in this situation of dilemma, the topic demands a careful attention. If you don't give it a proper thought, you will surely end up in a narrow street with wastage of a great deal of time and energy. Being an author you must ask yourself how you intend to tackle the issue? What are main elements of the topic? What are primary aspects of the topic? In order to avoid this dilemma, one needs to narrow down the topic according to the length assigned to you by professor. If you find anything confusing or doubtful, do not hesitate to contact your instructor/professor. It is better to be clear at the first stage instead of losing time and energy. Following given steps in this regard will be helpful for you.

1. By dividing the topic into components

Just be relaxed and cool down. Think about your topic and divide it into different components. Look at all of those components and choose one for yourself to write on. Just take an example when your journalism teacher assigns you to write an essay. You have got the topic "Journalism" which is too broad. There are infinite ways to write on it. So first of all, divide it into various components: Online Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Print Journalism, Citizen Journalism and so on. 

Now you have picked Broadcast journalism. It is a good choice indeed. Broadcast journalism mainly falls in two categories entertainment and information. You choose entertainment. Again a wise choice. Entertainment also contains many thing such as Telefilms, drama serials, music, game shows, reality shows etc. just to count few of them.  Now you are interested in drama serials. Now ask yourself few questions. What do you want to write about TV serials? What motivated you to think about this topic? Do you want write on topic because you are sick of unnecessarily lengthy, slow-moving Pakistani serials? Do current Pakistani serials remind you of old 13-episode meaningful serials? If yes, your topic is narrowed as "The Fall of Pakistani Drama Serials". You nailed it. 

2. By considering your word limit

Always keep in mind the length of essay or writing piece assigned to you by the instructor. In this way you will be able to determine yourself the amount of information to be included in the piece. The length will also make you mindful of what information to fit in body of writing piece in order to support your thesis statement. For example, while in CSS, a candidate is asked to write an essay of at least 3,000 words.  They get enough space to cover almost all aspects of a topic in a given time and space. In such a lengthy space, a candidate can explore given topic in details with all it's implications and complexities. However, academic writing is a bit different in nature. In academic essay or writing piece, you are often assigned a word limit in which you have to limit your topic.

For instance, a student of mine showed desire to write on "Single National Curriculum". This is a very broad topic with it's pros, cons, causes, effects, implications. It is not possible to limit the topic into an essay of 2,000 words. Again one aspects of this topic such as "Time needed to apply Single National Curriculum in Pakistan" can be considered for writing. 

It does not end here. I intend to tell you few more tricks of narrowing down the topic. So stay connected and wait for my next blogpost.