Lecture 06 | Narrowing the Topic-03

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I could have finished this topic in one post but thought it better to give you people as more techniques as I can. For one technique does not work for all. Here I am again giving you some tips to manage and narrow down your topic.

Aspect -- Choose a perspective or frame of reference through which you want to look at your topic. Instead of writing on "Importance of colours in Eastern Rituals", you may write on "Importance of colours in Hindu rituals" by mainly focusing on Holi. Thus you will get an informed choice to express yourself. 

Components -- Think and determine if your topic can further be divided in smaller parts in terms of it's components for this type of division will make your mind clearer, your topic focused and your will have informed choice to analyse. "Exposure to Screen time" is a very broad topic. Make it "Exposure to screen time and education". Again a question arises which education? So make it "Children exposure to screen time and nursery education". Again, the term "exposure" is vague and  raises many serious questions. So make it "Exposure to Screen time and it's effects on education of nursery children".

Place -- It is of utmost importance to choose a smaller area. Smaller area of analysis will make you more focused and attentive on the topic. So, rather than studying "Declining condition of education in SIndh" you should study "Declining condition of education in Hyderabad, SIndh". Even Hyderabad is a very vast area. It is a division consisting nine districts. So work more on the topic and narrow it down in term of place again and focus on Hyderabad city. Now, it will be more manageable. 

Relationship -- Well, this is one of the most interesting thing. It focuses on the way two points, perspectives or variable relate to each other. In this way you may take into consideration cause and effect, compare/contrast, individual/group, male/female, contemporary/historic, just to cite a few examples. It is not confusing and very easy to do instead.  

Time -- Focusing on a specific time period in your writing piece will enable your to be more focused. "Health Facilities in Rural Sindh" will be broader in terms of place as well as time. Therefore, "Health Facilities in District Shikarpur during PPP government 2013-2018" will be convenient to write on.

Type -- Be focused in your topic by concentrating on a specific type of any thing. We wrote the term "health facilities" above. Divide it further into "Child care health facilities" or "mother care health facilities" in terms of type. Then another question arises what type of subjects/people you are going to study. Let us think over it again. We can make it "Child Care Health Facilities for daily wagers in Shikarpur district". Here we have narrowed our topic in terms of place (Shikarpur), type of problem (Child Care instead of health) and type of subjects/people (Daily wagers). 

Combination -- If you think your topic is still too broader, use a combination of above tools. 

 

Lecture 05 | Narrowing the topic-02

In the previous post, I discussed two approaches to narrow down the topic. Here we go with more.  

3. By using  five Ws and one H

If you feel your topic is too broad, look at the same with microscopic view. I mean divide the broader topic into several smaller questions. This exercise allows you to find bits and tips of which the topic is made of. Then you can choose bit of your choice to write on. If we put it simply, we mean to analyse a topic in terms of certain simple and straight forward questions such as who, what, when, where, whom, why, and how?. 

For instance, if we want to continue working on our topic of "Climate Change", we can come up with many interesting questions such as When was the term "Climate Change" coined? Was there a scientific or political  motivation behind coinage of this term? At what time the term was coined? Who takes the decision regarding climate change? Scientists or politicians? Who/Which nations are the most affected by climate change? Which nations are greatly contributing in emission of green house gases? What is the condition of biodiversity in Indus Delta Region? 

In applying this tool, you will have to keep in mind that the scope of questions with 'what, when, where, who' will be narrow. Therefore, be advised to focus more on 'how' and 'why' questions. 

Without a shred of doubt, this exercise will take some time of yours, but believe me, it will be immensely helpful for you in determining the angle or aspect of topic to be treated. This exercise is a little time-consuming and you may always not be in position to spend that much time one single assignment. Even then it's one of the essential exercise for a variety of reasons: (1) this exercise will make you do some thinking over the topic; (2) the thinking process will mentally push you into the circle of your topic making it a part of your mind and; (3) by doing this exercise you are more likely to come up with another idea for the future.   

4. By searching on internet

Ideas always strike our minds very easily. Those ideas are equally potential to confuse us as well. Therefore, spare your time in doing some research on your topic and find one aspect of the topic on which you can get inspiration from. Internet is our best companion in such cases. You are supposed to receive very interesting results when you search the given topic on google. We get a great deal of results while searching for "Climate Change" on google. Few examples are given below:

(1) Climate Change and poetry on month of December

(2) Climate Change effects on human psychological behaviour. 

(3) Climate Change and Indus Blue Whale Survival

In the topic # 01, you may start from a thesis statement that "In the wake of climate change, Urdu poetry done on the month of December has become irrelevant". While in topic # 02, you may start from an individuals' always angry mood in the season of summer.  And the third topic is also about climate change in which you intend to write about loss of biodiversity in Indus delta due to climate change by making Indus Blue Whale a case. 

You see we receive such an interesting range of results. After that, we may find an aspect of our choice and writing will be fun for us then. When you take writing as passion your writing also becomes enjoyable for readers as well. Just a final tip. While searching on google, do not stop at the first page. Browse few more pages or keep changing your key search words for getting better and more interesting results.  

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.