Academic Writer
academic writer: organization: introductions: limiting the scope
Limiting the scope
The scope is the area which you intend to cover in your
paper. It is possible to limit the scope of your topic in your introduction and say what
ground you are NOT going to cover. This is quite a useful tactic because
if you have excluded an area from your essay's scope you cannot be criticized for
not covering it. This is related to refining your research question from a general to a
specific level.
EXAMPLE Style note: Notice the way in which the writer limits the scope - 'Given the time available I will be unable to...'
| Changes in education policy in Britain since
1945 This paper examines the changes in education policy in post-war Britain. Two key arguments are developed. Firstly, that the perception and definition of educational problems has been crucial to the way in which governments have developed education policies. Secondly, that the government has until recently failed to adapt to the compexity of educational problems. Given the space available I will be unable to provide a comprehensive survey of all the education programmes launched over the past twenty-five years so I will simply use some key developments in order to illustrate government perceptions of educational problems. |
Other useful phrases
| But I will not consider this in the
present discussion. Given the time/space available I will be unable to go into... This isn't the place to go into detail... Without going into technical detail, it is possible to explain the broad principles of the theory. |
Find out about other types of Introductions
Academic Writer 2000