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Narrowing Your Topic
By now you have developed an idea of your topic, but even with a general and specific
purpose, you may still have a broad subject that will be a challenge to cover within the
allotted time before the deadline. You might want to revisit your purpose and ask
yourself, how specific is my topic?
Imagine that you work for a local skydiving training facility. Your boss has assembled a
list of people who might be candidates for skydiving and asks you to write a letter to
them. Your general purpose is to persuade, and your specific purpose is to increase the
number of students enrolled in classes. You’ve decided that skydiving is your topic area
and you are going to tell your audience how exhilarating the experience is, discuss the
history and basic equipment, cover the basic requirements necessary to go on a first
jump, and provide reference information on where your audience could go to learn more
(links and Web sites, for example).
But at this point you might find that a one-page letter simply is not enough space for the
required content. Rather than expand the letter to two pages and risk losing the reader,
consider your audience and what they might want to learn. How can you narrow your
topic to better consider their needs? As you edit your topic, considering what the
essential information is and what can be cut, you’ll come to focus on the key points
naturally and reduce the pressure on yourself to cover too much information in a limited
space environment.
Perhaps starting with a testimony about a client’s first jump, followed by basic
equipment and training needed, and finally a reference to your organization may help
you define your document. While the history may be fascinating, and may serve as a
topic in itself for another day, it may add too much information in this persuasive letter.
Your specific purpose may be to increase enrollment, but your general goal will be to
communicate goodwill and establish communication. If you can get your audience to
view skydiving in a positive light and consider the experience for themselves, or people
they know, you have accomplished your general purpose.
Focus on Key Points
As a different example, let’s imagine that you are the office manager for a pet boarding
facility that cares for dogs and cats while their owners are away. The general manager
has asked you to draft a memo to remind employees about safety practices. Your general
purpose is twofold: to inform employees about safety concerns and to motivate them to
engage in safe work practices. Your specific purpose is also twofold: to prevent
employees from being injured or infected with diseases on the job, and to reduce the risk
of the animal patients being injured or becoming sick while in your care.
You are an office manager, not a veterinary or medical professional, and clearly there
are volumes written about animal injuries and illnesses, not to mention entire schools
devoted to teaching medicine to doctors who care for human patients. In a short memo