NARROWING DOWN

YOUR ESSAY TOPIC

Using the 3Cs, 5Ws &

1H
 CONTEXT
CONNECTIONS
COMPLEXITY

• Who?
• What ? (which?)
• When?
• Where?
• Why?

• How?
 CONTEXT
CAN BE MANY DIFFERENT THINGS:

• whatever we discuss we need to be specific about the particular context (for

example the specific issue) we are discussing

• We must always clearly define the context we are focusing on in our enquiry and
analysis

• We must always situate this context in time and space. Every context belongs to a
specific time and place. This emphasises the inherent nature of change and
movement in everything
 CONNECTIONS: A PARTICULAR CONTEXT
IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO OTHER
CONTEXTS

• As the English poet John Donne wrote in the 17th Century: ‘No man is
an island’.

• No person, no place, no event, no situation, no process, no country, no

context exists in isolation.

• Things are always connected. There are always connections – for

example in time (history) and space (different places).
 WE ARE CO-CREATING OUR
SOCIAL HISTORIES
• People do not just sit in society. People act. We can say that people are
acting subjects. We can also say that we are social actors, acting in our
communities and societies. In this way we are co-creating our social
and cultural histories. So we can also say that we are historical agents.
• The meanings people as social actors, social agents or historical agents
give to things, their experience, interpretations and representations of
particular contexts, are connected in different ways.
 COMPLEXITY: THERE ARE ALWAYS
MANY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

• Complexity, our third analytical category, indicates that there are no

simple answers. There are always many different perspectives to any
issue: that is complexity.

• There is never ONE answer to any question in social analysis. There

could be many answers – and no answer exists in isolation! It is always
connected with other answers.
 TWO EXAMPLES OF
USING MIND MAPS
TO NARROW DOWN ESSAY TOPICS
• The final two slides are examples of mind maps made in tutorials when
we discussed how to narrow down and be specific about chosen essay
topics.

• You can team up with a class mate to help each other create mind maps
of your essay topics, using the 3Cs, 5Ws & 1H to ask each other
questions to help clarify your topic. OR you can make a mind map on
your own, asking yourself questions.
MIND MAP 1
MIND MAP 2