Identify topic and scope

As soon as you begin to read a passage, you must seek to identify its topic and scope. Identifying the broader topic is usually a simple matter, and by the second or third line of text, the author has already begun to narrow the focus to a specific area of interest. This specific area of interest is the scope, and the remainder of the passage will be devoted to discussing it.

A passage might begin like so:

Genetic engineering may offer the best hope of improving yields of Oryza sativa (cultivated rice) and perhaps, in time, other important U.S. crops. The insertion of foreign genetic material into the DNA of cultivars appears to confer a...

By this point, a critical reader will already have identified both the topic and scope of this passage.

Now try identifying topic and scope on your own. Review the passage excerpt below. Type your responses into the text boxes that follow, and then click Continue.

The Internal Revenue Service has constructed an intricate web of tests to determine whether an individual who renders services for pay should be considered an independent contractor or an employee for tax purposes. In recent years, the agency...

What is the topic?

What is the scope?
how the IRS' classifies workers into one of two categories

Note that the topic is a general description of the subject matter; the scope is a specific, refined description of the subject matter.

We'll move on to some more practice examples, but first let's review a few important points concerning topic and scope.