The scope of a question is what it asks you to cover: its focus, its dates, its place or group and its command phrase. Fixing these before you write keeps every sentence relevant. This lesson uses a Prohibition question as the working example, but the method fits any selected course question in your depth study.
It is the first lesson in the United States depth-study pathway. Your own depth study may use different topics, so check the Cambridge syllabus page for your exam year.
How do you find the scope of a question?
Read the question and mark four things.
- Focus: the theme or event the question is about.
- Dates: the start and end years. If none are given, work out the period that the topic belongs to.
- Place or group: the country, city or group of people.
- Command phrase: what kind of answer is wanted, such as “explain why”, “describe” or “how far”.
Write these four items at the start of your plan. Each paragraph you plan should serve at least one of them.
Worked example
Question: How effective was Prohibition in the United States between 1920 and 1933?
Focus: Prohibition, meaning the national ban on making and selling alcoholic drink.
Dates: 1920 to 1933. National Prohibition began in January 1920 and ended with the Twenty-first Amendment in December 1933. These dates are widely documented, and your textbook will confirm them.
Place or group: the United States as a whole, though evidence may come from particular cities.
Command phrase: “How effective” asks for a judgement. You need to say what Prohibition was meant to achieve, weigh evidence that it worked and evidence that it did not, and reach a supported conclusion.
Using the scope to plan: Three paragraphs fit well. The first sets out what the law aimed to do. The second weighs evidence of success. The third weighs evidence of limits. A closing sentence gives the judgement.
What stays out: the causes of the 1929 financial crash, because they do not help judge the effectiveness of Prohibition, and events after 1933.
The mistake to watch for
A student wrote the following opening sentence.
“Prohibition failed because the economy collapsed in 1929 and people lost their jobs.”
This goes wrong in two ways. It gives a verdict before weighing any evidence, and it brings in the financial crash, which belongs to a different question. The mistake is a scope error, not a knowledge error: the facts may be accurate and still earn little.
Correction: “The question asks how effective Prohibition was between 1920 and 1933, so I will weigh evidence about the law’s aims, its enforcement and its results before judging.”
Check yourself
1. Mark the focus, dates and command phrase: “Explain why national Prohibition was introduced in 1920.”
Show answer
Focus: the introduction of national Prohibition. Dates: the period leading up to 1920, when the ban began. Command phrase: “explain why”, which asks for causes, not a description of what happened afterwards. Events from the 1930s are outside the scope.
2. A student plans a paragraph on the repeal of Prohibition for the question “How effective was Prohibition between 1920 and 1933?” Is it in scope?
Show answer
Yes, if it is used as evidence. Repeal in 1933 falls inside the dates, and the reasons given for it can help judge effectiveness. The paragraph should stay linked to the question and avoid retelling later history.
3. The title “Life in the 1920s” is too broad to plan. Rewrite it as a scoped question.
Show answer
Any version with a focus, dates and command phrase works. Example: “How far did radio change evening entertainment for American households between 1922 and 1929?” The focus is radio and entertainment, the dates are 1922 to 1929 and “how far” asks for a judgement.
Where this leads next
Once you can fix the boundaries, the next step is to handle evidence inside them: use a historical dataset with date and population identified. The integrated practice set tests the whole pathway.
Some students know the content well but lose control of the question under time pressure. That is a pattern our teachers can spot quickly in online one-to-one History tuition.