Seek a Fuller Understanding of Your Subject

If you’ve ever talked with people who don’t know what they’re talking about but nonetheless are certain of their opinions, you’ll recognize the dangers of applying an interpretive framework before you thoroughly understand your subject. To enhance your understanding of your subject, use division and classification. Division allows you to identify the elements that make up a subject. Classification allows you to explore a subject in relation to other subjects and to consider the similarities, differences, and relationships among its elements.

Division. Division breaks a subject into its parts and considers what each contributes to the whole. A financial analyst, for example, might examine the various groups within a company to understand what each group does and how it contributes to the overall value of the company. Similarly, a literary critic might consider how each scene in a play relates to other scenes and how it contributes to the play’s major theme.

As you use division to examine a subject, keep in mind the following guidelines:

Even though you can divide and reassemble a subject in a variety of ways, always take into account your purpose and your readers’ needs, interests, and expectations. It might be easier to focus on a government agency’s departments than on its functions, but if your question focuses on how the agency works or what it does, you’ll be more successful if you examine its functions.

Classification. Classification places your subject — or each part of your subject — into a category. By categorizing a subject or its parts, you can discover how and to what extent your subject or a part of your subject is similar to others in the same category and how it differs from those in other categories. Identifying those similarities and differences, in turn, allows you to consider the subject, or its parts, in relation to the other items in your categories. As you use classification to gain a better understanding of your subject, consider the following guidelines:

Classification and division are often used in combination, particularly when you want to consider similarities and differences among different parts of your subject. For example, if you are examining a complex organization, you might use division to analyze each department; in addition, you might use classification so that you can analyze groups of departments that have similar functions, such as customer service and technical support, and contrast those departments with departments in other categories, such as sales, marketing, and research and development.