Prescribed Title # 7 HELP!

[amy92]

Hey can someone please help me with the prescribed title #7: How can we recognise when we have made progress in the search for knowledge? Consider two contrasting areas of knowledge.

-I have a hard time trying to structure my essay with this prompt. I'm thinking of using Natural Sciences and Art but I'm having trouble writing this essay. Once I begin writing it, I start to go off topic. Please. Can someone give me some suggestions on how to start/structure this prescribed title?

[tdubthebassist]

first of all, it is important that you have to define what 'progress' would mean. Then by it's definition, you can describe in each area of knowledge what can be viewed as progress, and what cannot be.

[Green]

To be honest, if I wrote an essay for this title I would be going off-topic all the time.

As the person above has suggested, the first thing to do is identify the key words in this title and define them.

If it makes it any easier for you, try and re-phrase the question in a way that you understand - but without loosing its meaning. To me it sounds like how can humans notice an improvement for seeking information.

In relation to that, I would first list out the contrasting areas of knowledge and consider which would fit the topic perfectly.

For example theres math and art, or math and history, possibly human sciences and ethics, etc. However you should know the areas of knowledge which you intend to discuss, it would be no use if math and art fit the topic and you know so little about it.

With this topic I would ask questions such as how do we recognize things to begin with? How do people search for knowledge, and is there people who don't? (this will depend on how you define knowledge and search). Is "searching for knowledge" a skill or a simple behavior every human does? And is there such thing as progress? What is it, and is it recognizable? And suppose someone does improve their "searching for knowledge", what does that make them, a hard worker? or simply the same person with more hunger for knowledge?

And of course throughout the essay you should be asking yourself "How do I know?".

To prevent yourself from going off topic, you should write out a plan or how you intend to tackle the question and stick to it. Of course new ideas will always come to you while writing the essay, try fitting it somewhere into your plan so it has a logical flow to it.

Another way would be by reading every new paragraph you type out before you move on with your essay. Read the paragraph, see if it makes sense, see if it has any relation to the title and if it is simple mind-wandering or has no purpose at all then remove it.