A topic analysis will help you to clarify and understand what your assessment question is asking you to do.

You will generally be given three key pieces of information:

1. The key topic or concept words direct you in what to research.
2. The limits or qualifiers tell you the specific focus of the topic or concept.
3. The task or instruction terms tell how you are to deal with the content.CSU has a list of explanations for common instruction words.

A hypothetical assessment question could be:

"Describe and critique the (dairy) farm system focusing on the following:

• animal husbandry practices,
• the feedbase and;
• challenges and issues to the future viability of the farm

Write down the key concepts from your topic and have a go at brainstorming as many alternative keywords and phrases as possible.

Thinking about your topic in this way forces you to describe your topic in "other words", which will provide you with some useful keyword alternatives as well as help you to cement your understanding of the topic.

Dictionaries and encyclopaedias can help you to find additional keywords and get an overview of the concept.