A telescope allows us to zoom in on a piece of scenery to examine it in detail, or zoom out for a wider view. Zooming in and out may help connect a narrow view to a wider scene.

Scope may also be used to focus. One telescope can point to the mountains and another can point to the lake. By focusing views the mountain and the lake may be isolated from each other.

Everyone has their own telescope through which they view the world.

Orienting everyone's telescope to view the same scene may be key to effective communication.

Providing a common view may provide a starting point to reach a common understanding.

The concept of scope, or defining what is in view, is widely applicable to context, objectives, responsibilities, and hierarchies.

Perhaps an interesting application of scope is words in language, which can take on different meanings depending on the broader view.

Surrounding culture, topic, and inflection may provide alternative views that may change the meaning of words.

Authors are embedded in a historical context when writing their works. It may be difficult to appreciate an author's viewpoint without a broader understanding of the scope in which they are writing. Often, writers are responding to current events, past events, or their contemporaries' viewpoints with the assumption that the reader is familiar with the context. Words may also differ in meaning as language evolves and changes. A colloquial term may have different past meaning and intent than its modern usage. Differences between the writer's and reader's context may complicate fully appreciating an author's viewpoint. Similarly, when an author's work is taken out of the context in which it was written, possibly by applying a modern one, an author's viewpoint may seem quite strange or obsolete.

For example, the phrase 'the gay otter' may have significantly different meanings depending on the author's time and place. Is the otter homosexual, happy, or both? Does otter refer to the animal or is a term for something else? It's impossible to know the author's intent without broader context.

Keeping scope in mind may help us better understand and appreciate each others views.