What do professors mean when they say we have to "get the big picture?"?

Question

I should know this by now as a recent college graduate but what do professors mean when, in certain survey courses, they talk about "the big picture?"

For example, in a history course about the U.S., one would mention the "big picture." Do they mean that we, as students, need to grasp the time frame and area of when something happened?

Thanks.

Thanks...I get it now :)

Answer 1

This phrase refers to, when examining a particular aspect of history - let's say Pearl Harbour - one doesn't just look at that aspect in isolation, but make sure to look at everything that led up to it, the causes and effects, the decisions that were made, the repercussions, what effects those decisions had upon other countries ... basically all the offshoot threads that make up the whole picture, rather than an isolated area within the whole story.

Answer 2

They may be referring to life and times as a whole. For example if my friend Jessica is having a hard time deciding what mobile phone to purchase I can say "look at the big picture, a year from now you are going to University in London and will need to buy a totally new phone."

Hope that helped.

Answer 3

They mean the entire history at once. An example of the big picture of US history is if you had to summarize the history of the US in one or two paragraphs. The small picture is virtually any in depth study of a subject. You can't get in depth in the big picture, you can only observe trends.

Answer 4

You have to look at all the aspects of events in order to see the net outcome.

Answer 5

A general overview of the whole thing.