Problem Posing in Academic Writing

Among those who write, no question at 4 A.M. is more anxiety-producing than some variation of these:

"My God, I don't think I have any conclusion here."

"Will I ever find something important in all this?"

"Have I said anything here that matters?"

"I don't know what I m getting at."

"Is this a pointless paper?"

"Why am I writing this?"

"So what?"

Among those who read, or who referee articles for journals, no criticism is more common than some variation of these:

"I don't see what you are getting at."

"What's important about all this?"

"This paper has no argument."

"All I see here is summary."

"Why am I reading this?"

"What's at stake here?"

"What's the point?"

"What's at issue?"

"So what?"

Framing your Thesis: Stating the Problem

So, how do we find a thesis (a claim, an assertion, a point) that is worth making?

Good thesis statements respond to a question, issue, controversy--in short, a "problem." The best way to develop a thesis is to think first about the problem. If you can respond to the questions below, you know that you have a problem that your readers will find worthwhile.

Problem Statement

• What is the issue or conflict?
  There must be some tension, a gap, a goal--something unknown, undone, unresolved, confused.


• What is preventing this conflict from being resolved?
  To be a problem, a situation must have some changeable cause or condition that is preventing the issue from being resolved, the gap from being filled, or the goal from being met.


• What is the cost of not resolving the conflict?
  This is the most important element, and it is the one most likely to be left missing. This element describes to readers the undesirable results that follow from the failure to resolve the conflict.

Proposed Resolution

• What benefits (or at least the removal of the costs) will be gained from addressing this issue?


• What is the significance of those benefits to readers as members of an academic field or profession?
  Often the significance of addressing a conceptual issue is that we will understand something larger, more important than just understanding something we didn't understand before.

Writing up a Statement of the Problem

Although the introduction to a short paper may be only one paragraph in length, don't think of that as an ironclad rule. A good rule of thumb is that the introduction should be no longer than 15% of your paper. The questions above can organize your introduction: It has two parts (posing the problem and addressing it); each major part has two or more subparts. It ends with a statement of the thesis.

If you think that you've found a thesis, claim, conclusion--or at least a topic--try fitting it into one or more of the models below. A well-written thesis often takes the form of one of these kinds of statements:

So what?
"Freud misunderstands the nature of dreaming." (So what?)
If you can answer some form of this question from our opening page, you have a problem. This works well especially when you think you have a thesis.

I am analyzing/ comparing/ __________ so that I can explain/understand ________.
You have a problem when you can say both what your paper will do (e.g., analyze) and how you and your readers will benefit from your having done it (the "so that" half). This can work even if you are still searching for a thesis, as long as you know what you want the paper to do (e.g., analyze, classify, evaluate).

If we (do not) understand ___________, we will (not) understand ___________.
This is similar to number 2, in that there is the two-part structure. This is helpful especially when you are still at the topic stage--you know the subject you are writing about, but you don't yet know your thesis (what you want to say about it) or your organizational structure (what the paper will do to support that thesis).

Most people believe that _____________, but a closer look will show that __________.
Writing in the university most often deals with saying something "new," something "against the grain." Although this sentence does not pose a problem per se, it can help you to arrive at a thesis which will resolve some misunderstanding. To help you (and your readers) figure out why clearing up this understanding is important, you need one of the others.

What we know about __________ is that __________; what we don't know is _____________.
Not all "new" knowledge is made by explicitly showing that someone else has "misunderstood." If you can find a "gap" in what is known, you've also taken the first step to posing a problem. As with number 4, however, you need to use one of the other statements to figure out why this gap is worth filling in.

Adapted from J. Williams, The Little Red Schoolhouse, University of Chicago

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