This video tells important parts of a problem statement
Subtitle/SRT
Hello viewers.
Writing problem statement for your thesis for your research article or maybe for your technical report is very very important or significant part of your write-up so today I’m going to give you few tips how you can write persuasive statement problem for your thesis or your research article.
First of all what is problem statement? A problem statement is a statement of a current issue or problem that requires timely action to improve the situation. So if we interpret this definition so problem statement is related to the current issue or the problem or the researched phenomena you are going to explore through your research. In general a problem statement will outline the negative points of the current situation and explain why this matters. So this means that while writing or stating a problem statement basically you need to mention the gaps or the negative points of the situation you are exploring. You need to mention what are the basic gaps what are the negativity prevailing in that situation or in that scenario. You need to highlight those negative points or gaps a good research problem should address an existing gap in knowledge in the field and let the further research.
Now I’m going to tell you that what are the most significant parts of a persuasive problem statement. Dear students the problem statement can be of one paragraph or it can consist of more than one maybe two or three paragraphs depending upon the objectives or the nature of the problem you are exploring. However, if you are writing in one para or maybe more than one para you need to include these three parts in a problem statement.
Part one
So the first part of a problem statement is called the ideal where you need to describe the goal or the ideal situation of the phenomena you are investigating or you need to explain how things should be. This means here you need to write the overall ideal situation of the research problem you are exploring. Here you can mention all the positivity or the significance or the importance of your phenomena or you need to write how the situation should be in a real ideal phenomena.
Part Two
In the second part which is called the reality part here you need to mention the reality of the situation or the phenomena you are researching definitely here you will write some of the negative points and some of the gaps you will identify through literature so basically here you value the part a from being achieved or realized at this time. You will also explain how the current situation falls short of goal or idea. Here you need to really mention that how the situation is different from the ideal situation you already mentioned in part A or in paragraph one.
Part Three
Now the third para which is called the consequences here you need to identify the way you propose to improve the situation which has shortfalls and move it closer to the goal or the ideal situation dear students. Here you will really mention that what are your proposal to improve the current situation or you can make it to the ideal situation or maybe closer to the ideal situation.
So these are the three basic parts of any problem statement you are writing for your thesis or maybe for your research article according to some of the books the problem statements should apply the five W’s those are who what, where, when and why. So author suggested that if a researcher while writing a problem statement incorporate all these five W’s that can generate a really persuasive problem statement. Secondly dear students you also need to focus only on one problem while writing problem statement, do not confuse or mention the two or maybe three problems in one problem statement. The one problem statement should look focused and precise. It is also suggested by researchers and books that problem statement should not suggest a solution because here you are mentioning the ideal situation of the phenomena you are researching so because here you are mentioning the ideal situation, you are determining the gaps and you are proposing that what can be best to make that situation to the reality or the real situation. So here the solution is not very much needed. This is not the appropriate place to mention the solution of the study.
Viewers there could be many ways of writing problem statement. However I’m mentioning the two significant or the most used ways of writing problem statement. The first one is you can directly jump onto your problem statement and you can write you what is the ideal situation what are the gaps and then what are the consequences. However, some of the books suggested that if your problem is really technical or maybe difficult for the layman to understand so first establish the context or the background of your problem or your phenomena you are going to research and then write down the ideal situation or the other part of the problem statement I just mentioned. So I would suggest you that if your problem or your under-researched area is very much technical and it’s difficult for the layman to understand or to read so for the better quality you must mention first the context or the background and the rest of the three parts later on.
So viewers I hope that this brief video would give you some significant tips of writing your problem statement and this will be helpful when you are busy while writing your thesis or your research paper. Thank you.