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Ask Questions About Promising Subjects

Even if you think you know a great deal about each of the problems you’ve identified as potential subjects for your essay, check them out thoroughly before you begin trying to solve one. To learn more about a promising problem, reflect on your own experiences with it, discuss it with others, and find and review relevant published sources through your library or the Web. (You can learn more about locating, collecting, and managing information in Part Three.)

Once you’ve learned about the most promising problems, select those that continue to hold your interest, and then spend a few minutes responding to the following questions. Each set of questions focuses your attention on a problem in a different way, allowing you to think not only about the problem but also about its potential as the focus of your problem-solving essay. Depending on the problem you work with, you’ll find that some questions are more useful than others.

Relevance. Is this problem widespread, or does it involve only a small group of people? Who is affected by it, and how are they affected? Will my readers think it’s important? Can I address it within the limits of my assignment?
Definition. What, exactly, is the problem? How can I explain it? What kinds of information will readers need to understand it?
Context. When and where did this problem begin? How much is known about it? What solutions have been tried? Why haven’t they worked?
Causes and effects. What caused this problem? What must happen before it can be solved? What is likely to happen if it isn’t solved?

As you think about your ideas, remember that the best problems to tackle in an essay are usually highly specific. For example, instead of writing about the general problem of encouraging college students to become teachers, you might focus on how to encourage students in a particular discipline, such as math or biology, to become high school teachers in rural school districts.