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Frame Your Essay

Once you’ve worked out how to define the problem and present your proposed solution, decide how you’ll organize, introduce, and conclude your essay.

Organization. Most problem-solving essays start with an introduction, then define the problem and explain the proposed solution, and finish with a conclusion. Longer problem-solving essays often make use of the organizing patterns discussed in Chapter 15. For instance, process explanation can offer a helpful outline for explaining the steps involved in implementing a solution. The costs/benefits and strengths/weaknesses patterns provide a practical structure for both analyzing a problem and examining a solution’s potential. And problem-solving essays that address several alternative solutions often take advantage of the comparison/contrast pattern.

Introduction. Your introduction creates a framework within which you can present your thesis statement and prepare your readers to understand how you’ve defined your problem. You can draw on a number of strategies to draw your readers in:

Use an anecdote (a brief story) to personalize the problem.
Use dramatic statistics, as Jennie Tillson does in her essay, to illustrate the scope of the problem.
Use quotations from experts, or from people who have been affected by a problem, to make the problem hit home with your readers.
Draw comparisons between this problem and other, more widely understood problems.

You can read more about strategies for introducing your essay in Chapter 16.

Conclusion. In much the same way that you can use your introduction to direct readers toward a particular understanding of a problem, you can use your conclusion to encourage them to accept your ideas for solving it. Most problem-solving essays end with a call to action, in which the writer urges readers to do something specific to help put the solution into effect. Other strategies you can employ to conclude your essay include summarizing your problem definition and proposed solution, circling back to the introduction, and speculating about the future. You can learn more about framing your conclusion in Chapter 16.