119048431_TipsforYourProblemorPurpose12-17-15_1.doc

Tips for Your Problem or Purpose Statement

Getting Started by Starting Where You Are

A useful way for you to begin is by identifying your concerns or interests. These can stem from your personal life story or biography (a job, an illness, a living arrangement, a relationship, etc.) or remote biography and personal history (past identities or experiences, family customs, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, class background, religion, and so forth). It’s helpful if you start by “brainstorming” anything that comes to mind when you think about aspects of your biography that intrigue, trouble, or interest you, and writing these thoughts down without trying to organize or analyze them.

Following this, select one or two areas which feel the most compelling, and write about them in a ½ -to-1 page paper. Describe what your area of interest is, how it connects to your own biography, and what fascinates you most about it. At the end, include several questions you have about your areas of interest. If you find you can’t come up with any questions, write about why you think you can’t. Write the paper for yourself, but include enough information so that someone else can understand it.

What problem are you attempting to address?

The problem I am trying to address is…

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Tips:

· State the problem clearly and completely – one or two sentences will suffice. This is a critical starting point – work on it, practice presenting it to your friends and colleagues.
· Make sure what you are addressing is feasible – you will probably not save the world or write the ULTIMATE thesis on anything at this moment, but your project should be something you can manage! Also, you can take longer than one semester if you want to – just work it out with your faculty member.
· Be precise – clarity is your friend. Read your one or two sentences to others and then have them relate back to you what they heard.

· Make sure you have an open mind about the subject. If you believe you already know the answer then you may have a hard time conducting a legitimate research project or finding that a project you implement doesn’t do what you thought it would. Be open and be honest.
· Edit your statement. Others will not be interested in your work if it is not well presented.

· If your problem is too big to do within the time frame, one or two semesters, then consider taking a sub-component and working on that. Addressing a piece of the puzzle is better than making no connection at all.

· You are attempting to add to the understanding of an issue or problem. This can be through replication or taking a different perspective, but it is not providing the “answer” to a question that someone can simply Google.