Hello, Faisal & Class
I just like to add to your interesting discussion and point out that we can all agree an academic scholar’s problem statement arises from a gap in the literature. When there’s something that hasn’t been studied, and when also a good reason to study it, that constitutes a problem. Another excellent way of discovering a problem is through personal experience. Perhaps you’ve worked in a field and noticed a persistent problem that nobody has found an effective answer to. As Practitioners we should make sure to familiarize ourselves with the literature, though, before taking it too far–it could be somebody has already studied it (in which case you could still build off their study).
Not all problems have only one solution so demonstrating the need for additional
research can also be included in your problem statement, (Miles, 2017). Once scholars identify the problem and the need for a solution, or for further study, then doctoral students can show how they intend to collect the needed data and present it.
Asking experts in the field is not only an expedient way to discover a research problem, but it also often leads to the most interesting problems as well, (Jacobs, 2011). Those who have worked in the field for a long time have a depth and breadth of knowledge and often work at the frontier of knowledge in their field. They can provide a perspective that even a complete literature review on its own won’t be able to. Essentially, you want to establish (a) what the problem is, (b) that it matters, and (c) that it addresses a meaningful gap in the literature. The Key Elements of a Dissertation Problem Statement:
Give some brief background information.
State the general research problem.
Establish relevancy.
Specific Problem Statement.
Conclusion and transition. Reference:
Jacobs, R. L. (2011). "Developing a Research Problem and Purpose Statement", in The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing, T. S. Rocco and T. Hatcher(eds.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 125-141.
Miles, D.A.(2017). Workshop: Confessions of a Dissertation Chair Part 1: The Six Mistakes Doctoral Students Make With the Dissertation. Presented at the 5th Annual2017 Black Doctoral Network Conference in Atlanta, GA on October 26-29 2017.
