CHAPTER

4

The Description of the Problem

CHAPTER CONTENTS

The Problem of the Problem 46 Problem Statement 47 Related Research 49 What to Include 50 Search Strategies and Information Sources 52 Use of the Internet and World Wide Web 52 Research Strategies before the Internet 54 Relevant Information Sources Appropriate to Successively Specific Stages of Problem Definition 58 Save Steps and Time with Your Computer-An Example 58 Quanti ta tive Literature Summa ries 62 Questions, Hypotheses, or Models? 64 Descriptions of Where to Look and Questions 65 Hypotheses 66 Models 67 Worksheet 4.1: Characteristics of a Good Research Topic 69 Worksheet 4.2: What to Look for in Reviewing Literature for a Dissertation 71 Worksheet 4.3: Characteristics of a Good Proposal Problem Statement 73 Your first task is to describe your problem in terms so enticing as to make the re­ viewer eager to examine the rest of your proposal. This job falls especially to the introduction and initial problem statement, but is shared with two other sections described in this chapter, the literature review and the questions, hy ­ potheses, and models sections. The introductory section typically develops un­ derstanding of the problem by describing its significance in relation to the large, important problems already of concern to the reviewer and by showing the problem in the perspective of the field in which it is embedded. Thls leads into a section on related research (the literature review), which further develops problem understanding and appreciation by showing specifi­
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ADVICE COMMON TO MOST PROPOSALS

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

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cally how the problem is solidly grounded in the previous work of the field and how this project will take a significant step beyond what has already been done. This makes it possible at the end of the