How to write a PROBLEM STATEMENT in your THESIS: Its 2 parts with an EXAMPLE

Summary

This video script emphasizes the importance of a problem statement in a thesis. It outlines the two key components: identifying a substantial problem and explaining the implications of not addressing it. The script uses an example of professors' behavior at a prestigious university to illustrate how a problem statement should be structured, highlighting the need for a clear, well-articulated statement that justifies the study and its relevance.

Takeaways

• 📝 A problem statement is crucial for justifying the need for a study.
• 🎯 It consists of two parts: identifying the problem and explaining the implications of not addressing it.
• 🌟 A clear problem statement helps readers understand the relevance and significance of the issue.
• 📚 The background section should precede the problem statement, providing context and setting the scene.
• 🔍 The background should include literature to support claims and establish the novelty of the study.
• 🏛️ The example used in the script illustrates a problem within a university's economics department, showing a natural transition from background to problem statement.
• 👨‍🏫 The behavior of professors towards students is identified as the problem, with evidence such as rudeness and unfair marking.
• 📉 Not addressing the problem could lead to reputational damage, decreased student applications, and financial loss for the university.
• 👥 The implications of the problem statement are serious, affecting not just the department but the entire university.
• 🔑 The study aims to provide insights into the problem, potentially leading to solutions or a better understanding of the issue.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of a problem statement in a thesis?

The primary purpose of a problem statement in a thesis is to identify and articulate the problem that the study aims to address, solve, or shed more light on, justifying the need for the study.

Why is it important to have a clear problem statement?

A clear problem statement is important because it provides the reader with an understanding of the relevance and significance of the problem, and it sets the stage for the rest of the research.

What are the two parts of a problem statement?

The two parts of a problem statement are: 1) Identifying the actual problem in terms of its magnitude and extent, including the research gap it addresses. 2) Discussing the implications of not addressing the problem.

How does the background of a study relate to the problem statement?

The background of a study provides context and sets the scene for the reader, introducing the players and arguments that are important when discussing the actual problem. It precedes and naturally progresses into the problem statement.

What should be included in the background section of a thesis?

The background section should include contextual information about the study, such as the scope, the key players, and the arguments that lead to the problem. It may also provide some literature to support claims and establish the novelty of the study.

Why is it necessary to establish the magnitude of the problem in the problem statement?

Establishing the magnitude of the problem is necessary to demonstrate that the problem is substantial enough to warrant the study and to provide evidence that the problem exists.

Can you provide an example of how to transition from the background to the problem statement?

In the given script, the transition is made by first discussing the high reputation and credentials of a university's economics department and its professors, then identifying specific complaints and issues with the professors' behavior as the problem.

What are the implications mentioned in the problem statement example about the professors' behavior?

The implications include reputational damage to the department and university, potential decrease in student applications, loss of high-performing students to other universities, deterioration of university rankings, and loss of revenue and grants.

How does the example problem statement conclude?

The example problem statement concludes by stating that the study will identify why the behavior of the professors is not acceptable towards students, thus addressing the problem.

What is the role of evidence in supporting the problem statement?

Evidence is crucial in supporting the problem statement as it provides proof of the problem's existence and its magnitude, helping to convince the reader of the problem's significance.

Why is it important to discuss the consequences of not addressing the problem?

Discussing the consequences of not addressing the problem is important to highlight the urgency and necessity of the study, making the problem more real and relevant to the reader.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding the Problem Statement

The paragraph introduces the concept of a problem statement in a thesis, emphasizing its importance for justifying the need for a study. It explains that a problem statement should clearly articulate the issue the study aims to address, solve, or shed light upon. The speaker outlines the two parts of a problem statement: identifying the problem and discussing the implications of not addressing it. The paragraph also stresses the need to provide a background that sets the scene for the problem, introducing the reader to the context and key players involved.

05:02

🏛️ Establishing the Background

This paragraph delves into the details of setting the background for a problem statement. It highlights the necessity of providing credible sources to support the arguments made in the background section. The background serves to introduce the reader to the context of the problem, explaining the environment in which the problem exists and the key players involved. The paragraph uses an example of a study focusing on the behavior of professors at a fictitious university to illustrate how the background is developed, including details about the university's reputation, the department's stature, and the credentials of the professors.

10:03

👨‍🏫 Identifying the Problem

The paragraph discusses the first part of the problem statement, which involves identifying the actual problem. Using the example of professors' behavior at a university, it outlines the issues such as professors being rude to students and not marking exam scripts fairly. The paragraph provides evidence to support the claim that there is a problem, including student complaints, social media discussions, and public statements by politicians. It also discusses the implications of not addressing the problem, such as potential damage to the university's reputation and the possibility of decreased student applications.

15:04

📉 Implications and Addressing the Problem

The final paragraph focuses on the implications of not addressing the identified problem and how the study aims to tackle it. It discusses the potential reputational damage to the university and department if the issue with professors' behavior is not resolved, including the possibility of a decrease in student applications and a drop in university rankings. The paragraph concludes by stating that the study will aim to identify the reasons behind the professors' unacceptable behavior towards students, thereby addressing the problem.

Keywords

💡Problem Statement

A problem statement is a clear articulation of the issue that a research study aims to address, solve, or shed light upon. In the video, it is emphasized that without a problem statement, there is no study, highlighting its central role in academic research. The video explains that a problem statement should be substantial enough to justify conducting the study and must be clearly communicated to gain the reader's interest and understanding.

💡Background

The background of a study provides context and sets the scene for understanding the problem statement. It introduces the reader to the environment in which the problem exists and the key players involved. The video script uses the example of a university's department to illustrate how the background leads into the problem statement, establishing the credibility and stature of the institution before discussing the specific issue at hand.

💡Relevance

Relevance refers to the significance of the problem being studied and its importance in the field of research. The video stresses the need to demonstrate the relevance of the problem to ensure that the reader understands why the study is necessary. It is used to justify the importance of addressing the problem and to argue for the value that the study will provide.

💡Research Gap

A research gap is an area in existing knowledge or understanding where further research is needed. In the context of the video, identifying the research gap is part of formulating a problem statement. It is the specific void in knowledge that the study aims to fill, which is crucial for establishing the necessity of the research.

💡Implications

Implications in a research context refer to the consequences or effects of a problem if it is not addressed or solved. The video script explains that stating the problem is not enough; researchers must also articulate the implications of not solving the problem to demonstrate its seriousness and the value of the study.

💡Contextualize

To contextualize means to provide the necessary background information to understand the circumstances surrounding a problem. In the video, the term is used to describe the process of setting up the problem statement by providing a background that gives the reader a comprehensive understanding of the issue and its importance.

💡Academic Staff

Academic staff refers to the professors, lecturers, and researchers working within a university or academic institution. The video uses the term to describe the key players involved in the problem being studied, emphasizing their roles and the impact of their behavior on the study's outcome.

💡Reputation

Reputation in the video refers to the standing or esteem in which a university or department is held, both by the public and within the academic community. The script discusses how the behavior of academic staff can have serious reputational consequences for the institution, affecting student applications and rankings.

💡Consequences

Consequences are the outcomes or results of a particular action or condition. In the video, the term is used to describe the negative outcomes that can occur if the problem identified in the problem statement is not addressed, such as a decrease in student applications and loss of funding.

💡Natural Progression

A natural progression is a smooth and logical sequence of events or ideas. The video script mentions the importance of a natural progression from the background into the problem statement to ensure that the reader is guided through the research context and problem effectively.

💡Substantial

Substantial in the context of the video means being large or significant enough to merit attention or action. The term is used to describe the magnitude of the problem that justifies undertaking the study, emphasizing that the problem must be significant for the research to be worthwhile.

Highlights

Importance of a problem statement in a thesis

No study exists without a problem statement

Problem statement defines the issue a study addresses

Writing a clear and well-articulated problem statement is crucial

Background of the study precedes the problem statement

Background contextualizes the study and introduces the problem

Providing literature in the background to support claims

Natural progression from background to problem statement

Problem statement has two parts: identifying the problem and its implications

The problem must be substantial enough to justify the study

Implications of not addressing the problem

Example of a problem statement in the context of a university department

Establishing the credibility of the department and professors in the background

Problem statement example: Unacceptable behavior of professors towards students

Evidence of the problem: student complaints, unfair marking, and unavailability

Implications of the problem: reputational damage, decrease in student applications, and potential loss of funding

How the study will address the problem

Encouragement to like, subscribe, and watch other videos for more research topics

Transcripts

why is there no study if there's no

problem statement

let's talk about it

[Applause]

hey everyone thank you for joining me on

this channel today we're going to be

speaking about the problem statement in

your thesis

what it is why it's important

and simply

why there is no study if there is no

problem statement

if you find value in this video please

click the like and subscribe button so

that i can continue making new content

on these topics in this video i'm going

to show you the two parts to a problem

statement and i'm going to give you an

example that we're going to work through

that will assist you to write a great

problem statement so let's start at the

beginning if there is no problem there

is no study you must have a problem

substantially enough that it justifies

doing the study what is a problem

statement it is the problem that your

study is trying to address

either solve or shed more light on so

it's important that you write a clearly

and well articulated problem statement

so that your reader has buy-in as to the

relevance of the problem itself but

before you write the problem statement

it's crucial that you deal with the

background

in other words you must set the scene

for the reader so that they can get a

better idea of who all the players are

and what the context is within this

problem and for that reason the

background to the study is important and

it precedes the problem statement so i

just want to give you a few pointers in

the background so there's a natural

progression into the actual problem

statement the background contextualizes

the study in other words it effectively

introduces the problem where in the

problem statement section itself you

identify the actual problem in the

preceding background you contextualize

the problem you contextualize the

environment within which the problem

subsides so the background introduces

the reader to the players and the

arguments that are important when you

discuss the actual problem itself

ideally in your background you want to

provide some sort of literature to

support your claims but by no means is

the background a formal literature

review rather you need to identify

certain sources that add value

for the reader in order to understand

the relevance of the background that

leads the problem statement and the

intention is to have a natural

progression from the background into the

problem statement

so that when the problem is discussed

the reader is more aware of who the

parties are what the arguments are that

result or lead to the actual problem

being a problem so in this background

you would want to set the scene you'd

want to create context you would want to

explain what the scope is of the study

the who the why

the how but very briefly

just enough so that there is a natural

progression into the problem statement

you don't want a situation where the

reader reads the problem and then asks

but who is this person or who is this

company or why should i care about this

or why are these players important why

why did they not mention these players

for example the background must also

provide some sort of idea as to the

novelty of your study in other words

what contribution you're going to make

but of course that contribution is

dependent on the problem that you

identify in the following section

so once the background has been

established the next step is to get into

the problem statement the problem must

be big enough or substantial enough to

justify doing the study and the problem

statement must be argued in such a way

that your study will provide some sort

of value with regards to either solving

the problem or shedding light on the

problem or giving the problem a

different perspective or looking

differently at the problem remember

although you claim to have a problem

that does not mean that your study will

solve the problem but it's vitally

important that the reader is aware of

what the problem is why it's a problem

and how substantial the problem itself

is there are two parts to a problem

statement the first part is where you

discuss what the actual problem itself

is you identify the actual problem in

terms of its magnitude and the extent

thereof and part of this is identifying

the actual research gap of which the

problem is part of the second important

part of a problem statement is what are

the implications of not addressing the

problem or not solving the problem in

other words it's not just good enough to

say there is a problem you need to

establish what the consequences are if

you do not address this problem and that

is what your study is about addressing

the problem in other words your study

will not per say address the

consequences of the problem but rather

the cause

of the consequences that is the actual

problem itself so in summary

for every problem statement there are

two parts

the first part is what is the actual

problem and the second part is

what are the implications of not dealing

with this problem common feedback given

to a student with regards to problem

statement

is to ask the question so what why is

this a problem why is it relevant why is

it significant enough and normally that

is asked because the second part of the

problem is not explained properly so you

have to contextualize the implications

of not dealing with the problem itself

so by way of an example it's one thing

saying your staff are unhappy but i can

ask them so what why does it matter that

they are unhappy and then you should

explain the implications of not

addressing the problem so it would not

be good enough to only say your staff

are unhappy you would rather than say my

staff are unhappy and this is causing

bad service

customers aren't happy customers are

leaving my business i'm losing revenue

and as a result i'm having problems with

regards to sustaining my business so

let's look at an example which we can

work through to see what the two parts

are but also let's look at the

background and see how there is a

natural transition

from the background to the actual

problem statement

let's look at the two parts to a problem

statement before we do that we look at

the introduction and background

remember it's important to set the

context and what that means is that you

need to introduce the reader to the

background of the problem so that there

is a natural transition into the actual

problem itself

so this particular study

looks at the behavior of professors at a

particular university so i've

highlighted the sources here in yellow

just so that you know that it's

important to provide sources

because that gives more credibility to

your arguments don't just write a

background

where the reader feels that you are

giving your view or your opinion

you must back up your background with

relevant credible sources so that the

arguments are sound and that the

arguments are supported with literature

right so we are looking at excellent

university which is a fictitious

university

an american university of higher

learning that is regarded as one of the

10 best in the world according to all

the major university rankings in the

world i provide the relevant source to

support that the university is known to

have one of the best campuses in the us

with a thriving student life why am i

saying that

because i want to get through to the

reader that although this university is

regarded as one of the best it also has

a great campus life

and the student life is thriving the eu

offers some of the best programs in

economics and finance in the world

and as a world-renowned department of

economics why i'm saying that is because

this study is going to be within the

department of economics so i need to get

a message across that this university is

a great university but so too

is the department of economics

it's a department of stature i then go

into discussing the academic staff there

are 21 academic staff members of which

12 are full professors so more than half

of the department are full professors

and they are specializing in different

disciplines in other economics of

finance under the umbrella of the

department of economics

i say this because the study is going to

be focusing on professors

so it's important to establish that the

majority of the staff members at this

department are indeed full professors

i then established that the professors

in the department are a god as of the

top in the world and they hold research

chairs in their respective areas of

specialization funded by prominent banks

such as morgan stanley jp morgan city

bank and hsbc why am i saying this

because i want to get across the

credibility of the department and of

course the professors this is a high

profile department with high profile

professors i furthermore indicate that

four of these professors have been

economic advisers to the us government

and three further professors are

currently on the board of directors at

the federal reserve bank in the u.s so

once again i'm just reinforcing the fact

that the professors are of high caliber

and that they are well established not

only academia but also in private sector

the professors in the department are

very busy and have many commitments to

stakeholders outside the confines of the

university and are more often than not

high profile commitments in other words

what i'm trying to say here is the fact

that the professors are busy so once i

read this background the sense i get

is that we are working with a university

that is well established we are working

with a university that is high profile

we are working with a department within

this university that is high profile

that has more than 50 percent of the

academic staff being full professors and

these full professors are well

established not only in academia but

also in the private sector and they are

high profile professors

they are busy so that was important to

establish to get into the problem

let's look at the problem itself as i

mentioned earlier in the video

a problem statement has two parts the

first part is where you actually state

the problem itself

so if i state the problem here very

simply in one sentence i can say for

example

the behavior of professors at the

department of economics at excellence

university towards students is not

acceptable

now what does that mean

can i provide evidence or proof

to argue the merit of this actual

problem let's do that and what i've done

here is i've given you a few bullets of

course when you actually write the

problem itself it will be in a paragraph

format i've just given you put it so you

can get a nice idea of the different

arguments that i'm posing within the

actual evidence that i provide for the

problem itself

so firstly i'm mentioning the problem

itself that the behavior of the

professors is not acceptable towards the

students

let me give you some examples of what

that actually means

students are constantly complaining

about professors being rude to them and

are never available during consultation

hours

i state that

but because i establish in the

background that these professors are

busy

and that they are well established in

the private sector and have commitments

in the private sector one can understand

that this happens or at least one can

understand

why they are never available

the fact that they are rude to students

is an issue of concern

furthermore there's also evidence that

exam scripts are not being marked fairly

and that students are not being assigned

marks even if evidence is provided to

the contrary what this suggests perhaps

is that the professors are not being

thorough whilst marking the exam scripts

and the fact that they are rude in the

preceding bullet and not adjusting marks

accordingly even if there is evidence to

suggest that the marks are correct it

raises a further problem so what are the

implications of this

the students are laying complaints

directorate and several professors have

been contacted by the exco of the

university regarding their poor conduct

so this is escalated the professors have

now been contacted by the exco

and the university has taken note of the

poor and bad behaviour of these

professors

furthermore the per conduct of

professors in the department has been

discussed on several social media

platforms

and the negativity has snowballed in

recent months now you can think for

yourself this is indeed a problem the

way that social media works is that

there are clear reputational effects and

this can become a serious reputational

problem not only for the department and

the professors but indeed for the

university

furthermore

a facebook group with over 10 000

followers called we hate the professors

of the department of economics at eu has

been established and the number of

followers is growing so what that

highlights is that these students are

serious about how unhappy they are and

they are not merely unhappy

they seem to hate the professors there

are very clear emotions involved here

and this can escalate to become a very

serious problem for the

university and the department

furthermore several prominent

politicians have noticed the anger of

students at eu

and have made public utterances on the

natural public gatherings that have been

reported in several of the major

newspaper outlets in the u.s

so the fact that politicians are now

jumping onto the bandwagon

and given the

ability of politicians to

speak in front of audiences

and speak in front of many people and

the influence that they have

raises further alarm bells for this

department of this university with

regards to the behavior of these few

professors the human resource department

the eu has consequently issued final

warnings

of potential dismissal to half of the

professors in the department should this

behavior continue so we can we can

conclude then that the problem is

substantial

the professors are rude they don't seem

to have time they're not marking scripts

correctly and students are laying

complaints for the university where they

are sharing on a public platform the

problems they are facing with these

professors so now that we've established

what the problem itself is

what are the implications of not

addressing these problems firstly the

per conduct of professors has serious

reputational consequences for both the

department and the university these

reputational consequences can lead to a

decrease in the number of student

applications in coming years

not only for the department but for the

university as a whole especially if

social media hype escalates so what i'm

trying to do here is i'm trying to take

the problem to the next level that if i

don't deal with this problem

there are going to be serious

consequences so the implications part of

the problem statement just makes it much

more real

it makes it much more relevant it just

reinforces why it needs to be dealt with

this could further result in the best

students not applying to study at eu and

choosing other universities instead the

rankings of the university could

resultantly deteriorate of course many

universities rely on these rankings from

a reputational point of view from a

funder's point of view

so this could be devastating for the

university especially as it escalates in

the social media space

all of these factors could result in the

university losing revenue

and even grants from external funders

who associate themselves with leading

universities of repute in the field of

economics and finance so there are very

real implications of this problem

escalating then the final part of the

problem statement is where you give a

perspective on how your study will

address this problem this study will

identify why the behavior of the

professors at the department

is not acceptable towards its students

so it's important that you end off the

problem statement

by highlighting how your study will

address this problem so to summarize

a problem statement has got two parts

the first part is the problem itself

there you establish what the problem is

once you've done that you explain what

the implications are of not addressing

the problem the second part just raises

the seriousness of the problem so that

the reader can clearly see that this

problem needs to be addressed this

problem needs to be solved or at the

very least this problem needs to have

some light shed on it your study will

attempt to shed some light on it thank

you so much for watching the video if

you enjoyed it please click the like

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another video if you are busy with your

research please consider watching some

of my other videos

where i deal with interesting topics on

for example the readability of your

thesis

or if you're considering starting

research i have a video that gives you

four questions that you can consider

before you start i have another video

that sheds some light on how a phd will

change you and specifically the life

skills that it will equip you with

on that note i will see you next time