Pre-Writing Essay #4
Prewriting for Essay #4
Analyzing and Defining the Problem
Answer the following questions in a few sentences or in a list when appropriate:
The large number of people who smoke on Bowling Green State University’s Campus
1. Does this problem really exist? How can you tell?
Yes there are reports on BGSU’s website showing real numbers of students who smoke on campus
2. What caused this problem? What are some immediate causes? What are some deeper causes? Consider: Is this problem caused by a flaw in the system, a lack of resources, individual misconduct or incompetence, something else? How can you tell? List as many causes as you can think of.
Students learn to smoke when they are young, a lack of parents/new found freedom
Students do not seem concerned with the health risk
3. What is the history of this problem? Who has been involved? How have they been affected? Have people tried to address this problem in the past? If so, how? What changed and why (or why did something not change)?
Smoking has always been a problem among youth, Bowling Green has made a lot of steps forwards to make a difference and change the number of students who smoke. They have implemented a few programs and made it prohibitited to smoke in any buildings on campus
4. What are the bad effects of this problem? How does it harm members of the community or group? What goals of the group and endangered by the existence of this problem? Does it raise any moral or ethical questions?
Smoking causes many health dieses, litter, and second hand smoke harms others
5. Who is the community or group is affected by the problem? Be as specific as possible: Who is seriously affected? Minimally affected? Unaffected? Does anyone benefit from its existence?
The students and facility will be directly affected by this problem
6. What similar problems exist in this same community or group? How can you distinguish your problem from these others?
Drinking, drug use
Defining: Write a definition of the problem, being as specific as possible. Identify who or what seems responsible for it, and give one recent, telling example to prove it.
Students and facility are smoking on campus and this is negatively affecting their health and others. Students cannot go fifty minutes without smoking, they are not focused on class but rather the next smoke.
Identifying Your Audience
If you did not finish your audience worksheet in class, do it now.
Finding a Tentative Solution
Solving problems takes time. Apparent solutions often turn out to be impossible. After all, a solution has to be both workable and acceptable to the community or group involved. Consequently, you should strive to come up with several possible solutions whose advantages and disadvantages you can weigh. You may notice that the most imaginative solutions sometimes occur to you only after you have struggled with a number of other possibilities.
Look back at the way you defined the problem and described your readers. Then, with these factors in mind, list as many possible solutions to the problem as you can think of. You might come up with only two or three possible solutions, but at this stage, the more the better. To come up with different solutions, use the following problem-solving questions:
1. What solutions to this problem have already been tried?
Do not allow smoking in the buildings on campus
Help programs through the wellness center
2. What solutions have been proposed for related problems? Might they solve this problem as well?
3. Is a solution required that would disband or change the community or group in some way?
It would change their work force, government and entire economic market
This solution would greatly disrupt the BGSU community
People would hopefully buy less cigarettes which would negatively affect the economy
This would also conflict with what some might consider as rights
4. What solution might eliminate some of the causes of the problem?
Awareness groups might allow for less people to start smoking at early ages
5. What solution would eliminate any of the bad effects of the problem?
If people did not smoke
6. Is the problem too big to be solved all at once? Can you divide it into several related problems? What solutions might solve one or more of these problems?
This problem could be solved in one rule passes by the dean of students it would take some time but it could be done with only one action
7. If a series of solutions is required, which should come first? Second?
8. What solution would ultimately solve the problem?
Banning smoking on BGSU’s campus
9. What might be a daring solution, arousing the most resistance but perhaps holding out the most promise?
Banning smoking on the BGSU campus
10. What would be the most conservative solution, acceptable to nearly everyone in the community or group?
Creating a help program to help people stop smoking
11. Is there a way to combine these last two (or other) solutions to reach a compromise?
NO!
Choosing the Most Promising Solution: In a sentence or two, state what you consider to be the best possible way of solving the problem.
Determining Specific Steps: Write down the major stages or steps necessary to carry out your solution. This list of steps will provide an early test of whether your solution can, in fact, be implemented.
Get the school board aware of the problem and they would have to take it to the students for a vote then they would have to revise the student hand book, retrain staff to enforce the new rule and ensure all students and staff are aware of the new rule
Defending Your Solution
Proposals have to be feasible – that is, they must be both reasonable and practical. Imagine that your audience strongly opposes your proposed solution and confronts you with the following statements. Write a response to refute each one and convince your audience that they’re wrong:
• Your solution would not really solve the problem
It would if you banned smoking then students would not be able to smoke on campus
• I am comfortable with things as they are
Are you really comfortable breathing in cancer
• We cannot afford your solution
It would be costly to re-train staff to enforce these laws but less people would be needed to pick up trash on campus
• Your solution would take too long
This would be a very quick solution
• People would not do it
If there was some sort of punishment for breaking the rules of not smoking on campus then you would follow the rules
• Too few people would benefit
The entire campus would benefit from not having the trash and smoke on campus
• I do not even see how to get started on your solution
The dean is where you would start
• We already tried that, with unsatisfactory results
They have not tried to make it a smoke free campus yet
• You support this proposal merely because it would benefit you personally
Most people would support this because it benefits them, the campus and the enviroment
Testing Your Choice
Now examine the problem and your proposed solution to see whether you can write a strong proposal. You need to seriously consider but not necessarily write down answers to the following questions. However, if you cannot answer the 7 questions in the following sections positively, you likely need to reconsider your choice of problem or do more thinking to support your solution:
1. Is this a significant problem? Do other people in the community or group really care about it, or can they be persuaded to care?
2. Will my solution really solve the problem? Have I worked out how it can be implemented in an affordable way?
3. Can I answer objections from enough people in the community or group to win support for my solution?
Do You Know Enough? Review all of your notes to see whether you understand the problem well enough to argue convincingly for your solution. To make this decision, try to answer the following questions:
4. Do I now know enough about the problem or can I learn what I need to know in the time remaining? (If you need to learn more, make a list of what you still need to find out)
5. Do I understand the problem well enough to convince my readers that it really exists and is serious? (If you do not understand various sides/perspectives of the problem, you will not be able to convince your audience they should listen to your suggestions)
Do You Care Enough? In choosing a problem, you are making a commitment both to yourself and to your readers. You are obligating yourself to do the work necessary to learn what you need to know about the problem and to develop an argument supporting your solution. At the same time, you are making a commitment to your readers to make your proposal feasible. To decide whether you can make this commitment, answer the following questions:
6. Do you feel a personal interest in the problem you have chosen? If so, on what in your experience or learning might this interest be based? Have you chosen a problem related to a special interest of yours? Have you known something about this problem for a long time, or are you just now beginning to learn about it? Is the problem so interesting to you that you are willing to arrange your time over the next two weeks to work on your proposal?
7. Do you think you can make a convincing argument for your proposed solution? Are you convinced that your solution is better than the alternative solutions your readers may prefer?
Offering Reasons for Your Proposal
To make a convincing case for your proposed solution, you must offer your audience good reasons for adopting your proposal.
Listing Reasons. Write down every plausible reason you could give that might persuade your audience to accept your proposal. These reasons should answer your audience’s key question: Why is this the best possible solution?
Choosing the Strongest Reasons. Put an asterisk (*) next to the strongest reasons – the reasons most likely to be convincing to your intended audience. If you do not consider at least two or three of your reasons strong, you will probably have difficulty developing a strong proposal and should reconsider your topic.
Evaluating Your Strongest Reasons. Now look at your strongest reasons and explain briefly why you think each one will be effective with your particular audience.
Considering Alternative Solutions
List alternative solutions that members of the group or community might offer when they learn about your solution, and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each one relative to your solution. Even if members are likely to consider your proposal reasonable, they will probably want to compare your proposed solution with other possible solutions. Put your preferred solution and any alternative solutions into the following chart (Realize that the “strongest reasons” from above that are not your “best” solution might now become “alternative solutions”):
Possible Solutions Advantages Disadvantages
Best Solution-Banning Solutions Less trash
Less cancer People will have to go long ways to smoke
Alternative Solution 1- Antismoking Campaign Create awareness in the community Cost
Might be inaffective
Alternative Solution 2- Awareness Groups Students can unit together They will more than likely not have the students who do smoke
Alternative Solution 3-
Help Groups to Stop Smoking Support the students who want to quit
The
Searching the Web can be a productive way of learning about solutions other people have proposed or tried out. Use online research to explore at least two alternative solutions. Your purpose is to gain information about these solutions that will help you evaluate them fairly. Here are some specific suggestions for finding information about solutions:
• Enter keywords – words or brief phrases related to the problem or a solution – into a search tool such as Google or the databases in the library. For example, if you are concerned that many children in your neighborhood have no adult supervision after school, you could try keywords associated with the problem such as latchkey kids or keywords associated with possible solutions such as after-school programs.
• If you think solutions to your problem may have been proposed by a government agency, you could try adding the word government to your keywords or searching on FirstGov.gov, the U.S. government’s official Web portal. For example, you might explore the problem of latchkey children by following links at the Website of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (www.hhs.gov). If you want to see whether the problem has been addressed in your state or by local government, you can go to the Library of Congress Internet Resource Page on State and Local Governments (http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/stategov/stategov.html) and follow the links.
Add any information you find from your online research to your chart of the advantages and disadvantages of alternative solutions. Bookmark or keep a record of promising sites. You may want to download or copy information you could use in your essay, including visuals; if you do, remember to record documentation information (MLA).
Once you have filled this in, save it! You will likely want to come back to it as you draft and revise this essay. (Also, this is your prewriting, so you’ll want to print it to include in your portfolio.)