In your academic, personal, and professional lives, being able to effectively solve a problem is an essential skill. Carefully examining a problem to understand its history, causes, and effects, as well as past and current solutions, will enable you to identify and advocate for effective solutions in multiple areas of your life.
Skills: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills, which are essential for success in your field and program:
Analyze a problem and develop an optimal solution using the Dewey Sequence
Evaluate information and sources, including peer-reviewed research articles, for appropriateness, reliability, validity, and bias
Use APA Style to integrate credible scholarly source material, without distorting the meaning, to enhance the written work
Produce written work that clearly presents specific and developed ideas
Assignment Prompt
1.) For this essay, you are required to:
Write about any problem that is of interest to you
Propose a new solution that will work to solve part or all of the problem
IMPORTANT: You should select a problem that you can successfully define and analyze and propose and defend a solution for in a minimum of 1,200 words. For example, world poverty is too broad of a topic for an essay of this length, but poverty in Cleveland is a manageable topic.
2.) Your essay must do the following (based on the Dewey Sequence):
Define the problem, exploring its current state
Define the problem, exploring its current state
Examine the problem’s history
Analyze the problem’s causes and effects
Propose a solution and discuss how it could be implemented
Defend the proposed solution and address any potential objections
Use research-based support (integrated through quoting and paraphrasing)
Include APA Style in-text citations and references for all content incorporated through paraphrasing and quoting
3.) Your essay must include the following:
An introduction with a hook (review Hooks and Attention Grabbers for examples) and strong thesis statement
Developed body paragraphs with strong topic sentences, cited support, and concluding sentences
At least four (4) unique sources, cited and referenced properly in APA style (no more than 20% of essay consists of quoted text)
Research-based support integrated through quoting and paraphrasing for all claims/examinations
A word count of 1,200 words, at a minimum (excludes cover page and references page)
For an example of an “A” student essay, review the Problem-Solution Example Essay.
For specific grading criteria for this assignment, review the Problem-Solution Essay Rubric.
ENG205 Problem Solution Essay Rubric
ENG 205 Problem-Solution Essay Example
Final Draft Instructions
By now, you have constructed a draft of your essay, and now it’s time to revise and edit to create your final draft, based on the comments you received from your peer reviewer(s), as well as your own ideas about how to improve your essay.
Consider the questions below:
Revise. Read through what you have written and consider the following questions:
Are all of your paragraphs unified around a single, coherent point?
Do they all have topic sentences?
Do you have a good thesis statement?
Do your paragraphs make sense in the order that they are currently in, or do they need reorganization?
Do you have a solid introduction and conclusion?
Can any more details be added?
Did you base your essay off of the Dewey Sequence?
What else can be done to improve the essay, according to the guidelines of the rubric?
Edit. Read through what you have written and consider the following questions:
Do your ideas move easily from point to point?
Do you need to add transitions between your paragraphs?
Can you use description in a more accurate and interesting way?
Are there any grammatical errors, spelling errors, or punctuation problems?
What else can be done to improve the essay, according to the guidelines of the rubric?
Make sure that your essay is correctly formatted in APA Style! The essay must be a minimum of 1,200 words (excludes the cover page and references page).
