Prewriting

In the prewriting stage of a researched essay, you will do a lot of reading and information gathering. In this stage of the process, you should keep your information organized carefully so that you can find it when it comes time to write your essay.

Understand the assignment

For this essay, you will choose a specific problem that affects a wide audience and investigate several solutions for it. Your teacher will give you specific requirements for this essay regarding the number of sources you should use and the length of the finished essay.

Research

Remember that after you do enough preliminary research to brainstorm and choose your focus, you should do more detailed research about your topic so that you can make your outline.

Brainstorm

You can use a mind map, a free write, general internet search, or a discussion group if you are having a difficult time thinking of things to write about.

Choose a focus

If you have a general topic, start with a simple internet search about it to find specific ideas you can focus on.

Outline

Also begin an outline for your essay. As you research about your topic, start organizing your findings. Some people begin an outline by listing topics and quotes. Others write topic sentences and supporting sentences. A problem/solution essay follows typical essay organization.

Introduction

Your introduction should start by describing the problem. You should give the reader any background information they need to be able to understand the problem.

At the end of your introduction paragraph, you should give your thesis. The thesis should respond to the problem by either presenting various solutions that may solve the problem or giving reasons that show why one solution is the best.

Various solutions:

The best ways to manage stress are by learning about it, exercising, and strengthening social ties.

Reasons to defend the best solution:

The best way to manage stress is by exercising because it is natural, simple, and free.

It is also possible to have a thesis that indirectly states the main points: The best way to manage stress is by exercising.

Here are some phrases that are useful for writing a problem/solution thesis:

Government regulations can solve illegal media copying by...

Students who have a lot of stress should....

Getting vaccinated is the best solution to eradicate disease.

The most effective way for universities to assess performance is...

Body

Your body paragraphs should respond to the problem by describing the solution(s). If you chose to write about multiple solutions, describe a different solution in each body paragraph. If you chose one solution, describe different reasons why your solution is good in each body paragraph.

Make sure your topic sentences connect to your thesis. Look at the examples below for how the topic sentences should connect to your thesis.

Various Solutions	One Ideal Solution
Thesis: The best ways to manage stress are by learning about it, exercising, and strengthening social ties. Topic Sentence 1: Learning about stress is an excellent way to begin managing it. Topic Sentence 2: Exercise is another excellent way to manage stress. Topic Sentence 3: Finally, strengthening social ties can help manage stress.	Thesis: The best way to manage stress is by exercising because it is natural, simple, and free. Topic Sentence 1: Exercising is the best way to manage stress because it is natural. Topic Sentence 2: Another reason that exercise is the best way to manage stress is because it is simple to do. Topic Sentence 3: Finally, exercise is the best way to manage stress because it is free.

Conclusion

Your conclusion paragraph should start by restating your thesis. Then you should discuss your problem more generally and apply the solutions to the general context you established in your introduction. You can end with a closing statement that is s suggestion, prediction, or opinion. You can think of this part of a problem/solution essay as encouraging your reader to go make a change.