Day: April 13, 2021

Our everyday lives are filled with problems to be solved. On our commutes to work and college, there is often too much traffic, and public transportation may be unreliable or expensive. At work, we may struggle to attract new customers, improve a flawed product or service we offer, or to contain costs. In our neighborhoods, we may notice that public spaces like parks are neglected and needed services are lacking. In our families, we may find that our children are struggling at school or relatives are suffering from diseases that ought to be preventable.

One of the best ways to make positive change is to write about the problem and offer possible solutions that can be enacted by leaders or communities. This is precisely what you’ll be doing in this writing assignment.

Basic Essay Requirements
For this essay, it is important to choose a topic that is personally meaningful to you, something specific to your community. As our textbook notes, you don’t have to look far to find problems to be solved. Of course, few problems have simple solutions. If they did, they probably would have been solved by now. That is why you’ll need to undertake serious research to better understand the problem as well as identify a range of possible solutions.

Here are some possible topics.

    Improving some aspect of education in your community, such as busing, school lunch, or school safety
    Reducing pollution or addressing some other local environmental problem
    Improving the relationship between law enforcement officials and local residents
    Reducing crime and improving safety in your neighborhood
    Attracting and supporting new businesses in your community
    Providing affordable housing in your community
    Fighting discriminatory practices and promoting inclusion at your workplace
    Promoting good corporate citizenship in your city

You’ve probably noticed that each topic focuses on an issue in your community and that the topics tend to steer clear of topics that are too big to solve in an essay (like global warming, racism, or income inequality). That is intentional. We all interact with diverse communities at home, work, school, or cultural institutions, and each has important issues needing attention. If you have an idea for your essay that is not on the bulleted list, please work with your instructor to make sure it is appropriate.

Length: Your paper should be at least 1,500 words.

Sources: At least five high-quality sources must be cited in text in your essay.

Format: This essay will be written in APA style. Use the APA essay template provided in the Files area.

This week, you will begin to create an annotated bibliography for the Solving a Problem in Your community course project. In addition to the source you identified in the Week 3 discussion, you will find four additional scholarly or academic sources (you will begin this process this week and continue building your resource collection next week), for a total of five. These sources will be the building blocks for your essay, so be sure to spend time searching for sources, reading critically, and evaluating the relevance of each source.

For each source, provide the following.

    The APA style reference
    A one-paragraph summary of the relevant sections of the article written in your own words
    A one-paragraph assessment of its overall quality and relevance to your essay topic

To help make sure your document is properly formatted and meets all assignment requirements, please refer to the Annotated Bibliography Template (Links to an external site.) and Sample Annotated Bibliography (Links to an external site.). In addition, this week’s lesson and assigned reading will help you to identify and evaluate high-quality, relevant sources.

Our everyday lives are filled with problems to be solved. On our commutes to work and college, there is often too much traffic, and public transportation may be unreliable or expensive. At work, we may struggle to attract new customers, improve a flawed product or service we offer, or to contain costs. In our neighborhoods, we may notice that public spaces like parks are neglected and needed services are lacking. In our families, we may find that our children are struggling at school or relatives are suffering from diseases that ought to be preventable.

One of the best ways to make positive change is to write about the problem and offer possible solutions that can be enacted by leaders or communities. This is precisely what you’ll be doing in this writing assignment. This week, you will begin working on a problem-solution essay that will be due in Week 6, followed by a presentation in Week 7.
Choosing a Topic

For your initial post, please answer these questions.

    What is the problem? What proof do you have that it exists? Is it getting worse?
    Why should your audience care? How does the problem affect them?
    What is your tentative claim or thesis? Example: “We need to change/fix/improve/….”
    How would you solve the problem? What are a few possible solutions?
    Which solution do you think is likely to be the best? (It is ok if your answer is tentative.)
    What is your call to action? What do you want people to do?

Then, based on your answers to these questions, create a simple outline following this template.

    Introduction and explanation of the problem
    Identify the problem
        Background and history of the problem
        Claim/thesis
        Solutions
            Solution one: pros and cons
            Solution two: pros and cons
            Solution three: pros and cons (as needed)
    Conclusion
        Final recommendation
        Call to action

Later in the week, as a second post, locate a quality source related to your topic and summarize it in your own words. In your third and any subsequent posts, provide helpful feedback to your fellow classmates.