Findng Your Thesis

Question, Issue, Problem (QUIP>what)

02/22/00

In the online English classes you are required to choose your own topics or at least have been assigned one by another instructor (as in the science labs). The topic you choose needs to contain a question, issue, or problem which is currently under discussion and review in the literature. Your task will be to give an account of the relevant questions, issues, and problems related to the topic. This desire for information and explanation is your reason or purpose for your writing about the topic. Follow the logic below to determine the analytic reason you are writing the paper.

The Logic of Research
(and writing a documented research paper)

An etymology of the word quip from the root Kwo contains the interrogatives--what, who, why, which, how, when, where, whether, neither, either. Answer all the interrogatives.

If I were to boil down expository writing into an easy acronym, it would be QUIP:

• Qu=question
• I=issue
• P=problem

• Question--No matter what the subject, to define a problem or a purpose one must necessarily have a research question, most often of the form, "What are the effects of" or "How successful have we been at," or "What are the costs and benefits of"

• Issue--An uncertain answer or disagreement signals (or the subject contains) issue(s) which the writer must lay out and explain. Indeed, the paper can have as its purpose a laying out of the issues. If the writer fails to explain the uncertain conditions or disagreements (the issues) entailed in that which is sought, then the problem remains undefined and the research goes nowhere or nowhere fast

• Problem--A research problem is the difference between where current research is and where it has been or seeks to be. Most research programs are evaluated in terms of the problems they mean to solve. Your paper can have as its purpose a laying out of the competing solutions to a problem if the problem has been adequately defined.

Example

Question: Can the Kingdome stay in the black without football and baseball? We want a Kingdome that can pay for itself.

Issues: disagreements over the public interest, best use of the real estate, satisfying special interests, power of special interests, will of the people.

Problem: We lack a survey or information on the costs and revenues for the Kingdome without baseball and football.

Solution: Conduct a survey.