Proposing a Solution Essay


Persuasive paper assignments often ask you to propose solutions to problems. Student Writing Coach's "Proposing a Solution" session is designed to walk you through the process of writing such a paper.   

In this assignment, you will ... 

  • · Identify a problem in a community or organization to which you belong.
  • · Brainstorm a list of alternatives for solving the problem.
  • · Evaluate each of those alternatives.
  •  · And then identify the best alternative from your list.  

As you might have noticed, the above process assumes that you're dealing with a difficult situation and you don't already have a solution in mind. That's deliberate: You'll come up with a better solution and a better argument in favor of it if you think about all of the possibilities first, carefully, before picking one of them. Our session is structured so that the process you use to come up with a solution also produces the first draft of your paper.   

Use "Proposing a Solution" if ..

  •  Your assignment prompt tells you to identify a problem and propose a solution to it.
  •  Your assignment refers to, or is based on, the "Proposing a Solution" chapter in the St. Martin's Concise Guide to Writing.
  • Your assignment prompt asks how a group, community, or officeholder should "respond to," "address," "mitigate," "fix," "solve," or "deal with" an "issue," "problem," "situation," or "crisis."  

"Proposing a Solution" can also help you come up with solid arguments for ... 

  • Business-class assignments involving case studies. Many case-study assignments are really proposing-a-solution assignments in disguise: The instructor or textbook gives you a description of a scenario (often something that happened once to a real company), and asks you to come up with a plan to deal with that situation. The scenario is the problem, and the plan is the solution.
  • White papers. 
  • In a white paper, you identify a problem and argue in favor of a solution to it. If your paper is for a technology-oriented class, "Proposing a Solution" can help you arrive at a solution.
  • Government policy or staff study papers. If you're taking a political science course that calls for you to write a policy paper or "staff study," "Proposing a Solution" can help you come up with most of your material for that paper.  


While you would need to look up how to format and reorganize the paper to meet the expectations for each of the three assignments listed above, the process we give you for coming up with your central argument can work for all of them.  

 Are you already set on a specific solution, and unwilling (or not allowed) to explore other options? If so, you might find "Argument -- College 1st Year" better suited for your needs.

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Topical Essay

College students are often asked to write reports on subjects that they have observed first-hand. These reports belong to a journalistic genre of essays we call profiles. Student Writing Coach’s “Profile” sessions are designed to walk you through the process of writing this kind of essay.

You will know that you are writing a profile if . . .

  • You have conducted interviews and observations as a significant part of your research.

  • You are asked to describe or report on a subject with which you have personally interacted.

  • Your writing prompt refers to or is based on the “Writing Profiles” chapter from Axelrod & Cooper’s Concise Guide to Writing.

Your first-hand research, or “field research,” on your profile subject (a person, place, or activity) will likely have produced many pages of notes. However, profile essays are notoriously difficult for college students to structure and organize. This writing session will help you with this task as you mold your research notes into an informative, interesting essay.

There are two major ways to organize a profile essay: narratively and topically. This particular Student Writing Coach session provides assistance with a topically organized profile.

The material in a topically arranged profile is arranged according to topics. For an example of a well written topical profile, see "I'm Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing" by John T. Edge in Axelrod & Cooper's Concise Guide to Writing.

Typically, profile writers choose to organize their essays topically when their research concentrates more on information than interaction. If your research is more action-oriented, you may want to consider organizing your essay narratively (see Student Writing Coach's "Profile-Narrative" writing session). 

Review-Live Subject Essay

The basis of a review is critical evaluation.  Student Writing Coach (SWC) Review-Live Subject is suitable for writers assigned to evaluate a subject experienced directly by attendance or participation.

What's involved?

  • SWC asks questions about your experience, your estimation of the subject's strengths and weaknesses, and your recommendation to readers. 
  • It includes options for comparing the subject, relating course work, commenting on other reviews, and referring to sources. 
  • It offers a choice of introductions. 

Is SWC's Review-Live Subject right for you?

  1. Does your assignment ask for an opinion of a live subject that you experienced by attendance or participation--a play, event, exhibition, speaker, workshop, performance, concert, dance, course, program, or the like?
  2. Does your assignment contain words like review, recommend, evaluate, examine, critique, assess, estimate, inspect, appraise, study, judge, rate, or rank?

"Yes" to both questions? Excellent. Select SWC's Review.- Live Subject. 

"No" to both? Consider Review-Recorded Subject or Report.