The problems academics and professionals write about have a logical structure. But as we just saw in the LRS in the Wild video, problems can also have a dramatic structure: the problem disturbs us by disrupting our lives, work, or ideas—threatening some cost or consequence we are not willing to bear. Once we feel disturbed and threatened, we look for a resolution—something we can do to fix a bad situation or something we can think to improve our knowledge and understanding.
Experienced writers use that kind of dramatic structure to make their problem statements motivating for readers. Let's look how one student writer does it in a paper in a first-year writing class.
In this example, the writer claims that there are disadvantages to the way the educational system views Asian–American students and suggests a new way of thinking about them. As you read, notice how the writer moves readers from stability to disruption to a new stability. He begins with a commonly understood, familiar situation; then he disrupts that understanding with a problem; and finally he offers a new and better understanding.
When you're finished with the paragraph, click "done" to find out what most readers think.
In recent decades, media, educators, and even psychologists have presented Asian–Americans as a “model minority.” The perception has spread that Asian–Americans are always successful, particularly in academic environments. While all stereotypes can be unfair, this one is especially so, because the term “Asian–American” covers many different groups of people, from as many as twenty different countries. So even if it were accurate to think that some Asian–Americans are a model minority, it is false to think that the ethnic and cultural traits that help some sub–groups be successful apply to all Asian–Americans students, no matter what culture they come from. Because of the false and unfairly high expectations associated with this stereotype, Asian–American students who are not models often suffer emotional and social damage. Those who are average or only above average students are treated like failures who just do not try as hard as “model” Asians. And those who struggle in school are denied the extra attention and programs provided for other minority students, while the students do not think they have the right to ask for extra help. In order to combat the ill effects of this "positive" stereotype, we must recognize the diversity of those lumped together as Asian–Americans, learn about the very distinct communities and cultures of those who come to American from Asia, and treat Asian–Americans not as one model minority but as many.
Done
In recent decades, media, educators, and even psychologists have presented Asian–Americans as a “model minority.” The perception has spread that Asian–Americans are always successful, particularly in academic environments. While all stereotypes can be unfair, this one is especially so, because the term “Asian–American” covers many different groups of people, from as many as twenty different countries. So even if it were accurate to think that some Asian–Americans are a model minority, it is false to think that the ethnic and cultural traits that help some sub–groups be successful apply to all Asian–Americans students, no matter what culture they come from. Because of the false and unfairly high expectations associated with this stereotype, Asian–American students who are not models often suffer emotional and social damage. Those who are average or only above average students are treated like failures who just do not try as hard as “model” Asians. And those who struggle in school are denied the extra attention and programs provided for other minority students, while the students do not think they have the right to ask for extra help. In order to combat the ill effects of this "positive" stereotype, we must recognize the diversity of those lumped together as Asian–Americans, learn about the very distinct communities and cultures of those who come to American from Asia, and treat Asian–Americans not as one model minority but as many.
Most readers see the core of the problem—the false stereotype and the damage it does—because the writer not only states the problem and its consequences clearly, but also “dramatizes” the problem by moving readers from what they thought they knew, through a challenge to that knowledge, and then to a better, more accurate understanding. This is enough to motivate most serious readers to read on to decide whether to accept your resolution and change what they think.
