Problem Statement Instructions

Project instructions:
You have been asked to write a draft of your problem statement. The following are the instructions for this exercise. Follow the formatting directions exactly. The

purpose of this exercise is so that I can check and make sure there are no idea conflicts in your proposal ideas, provide you with written feedback, and to assist you

in the process of committing to the idea that you will write about for the rest of the semester. Many of you have already revised your ideas and others of will revise

them again. This is part of the scientific process, congratulations! Writing about one idea in this problem statement and changing to another idea after you complete

the literature review is quite acceptable (although it is more work). Here are the instructions and a template for the problem statement.

Length

The problem statement has a maximum length of 3 pages but please try to write succinctly enough to get the job done in 2 pages. Any narrative longer than 3 pages will

have points deducted. If you choose to include references (see reference section) they must be on a separate page and so, it would be fine to have 3 pages of narrative

and a fourth page of references. For example, if you write 2 and half pages about the problem statement, all the references must be on the fourth page. Here is a hint:

insert a page break at the end of your narrative and title the next page ?References?.

Format
1) Spacing: Single space
2) Font Arial 11 pt
3) Paragraphs Block paragraphs, no indenting, with a space between paragraphs (as above)
4) Headings Arial 11 pt bolded
5) Margins 1? margins all around, use left justification
6) Identifier Be sure to include your name at top of the narrative
7) Title 81 character limit, including spaces, punctuation, letters, numbers, symbols. When in doubt, count it. Center the title.
Outline

These are the elements that should be included in your problem statement. You do not have to follow this outline exactly but please be sure you have included these

elements.

1) Name

2) Title

3) Introduction and background to the problem
a) Scope of the problem
b) Public health significance of the problem
c) What we don?t know about the problem/ gaps in the literature about the problem

4) Your overall research question(s) and statement about how you will answer the research question(s).

5) Hypotheses
a) State in the alternative (H1, H2 etc) unless it makes sense to state in the null (H0)

6) Methods ? what do you propose to do?
a) Include up to three specific aims with action words in them (?Compare? ?Describe?)

7) Study population
a) Describe the study population

8) Inclusion and exclusion table
a) Be sure to include statement of mental competence

9) Potential challenges and limitations
a) What challenges might you encounter in conducting this study, what might be some limitations of the study design. Hint: Generalizability is almost always a

limitation.

10) References (optional)
a) Please follow the AMA Manual of Style 10th ed. for formatting references
b) Use superscript numbers (endnotes) in text. All the references should be in a separate reference section at the end of your document. Please refer to the AMA manual

for how to cite in text.
c) If you choose to cite and provide references for previous studies in your narrative you will be ahead of the game for your literature review.
d) If you choose not to include references, you still need to discuss previous studies. For example, you could say ?As Callahan and her colleagues showed in a 1996

study??