WHAT IS PROBLEM STATEMENT?

What is problem statement?

A problem statement is a concise description of the issues that need to be addressed by a problem solving team and should be presented to them (or created by them) before they try to solve the problem. -WIKIPEDIA

Easy to say, 

PROBLEM STATEMENT = ISSUE

So, how to find an issue that related to our interest and indirectly can be subject matter for our PhD writing?

There are several tips:

1. Issue can be retrieved from gossiping among friends.

Sometimes, owh not, many times I would consider issue very much similar to gossip talk we hear and see it everywhere. You can get many issues/problems from your spouse, friends, parents, colleagues, tv, phone, media social, news and elsewhere. 

For example, my husband works at Pusat Pungutan Zakat, thus the issues he always talk about definitely about "why people/companies do not want to pay zakat?"

2. When you found the issues, find the statement trough out the past studies.

I have asked few doctorate lecturers and friends, they said one common thing "the issues is only valid to be a problem statement if you found from the journal, thesis and studies have been done", not from the newspaper, tv, or Facebook!

For instance, the issue of zakat above, I try to find in past research if any one of the researchers would say so.

3. Unfavorable statistics can be issue

Yes, if you love to play with numbers, figures and statistics, there will be a moment you come across unfavorable data. Then it can be issue and problem statement to show there is problem that you need to dig further for research.

If I don't find the above mentioned issue in past studies, then I will review the zakat collection for several years to see if any unfavorable movement. Even, if I found the literature on it, the statistic can be used to prove and enlighten the issues.

4.  Issue can be found in recommendation section

In a journal or thesis, sometimes the author would include their recommendation for future research. So, if this recommendation suit to your interest, just do it. Expand the issues and let's do the research.

5. Validate the problem statement

Finally, your problem statement is only valid if an expert say "yes, this is problem statement". You may think this an issue but not yet in your supervisor's opinion. So, always get second, third and many opinions to validate your problem statement.

Thank you.