Defining the Problem

with perhaps excessive text excerpts from

Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal

Define the problem as

Significant & affecting significant people Pressing, due to Compromised values Postponed & abandoned goals Impending negative consequences Solvable, if there is the will Worth the solutions cost higher costs require more vigorous justification Probable positive consequences

The Goal: Compel the target audience to make a change by implementing your ideas.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

Define the problem by summarizing existing consensus

My conversation with a student Why dont people critique more? In online communities, he says, feedback is ratedlike/dont likeand tends to be mainly positive. Negative feedback can often be mean, from jerks. No one wants to be a jerk. Aha.

Define causes by examining a parallel situation

Snow emergency No Parking signs are posted in the middle of the night
What

if the government raised taxes on April 14th and then fined people for underpaying taxes? if a teacher tested students on a never assigned chapter? if a town changed the speed limit but didnt post the new speed?

What What

Define significance with analogies

Homeroom Zombies

Define significance by humanizing & dramatizing via description, narrative & visuals

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country

What is wrong with the current system of fire and EMS within Rensselaer County? Many are simply unaware of the problem. Despite having only 152,538 citizens (Wikipedia Contributors) 60 responding agencies provide emergency services within the county. Forty-three of these agencies are Fire Departments, each with on average 5 vehicles. Seventeen additional agencies provide Emergency Medical Services (Rensco). An estimated 215 vehicles within Rensselaer County are dedicated to Fire and EMS. For an area of 654 square miles that may not seem like many until one realizes that is 1 vehicle for every 3 square miles of land!

Define the problem with data

Even more pressing is the lack of use of these vehicles; many Fire Departments answer at best a call per week, some trucks will sit for a month at a time. Emergency Medical Services on average have two or more ambulances [.] It is now easy to see how oversaturated EMS and Fire is within Rensselaer County, this equates to higher taxes for maintenance and replacement of vehicles plus the huge task of managing 60 agencies within the county.
From Rensselaer County Fire and Rescue: A reorganized Emergency Services for Rensselaer County, By Brent Campbell, EMAC 2010

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom;

Skipping ahead to the modest proposal.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, [.] That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; [] A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

A Modern Modest Proposal

Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, attacking problems by raising awareness

The Yes Men Fix the World

Define the problem by:

Summarizing

existing consensus Reviewing the complexity of processes Examining a parallel situation or analogy Humanizing & dramatizing via description & visuals Supplying data Andvisit Social Entrepreneurs page