A qualitative researcher should identify the issue that is under investigation in the problem statement within the first few sentences of the work, usually within the introduction, in order to engage the reader "A well-written problem statement will have an opening sentence or phrase that stimulates interest as well as conveys an issue to which a broad readership can relate" (McCaslin & Wilson, 2003). The problem statement should include not only the topic that originally prompted the research, but it should also state the reasons that lead to formulating new questions about the identified dilemma (Polit & Beck, 2010, p. 151). The researcher’s interest is also reflected in the issue under inquiry within the context of qualitative research. There has to be a rational need for investigation, a valid reason behind the questioning, and a degree of reliability for the source of motivation or need, as explained by McCaslin &Wilson (2003) "Your objective, your reason for conducting your study, derives from some issue of importance to you that can be substantiated through a body of evidence from the literature. Once you recognize what that issue is, you have a rudimentary problem statement" (p. 451). The problem statement should be critiqued based on completeness of presentation with all the necessary elements: (Polit and Beck, 2010, pp. 150, 152) The problem should be easily identifiable and should be scrutinized under the elements of identifying the nature of the problem, context or background, the dimensions of the problem should be given (is it an extensive problem?, how many people are involved), as well as any information that is identified as still needed in order to conduct the research.
Quantitative research also requires certain elements to be present within the problem statement. As with qualitative research, identifying a driving force, a rationale