Status Quo
From UVA Writing Center
Problem Statements • Status Quo • Destabilizing Condition • Consequences • Response or Claim
The Status Quo (or Stable Context) is the shared, common knowledge that the writer and the audience share about a subject. This is just a way to get the audience on the same page as the writer.
- For instance, if the topic is how the online social video website YouTube has changed how people use the web, the Status Quo may be something like:
Since YouTube came online and made it possible for regular people to create and share video content
on the World Wide Web, the face of the Internet has rapidly changed.
- Or take the debate about how much Neanderthal DNA exists in modern human DNA:
Advances in genome technology has allowed science to map the human DNA, and they are now mapping one of our closest
ancestors, the Neanderthal.
A Status Quo should not introduce the problem, but just introduce the context where your problem exists.
