The basis of any academic research paper is a research problem and a main argument to address that problem. Post a preliminary statement of the problem and argument for your research project. An example 2. Let's say that you chose to observe the retail store where you work and that store is part of a large national chain. The chain has the problem of desiring to build a unified culture throughout all its stores, even though the stores are widely dispersed and each develop their own local store cultures. PROBLEM: The geographically dispersed organization strives to build a unified culture from a collection of locally-based branch cultures. ARGUMENT: Local rites of integration, due to their greater immediacy and presence, tend to build local branch cultures that take precedence over any centralized culture