Preparing clear, convincing scientific manuscripts is a challenge. In my experience, the biggest problem for most writers is not an inability to write well in English but rather a lack of clarity regarding what their article is supposed to be about. The subject matter might be clear to them, but coming up with a clear and coherent concept for the manuscript is often challenging. Writers need to consider more than just the declared study objective (if there is one) – they need to consider what background information is essential and what the conclusions and key messages should be. Fortunately, there is a simple and effective method for sorting this all out called “the problem statement” approach, first described in Medical Writing by Marina Hurley in 2012.1