How to write a KILLER Introduction for your next paper: 3 easy sections
What are the key components of a good, effective Introduction? This section of your article grabs the reader’s attention and draw them immediately to the crucial issue that your paper addresses ....
It can be a huge challenge to put research articles together, never mind in a second (or third) language.
The most important thing to remember when putting research articles together is that the Title and Abstract perform quite a distinct function to the rest of the paper; the so-called Main Text. We’ve discussed the initial components of article writing in earlier articles in this series and have also addressed the key issue of structure.
Now it’s time to start thinking about the Introduction for your paper and what sorts of things should be included.
Please note that you should not be working on these Main Text sections of your article (the Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion) blind: You will have already decided on your target journal and you will have already sketched out some ideas for a Title and put together some sentences of your Abstract. If you have done these three things then the Main Text components of your research paper will prove quite straightforward to write.
What are the key components of a good, effective Introduction to a scientific paper? This section of your article should grab the reader’s attention and draw them immediately to the crucial issue that your paper addresses.
My top tip for writing these sections is to try to keep them short: aim for just two or three (preferred) paragraphs, if possible. Also, please try to avoid writing a literature review. You don’t need to cite here all of the papers you’ve collected in your subject area: You must know two, three, or four decent, up-to-date review articles in your field that you can cite in this part of the paper: people don’t want to read over long lists of citations. Set the scene and give the ‘state-of-the-art’ relating to the research question of your paper rather than describe everything known on the topic
Try to structure the Introduction to your article with a clear, crisp, opening sentence that takes the reader straight to the issue of the paper: ‘One of the most debated issues in x field is the question of y reactivity’, for example. Get the most important details related to your question into this section and provide the reader with a brief summary of the controversies and the best evidence so far brought to bear to address this question. And end the Introduction with a clear research question and how you set out to answer this in the paper.
Here’s how this can work: Try to write an Introduction for your next scientific article that contains just three paragraphs:
1. State the question
2. Give the ‘state-of-the-art'
3. End by saying: This study shows that …
Have a look at some recent articles that you like, that you think are well-written, in your own field: see if their structure follows this model (I bet they do!). Most articles that are well-written and effective have an Introduction that ends with a very short paragraph, for example: ‘The aim of this study was to ….’, or ‘We show that ….’. This is how to wrap up your Introduction and keep the reader wanting more; to entice them into the Materials & Methods section and maintain their interest in your work.
Remember: Start the Introduction with a short, clear sentence that set the scene and that opens a paragraph that ‘states the question’ being addressed in the article. In the second paragraph of the Introduction then provide the reader with the ‘state-of-the-art’: What’s been done before to address the question and why this work represents an advance (new data, new ideas, new perspective).
See how you get on with this basic, three paragraph structure for the Introduction. I find it to be a very useful template in my own writing. Please also keep within the rules of effective writing and try to use the ‘active’ rather than the ‘passive’ voice in scientific paper writing: it’s always much easier to read and more engaging to write ‘we did something’ as opposed to ‘something was done’. We will return to the issues of writing style in later articles.
