I NTRODUCTIONS

W HY HAVE AN INTRODUCTION ? To provide context for the study and to create a research space for yourself Follow the CARS ( c reate a r esearch s pace) model Establish a research territory – show that that your research area is important Indicate a gap in the previous research or to extend previous knowledge Show how you will fill that gap/niche

G ENERAL FLOW OF AN INTRODUCTION Creating your research space is often done by: Moving from general to specific discussions of the field E.g. going from the big picture to your contribution in the field

C OMPONENTS OF AN INTRODUCTION Opening sentences Literature review Creating a ‘niche’ Your contribution (how to fill the ‘niche’) Clear statement of your goal with this paper/hypothesis How you will reach this goal (sometimes included)

C OMPONENTS OF AN INTRODUCTION 1. O PENING STATEMENT An opening statement – one that refers to the importance of your research (general to specific) but can also start with a definition or other openings (more later) e.g. Recently, there has been growing interest in... The development of.....has led to the problem of... A central issue in....is.... The study of....has become an important aspect of

2. L ITERATURE R EVIEW An important part of any research paper – establishes the context Reviews should only cover the research topic, not much broader (don’t lose the reader) Reviews shows familiarity with the field and it creates a research space for your research Review provides credibility for your work Reviews show respect to previous scholars and acknowledge intellectual property rights

L ITERATURE R EVIEWS What tense to use? No rules - can use a mix of past, present perfect and present Past (very common in the scienc es) e.g. Smith (1999) investigated the use of herbicides in rural communities. (active past) OR The use of herbicides in rural communities was investigated by Smith (1999). (passive past)

P RESENT No reference to researcher activity; stating a fact. e.g. The causes of illiteracy are complex. Illiteracy has a complex set of causes. Socrates says that....

P RESENT PERFECT The impact of these legislative tools has been well studied. OR Researchers have studied the impact of these legislative tools well.

3. C REATING A ‘N ICHE ’ (S HOW THE GAP IN THE RESEARCH ) Usually use words like little, few, no, none of....

T HE NICHE / GAP..... Sample statements: However, little information exists on Few researchers have attempted No studies show that None of these recent findings..... However, it remains unclear whether....

E XTENDING PREVIOUS RESEARCH Not always a gap but can also extend previous research e.g. Recent developments in computerized tomography have shown great potential for identifying brain tumours. In this paper, we demonstrate......

4. Y OUR CONTRIBUTION (F ILLING THE GAP / PROVIDING THE PURPOSE OF THE PAPER ) Once you have shown a gap or an issue, you have to fill the gap, show how will extend previous research or provide a new perspective. This part is generally the last in your introduction and give the purpose of what you are doing and a brief description.

5. S TATING YOUR H YPOTHESIS / GOAL /C ENTRAL ARGUMENT Is the/are the hypothesis clearly stated in the introduction? When you explain your hypothesis to someone, is it easy?

O PENINGS FOR THE LAST PARAGRAPH Sample openings: The aim of the present paper is to give.... This paper reports on the results obtained.... This study was designed to evaluate.... The aim of this review is to.... Our primary objective in this paper is to......

W HICH TENSE TO USE IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH ? 1) If you refer to the type of text – paper, article, thesis, or other texts, then you have to use present tense. e.g. The aim of this paper is to..... NOT The aim of this paper was to.....(did the aim change?)

2) If you refer to the type of investigation, then you can use either. Used to be the past tense, now a move to use the present. e.g. This study aims to determine..... This study aimed to determine.....

E NDING INTRODUCTIONS 1) Listing research questions or hypothesis e.g. Specifically, we tested two hypothesis: 2) Stating the value of the present research e.g......, thus increasing the possibility of analyzing more biological samples. 3) Indicating the structure of the paper e.g. Section I of this paper describes.... 4) Announcing principal findings (depends on field – less common)

6. H OW YOU WILL ACHIEVE YOUR AIM Not in all papers Mentioned in the introduction if a novel methodology or approach Refer to the convention in the journal you are submitting to

P RACTICE 1. Try Task 3 on page 247 of Swales and Feat 2. Examine a published journal article to see if it has the key components, examine a colleague’s manuscript, examine your own