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This guide is based on a course for High-Impact Writing taught by Ulrike Muller
Introduction
The Introduction section brings your reader up to speed on the facts and understanding they need to understand the main messages of your study.
Function
establish context
state purpose
explain rationale of approach
Style
use active voice whenever possible
Structure
what’s the topic?
what’s the problem you tackle?
why are we not done with that one?
what’s your big new idea / finding?
how will you go about it?
what did you conclude? (highly recommend, often required in high-impact journals)
building a framework
building a framework
Writing a paper is like a building house. To use an analogy, if your research project is like a new house that you will build, this existing science it its building plot. And just like there is a lot more ground out there than your building plot, there is a lot more science out there than what is foundational to your project. If your paper were a house, then the Introduction section of your paper is where you mark out your building plot and put down the foundation.
Finding the right building plot. Just like a house sits in a landscape, your project also sits in a bigger scientific context. Use the Introduction section of your paper to provide context. Your reader needs the right context to understand your project. Therefore, only include information that describes the landscape around your house, not the entirely neighborhood or town.
Building a foundation. Just like your house needs a foundation, your paper needs to provide the science that is the foundation of your project, or you risk that your manuscript will not stand. If you omit important information that your reader needs, then they cannot understand your project.
Example introduction
Example introduction
from: Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language (1995) by Shaywitz et al. Nature 373, 607–609 link here
A much debated question is whether sex differences exist in the organization of the brain for language (step 1). A long-held hypothesis states that language functions are likely more lateralized in males and to be represented in both cerebral hemispheres in females (step 2), but attempts to demonstrate this have been inconclusive (step 3). Here we use fMRI imaging to study 38 right-handed male and female subjects doing three different tasks (steps 4 and 5). We found in all three tasks males primarily used left regions while females engaged both left and right brain regions (step 6). Our data provide clear evidence for a sex difference in functional organization of the brain for language (step 6).
a simple procedure to draft your introduction
a simple procedure to draft your introduction
Step 1 Establish the topic
Step 1 Establish the topic
To do: Write the first few sentences of your introduction to introduce the topic
Tips
get to primary subject fast: use words from the title in the first few sentences
if your title is “Insects use unsteady lift mechanisms to fly”, then use the words “insects” and “flight” should appear in 1st or 2nd sentence.
open with a strong hook
open with a dramatic statement to engage the reader; avoid stating the obvious ("cancer kills") and overstatements ("cancer is the biggest killer")
Step 2 What's your angle
Step 2 What's your angle
To do: Share your take on this topic. Address which aspect of your chosen topic will you focus on.
Example
if your title is “Insects use unsteady lift mechanisms to fly”, explain that this article will focus on the aerodynamics of insect flight by contrasting how animals versus machines fly
Step 3 Why are we not done yet?
Step 3 Why are we not done yet?
To do: Write core aspects of your lit review
Tips
summarize for reader what is known before your study & lead to what is not
keep it general; lengthy explanations belong in discussion
Example
if my article title is: “Insects use unsteady lift mechanisms to fly”, then my notes on what I will cover in my Introduction are below
My focus within insect flight: engineers predict that insects can’t fly like planes; important difference between planes and insects: plane wings are static, whereas insects beat their wings; yet birds do beat their wings, but at much lower wing beat frequencies than insects (quasi-steady lift); insects beat their wings not only fast but also at angles of attack that would cause stall in static and quasi-static lift conditions (planes, birds)
Step 4 What’s your big idea?
Step 4 What’s your big idea?
To do: Write down the central idea of your research project
Guiding questions
which missing pieces will your study add to this jigsaw?
why is this an urgent/important piece in the jigsaw?
Example
if my article title is: “Insects use unsteady lift mechanisms to fly”
My big idea: unsteady lift
My research question: can fast beating wings generate lift in a different way from static wings?
My framework: insects beat their wings fast and at a high angle of attack; fast reciprocal motion creates unsteady flow conditions; unsteady flow might generate lift through mechanisms that differ from static lift; see dynamic lift on stalled planes (stalled planes raise quickly yet briefly just before they start to plummet)
Step 5 What does the reader need to know to understand your big idea and find your chosen approach credible?
Step 5 What does the reader need to know to understand your big idea and find your chosen approach credible?
To do: Explain the background that your reader needs to understand your article
Guiding questions
what facts (knowledge) and concepts (frameworks, understanding) does your reader need to be familiar with to understand your findings and find them credible?
Example
if my article title is: “Insects use unsteady lift mechanisms to fly”
facts I need to include in my Introduction: many insects beat their wings at frequencies well above 30 Hz
concepts I need to explain in my Introduction: stall, unsteady aerodynamics, static versus dynamic lift
Step 6 Do you dare tease your main finding at the end of the introduction?
Step 6 Do you dare tease your main finding at the end of the introduction?
To do: Tease or state the main finding of your article
Example
Tease: "In this study we describe a new mechanism to generate lift."
Statement: "We found that insects use dynamic lift to fly."
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