LibGuides: Academic Writing Guide: Introduction

What should I feature in an Introduction?

What is the purpose of an Introduction?

Your introduction is the chance to prepare your reader for the content of your paper. The purpose of the introduction is to provide the reader with the needed background knowledge, examples of that background knowledge in the form of research, and then how your study hopes to add to that body of knowledge. When putting together an introduction, think of it like an upside down triangle with the beginning being the broad description of your topic, followed by your literature review or the prior research conducted in your smaller research topic, and finish with the potential impact of your particular paper or study.

Strategies for Developing an Introduction

Define Your Topic
- What is your topic?
- What does your audience need to know to get the best feel for your topic?
- Why does this topic matter?
Prior Published Knowledge
- What other studies have been written on this topic?
Impact of your paper
- How does the knowledge in your paper add to the topics's body of knowledge or increase understanding?
- Why is your study important?
- Think of this part as providing a roadmap to the reader for the paper.

Tip: Write your introduction last, to ensure that all of essential information your reader needs is included.

Intro

What is the difference between an introduction and the abstract?

Students new to writing research papers often confuse the abstract and introduction portions of their paper. Think of a paper like a movie with the abstract being the trailer, while the introduction is the first 20 minutes. The abstract gives you a summary of the whole paper, while the introduction gives you background information needed to understand the arguments in the paper.

Abstract	Main goal is to entice the reader to read the full text of the article Summarizes the whole study Provides in a few sentences: How the study was done(methods) Results of the study Researchers conclusions
Introduction	Main goal is to prepare the reader for the data Introduces the problem Provides a summary of past research on the topic Outlines the purpose of the paper or study Provides an outline or "road map" for the rest of the paper

Important Tip: Define Acronyms

If the acronym is well known, do I have to write out the full phrase?

Yes, in the introduction. Acronyms may seem universally understood especially if you are writing for a particular field, but it is still a good idea to write out the full phrase in the introduction, followed by the acronym.

Example: Interprofessional Education (IPE)

You only have to do this once per acronym, because the reader will be able to refer back to the introduction if confused. The reason it is important to define it in this section is that certain acronyms can have multiple meanings.

Example:

ADA

American Disabilities Act
American Dental Association
American Diabetes Association
American Dairy Association