What is an Introduction?
The introduction to the research or investigative report provides the reader with important information for navigating the rest of the text.
Here is an outline of the functions commonly found in Introductions
to academic journal articles: (the headings are derived from a scheme proposed by
John Swales in Genre Analysis. Cambridge University Press: 1990.)
- Establish the field
identify broad problem and state importance
- Summarise previous research
do a selective literature review
define any key terms
- Create a research space
(optional) describe the gap you propose to explore/fill in the literature
(i.e. identify your specific area for research)
- Introduce your research project
establish your research questions/hypotheses
+ indicate/explain your choice of approach/method
There is a presentation logic to the sequence of information in introductions to experimental reports. It follows the deductive triangle model of a narrowing down the problems and questions until you
- form your precise research questions and
- indicate your choice of investigative approach
For an illustration of this deductive sequence, go to the Functional structure diagram