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1、,How to write an introduction,What is Introduction?,Introduction is the first section of a scientific paper, including the background information of the research, the nature and scope of the problem investigated.,Frequently asked questions,What is an introduction for? Is it a summary? An introductio
2、n is not a summary. A summary repeats the main ideas of an essay. An introduction introduces the reader to the topic of the essay, describes the organizational structure of the essay, and explains the point of the essay (the thesis argued for).,Introduction,This is a general introduction to what the
3、 thesis is all about. It is not just a description of the contents of each section. Briefly summarize the question (you will be stating the question in detail later), some of the reasons why it is a worthwhile question, and perhaps give a brief overview of your main results.,Significance,The purpose
4、 of an introduction is to prepare the reader for the body of writing that comes after it. You know what you are writing about and why. But unless you inform your readers of this in an introduction, they will feel lost and judge your essay to be an unclear piece of work! Without an introduction it is
5、 sometimes very difficult for your readers to figure out what you are trying to say. There needs to be a thread of an idea that they will follow through your paper.,Frequently asked questions,What should I put in my introduction? Do not try to pack everything into the introduction. It would then not
6、 be an introduction at all! An essay introduction does not need to do more than tell the reader the topic of the essay, describe how the body of the essay is organized, and explain the thesis that you argue for in the essay.,What belongs in the introductory section(s) of your paper?,A statement of t
7、he goal of the paper: why the study was undertaken, or why the paper was written. Do not repeat the abstract. Sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand the context and significance of the question you are trying to address. Proper acknowledgement of the previous work on whi
8、ch you are building. Sufficient references such that a reader could, by going to the library, achieve a sophisticated understanding of the context and significance of the question. Explain the scope of your work, what will and will not be included. A verbal road map or verbal table of contents guidi
9、ng the reader to what lies ahead.,Structural Layout of Introduction,1.1 Introducing the general research area including its background, importance, and present level of development,1.2 Reviewing previous research in this area,Indicating the problem that has not been solved by previous research, rais
10、ing a relevant question,Specifying the purpose of your research,4.1 Announcing your major findings,4.2 Outlining the contents of your paper,A good introduction,indicates the topic that the essay is about describes how the body of the essay is organized explains the point of writing the essay (the po
11、int of writing an essay is usually to argue for a thesis, so you will need to explain what thesis you argue for and how you argue for it this is called a thesis-statement, and most essay introductions include one.),Tense in Introduction,Simple Present Tense,The present tense (is, are) is used when s
12、tating generalizations or conclusions. e.g. “little is known about X” or “ little literature is available on X”。,When describing recent advances in a certain research field, or aiming to emphasize the impact of something happening recently on the present, you are suggested to use present perfect ten
13、se. e.g. “few studies have been done on X “ or “little attention has been devoted to X”.,Present Perfect Tense,Simple Future Tense,Sometimes, in the sentence including the objective of the research, Simple Future Tense is recommended. e.g. “In summary, previous methods are all extremely inefficient.
14、 Hence a new approach is developed to process the data more efficiently.” The later sentence should be “In this paper, a new approach will be developed to process the data more efficiently” or “This paper will present a new approach that process the data more efficiently”.,Introduction,What key skil
15、ls are needed when,writing an Introduction?The Introduction presents the background knowledge that readers need so that they can appreciate how the findings of the paper are an advance on current knowledge in the field. A key skill is to be able to say the same things that have been said many times
16、before but in a different, interesting, intriguing way.You have to give the reader the tools for understanding the meaning and motivation of your experiments.Tell your readers how you plan to develop your topic. Give them a roadmap to fol-low - show them what your line of argument is.You need to hav
17、e a deep knowledge about everything that has been previously written on the topic and decide what is important for the reader to know.,Typical complaints of referees The Introduction occupies too high a proportion of the entire paper and contains too many general statements that are already widely k
18、nown. The rationale and objectives are not defined and the whole section is completely disorganized - it is not clear what problem the author is addressing or trying to solve and why they chose their particular methodology. Much of the initial part is essentially a cut and paste from the Abstract. T
19、he author has not related the background information to the objective of the paper. Also, there is no mention of what the reader can expect in the rest of the paper (i.e. main results and conclusions) and how this information will be structured (i.e. into the various sections). Please remember that
20、the paper may be read by inexperienced Ph.D. students or oth-ers starting their work in your specific field. Hence, please add an explanation or at least a reference when mentioning notions related to and the terminology for .,How should I structure the Introduction?,An Introduction generally answer
21、s the following questions. You can use the answers to these questions to structure your Introduction. What is the problem? Are there any existing solutions (i.e. in the literature)? Which solution is the best? What is its main limitation? (i.e. What gap am I hoping to fill?) What do I hope to achiev
22、e? Have I achieved what I set out to do? How should I begin my Introduction?,.,an example of the structure of a typical Introduction,It consists of a sequence of ten parts, each with a specific role. Your Introduction will not necessarily include all ten parts nor sequence them in the same order.You
23、r aim is to include only enough background information to allow your reader to understand why you are asking the questions you are, in what context they appear, and why your hypotheses, predictions or expected results are reasonable. It is like a preview to the rest of the paper. Thus nearly every I
24、ntroduction, irrespectively of the discipline, would incorporate those parts marked with an asterisk (*).The proportion of space given to each part (particularly with regard to the review of the literature) will obviously vary from discipline to discipline, and from paper to paper.,begin with one or
25、 more of the first four parts listed below.,1.definition of the topic plus background 2. accepted state of the art plus problem to be resolved 3. authors objectives,An XYZ battery is a battery that . The electrodes in an XYZ telephone battery are made of a composite of gold and silver, coated with a
26、 layer of platinum. The gold and silver provide structural support, while the platinum provides resilience.The performance of the battery can be strongly affected by the number of times the battery is recharged and the duration of each individual recharge. The battery is subject to three possible fa
27、ilure modes. .A research program has recently been started by the authors in collaboration with a major battery manufacturer, with the goal of developing new design models for XYZ batteries. Analytical techniques are needed that can predict .,4. Introduction to the literature.,Computational techniqu
28、es have been extensively applied to the study of the lifetime of XYZ batteries, in particular with regard to the number of times a battery is charged. However, little research to date has focused on the length of each individual recharge Below is an analysis of Parts 14 of the Introduction. In brack
29、ets is a very approximate indication of how many sentences you will probably need for each part. PART 1 DEFINITION OF THE TOPIC PLUS BACKGROUND (13)This introductory phrase may not be necessary in your paper. Here the definition of the XYZ battery indicates to the reader that this is the background
30、topic (i.e. the general context) of the paper. This is the place to include notations, technical defini-tions, and explanations of key words.,The second sentence gives information that readers should already be familiar with and suggests why the topic is important and of interest. It will help reade
31、rs to under-stand why you are investigating this area and how you hope to extend the knowl-edge. It sets the context for the information that will follow in (3), which may be less familiar for your readers. Readers want to quickly learn what the specific topic of your research is, they are much less
32、 interested in being reminded how important the general area of research is.,PART 2 ACCEPTED STATE OF THE ART PLUS PROBLEM TO BE RESOLVED (24)*,In the example text, XYZ batteries is the general context. The authors now move from this general context to the specific area of their research: XYZ batter
33、ies in telephones, and more specifically, the problems inherent in such batteries. This is the gap that the authors want to fill and that the readers should be most interested in. This part should state in simple and clear language exactly what the problem is, why you chose it, why you claim it is i
34、mportant.,PART 3 AUTHORS OBJECTIVES (12)*,Here the authors outline their major objectives, i.e. how they intend to fill the gap. Parts 6 and 7 (see next page) could be incorporated here. This part also serves as a transition into the review of the literature.,PART 4 INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE,Th
35、is introduces the background literature that the authors intend to refer to in order to motivate their particular research. It makes a reference to current insufficient knowledge of the topic.This may be in a separate section with its own heading (Review of the Literature), or after the Results in a
36、 clinical paper, or incorporated into the Discussion.,same way. Thus, some writing experts advise avoiding stock phrases (i.e. typical phrases that everyone uses) at the beginning of the introduction. For example:Recent advances in . The last few years have seen . Instead they recommended beginning
37、in a more direct way.,How does an Introduction differ from an Abstract? .,There is some overlap between an Abstract and the Introduction. However, a fre-quent problem is that authors may cut and paste from their Abstract into their Introduction, which can be very repetitive for readers,Below are the
38、 first two sentences from the Abstract and Introduction from a paper entitledFragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half by Basile Audoly and Sbastien Neukirch. These sentences highlight the distinct ways that an Abstract and Introduction should be written.,ABSTRA
39、CT,When thin brittle rods such as dry spaghetti pasta are bent beyond their limit curvature, they often break into more than two pieces, typically three or four. With the aim of understanding these multiple breakings, we study the dynamics of a bent rod that is sud-denly released at one end.,Introdu
40、ction,INTRODUCTION The physical process of fragmentation is relevant to several areas of science and technology. Because different physical phenomena are at work during the fragmentation of a solid body, it has mainly been studied from a statistical viewpoint 15.,The Abstract immediately tells the r
41、eaders the specific topic of the paper and then what the authors goal is (corresponding to Points 2, 3 and 7 in the structure of an Introduction given in Sects. 13.2 and 13.3). Instead, the Introduction sets the con-text in very general terms (Point 2).,The abstract then continues as follows.,ABSTRA
42、CT We find that the sudden relaxation of the curvature at this end leads to a burst of flexural waves, whose dynamics are described by a self-similar solution with no adjustable parameters. These flexural waves locally increase the curvature in the rod, and we argue that this counterintuitive mechan
43、ism is responsible for the fragmentation of brittle rods under bending.,As you can see, the Abstract gives no further background information, but highlights what the authors found in their research. An absolute minimum num-ber of words have been used. This gives the Abstract substantial impact by te
44、ll-ing readers only what they need to know to enable them to decide whether to read the whole paper. As is standard for Abstracts, no references to the literature are made.,On the other hand about 50% of the rest of the Introduction is dedicated to helping the readers see that the general trend give
45、n in the first two sentences is being countered by another line of research. In this case, references to the literature are made. Readers are alerted to the alternative trend by the link word nevertheless.,INTRODUCTION,Nevertheless a growing number of works have included physical consider-ations: su
46、rface energy contributions 6, nucleation and growth properties of the fracture process 7, elastic buckling 8, 9, and stress wave propagation 10. Usually, in dynamic fragmentation, the abrupt application of fracturing forces (e.g. by an impact) triggers numerous elementary breaking processes, making
47、a statistical study of the fragments sizes possible. This is opposed to quasi-static fragmentation where a solid is crushed or broken at small applied velocities 11.,The concluding sentence of the Abstract is:,ABSTRACT A simple experiment supporting the claim is presented. This eight-word sentence i
48、s expanded considerably in the Introduction, by describ-ing more about what the experiment consisted in, and the result it gave. Note: the text reported below is the rest of the Introduction in its entirety.,INTRODUCTION Here we consider such a quasi-static experiment whereby a dry spaghetti is bent
49、 beyond its limit curvature. This experiment is famous as, most of the time, the pasta does not break in half but typically in three to ten pieces. In this Letter, we explain this multiple failure process and point out a general mechanism of cascading failure in rods: a breaking event induces strong flexural waves which trigger other breakings, leading to an avalanche like process.,What tenses should I use?,I suggest you use a similar comparison between Abstracts and Introductions taken from your chosen journal, to see:what parts from Sects. 13.2 and 13.3 are c