写paper学习-chapter13 Introduction

from “English for Writing Research Papers”

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
You need to have a deep knowledge about everything that has been previously
written on the topic and decide what is important for the reader to know

问自己几个问题

• 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 achieve?

structure

Your Introduction will not necessarily include all ten parts nor sequence them in the same order(* is a must)
In brackets is a very approximate indication of how many sentences you will probably need for each part.

1. general context + specific topic + why the topic is important (1–3)
   • notations, technical definitions, and explanations of key words
   • gives information that readers should already be familiar with and suggests why the topic is important and of interest
   • may be less familiar for your readers. Readers want to quickly learn what the specific topic of your research is
2. the problem to be resolved and why the problem is important (2–4)*
   • exactly what the problem is
3. gap(with literature and maybe with examples)
   • contribution part could be incorporated here.
   • survey of pertinent literature
     • draws attention to problems that have still not been solved.
     • only need to describe what is necessary for the specific purposes of your paper. Much of this literature will then be used for comparative purposes in the Discussion
4. authors’ objectives + idea overall
   • how we intend to fill the gap
   • objectives: so that the referee (and readers) are 100% clear about the objectives of your research and the expected outcome.
   • contribution part could be incorporated here.
5. authors’ contribution (1–2)*
   • a very clear statement of how what they describe in the paper represents an advance on current knowledge (i.e. the knowledge outlined in problem and gap part).
6. main results of the present work (1–4)
7. future implications of the work (1–2)
8. outline of structure (3–4 very short sentences)

begin

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 in a more direct way

difference between abstract and introduction

There is some overlap between an Abstract and the Introduction. However, a frequent problem is that authors may cut and paste from their Abstract into their Introduction, which can be very repetitive for readers.

1. what elements from the Abstract the Introduction expands on
2. how sentences from the Abstract are paraphrased in the Introduction
   eg:

• The Abstract immediately tells the readers the specific topic of the paper and then
  what the author’s goal is (Parts 2, 3 and 7). The Introduction sets the context in very general terms (Parts 2).

self-assessment

you can ask yourself the following questions.

• Is my research question clear?
• Is it sufficiently different from the Abstract, without any cut and pastes? (some
  overlap is fine)
• Have I mentioned only
  • what my readers specifically need to know and
  • what I will subsequently refer to in the Discussion?
• Have I been as concise as possible?