How to write an introduction

The main task of introduction is to outline the basic content and outline of the full text to readers. It can include all or several of the following five contents:

Introduce the background, significance, development and current level of a research field;

Review and summarize the literature in related fields, including previous research results and solved problems, and make appropriate evaluation or comparison;

Pointing out the unsolved problems and technical gaps left by predecessors, we can also put forward new problems, new methods and new ideas to solve these new problems, thus leading to the motivation and significance of our own research topic;

Explain the purpose of your research project;

Summarize the main contents of the paper or outline its general outline.

It is not easy to arrange these contents reasonably and describe them clearly to readers in an orderly way. Experience tells us that the introduction is actually the most difficult part of the full text. This is because of the author's familiarity with related disciplines, whether the author's knowledge is profound or poor, what is the significance and value of the research, and so on. , are fully reflected in the introduction between the lines.

We can arrange introductions at three or four levels. The first layer consists of research background, significance and development, including literature review in a certain research field; The second layer puts forward unsolved or urgent problems, which leads to its own research motivation and significance; The third layer explains the specific purpose and content of his research; Finally, it is the end of the introduction, and you can introduce the components of the paper.

It is worth noting that the length of each level in the introduction can vary greatly. This is very different from abstraction. The proportion of purpose, method, result and conclusion in this paper is roughly the same. In the introduction, the first level often occupies most of the space. The research background and present situation are introduced in detail. The purpose of the study may be shorter.

Another difference between the introduction and the abstract is that the main research results must be listed in the abstract, but these results can be omitted in the introduction (if the abstract is published with the text), because there is a special section in the text to write the results, so there is no need to repeat them in the introduction.

For shorter papers, the introduction can also be relatively short. In order to shorten the space, you can briefly introduce the importance, significance or problems to be solved in a certain research field in one or two sentences. Then the literature review. Then introduce my research motivation, purpose and main content. As for the research methods, research results and the components of the paper, they can be completely omitted.

It can be seen that the introduction is generally divided into three or four levels. Each level has its own task and purpose. But they also have their own characteristics in language, and mastering these characteristics will make the writing process difficult and easy. The following will introduce the writing characteristics and skills of each level of introduction respectively.

(1) How to write the beginning of the introduction

The main purpose of the introduction (the first layer) is to tell readers what the research field and significance are, what problems the research should solve, and what the current situation or level is.

(2) How to write a literature review

Literature review is an important part of academic papers, and it is the author's summary and comments on the work and research results of others in a certain research field, including his representative views or theories, inventions and discoveries, and methods to solve problems. When quoting other people's research results, you should indicate the source, that is, who, when and where publicly published this research result.

(3) How to write the research motivation and purpose.

After introducing the work and achievements of others in a certain field, the next step is to introduce the author's own research motivation, purpose and content. The research motivation can be introduced from two angles, one is to point out the unsolved problems or knowledge gaps of predecessors, and the other is to explain the significance of solving this problem or filling the knowledge gaps.

After pointing out or implying gaps in the knowledge field, or putting forward questions or assumptions, it is natural to tell readers the purpose and content of this study and what problems to solve, so as to fill the gaps or prove the assumptions put forward.

(4) How to write the end of the introduction

The purpose of the study can be the end of the introduction. You can also briefly introduce the structure of the article and the main contents of each part, which will make the finishing point and let readers know the outline and context of the article.

As for the research results, there is absolutely no need to write them in the introduction. The research result is the most important part of the conclusion.

Formulaic writing method in the introduction of scientific research papers

A good beginning is half the battle. If the introduction can be written well, the author will have credibility and leave a good first impression on the reviewers. And if the introduction is not well written, it will drag down the whole article.

The core purpose and basic function (bottom line) of writing the introduction is to explain clearly to readers and commentators why I want to do this research, and to be able to justify myself. In order to achieve this goal, there is a "basic formula":

First of all, this topic has aroused extensive interest and has important theoretical and application value;

Secondly, who did what and found what, but what is still unclear, and the effect is not satisfactory.

Thirdly, in view of the existing problems, the work and achievements of this paper.

Experienced writers write an introduction according to this idea. The introduction can be constructed in three or four paragraphs, each of which has a prominent role and stops at the point. On the contrary, inexperienced authors write the introduction in disorder, follow the "stream of consciousness" and think about where to go. Each paragraph has no function and structure. Why do some articles have eyebrows and beards? Why can't you read some articles? Because there is no formula to write!

Some people may say that I misled graduate students, but in fact, this kind of "eight-part essay" which is conducive to scientific research and writing has been written into authentic textbooks! In 2008, Oxford University Press published a book "Writing Like a Chemist", which said that there are certain routines for performing comedies and advertising cars on TV. If you don't follow the routine, you won't attract the audience, and no one will come to the theatre to buy a car. Similarly, this book introduces the "formula" for writing an introduction:

1. Introduce the research field

1. 1. Determine the research field.

1.2. Importance of establishing research field

1.3. Provide important background information about the research field.

2. Identify gaps (or gaps)

Step 3 fill in the blanks

3. 1. Introduce the current work

3.2. Preview the main findings of the current work (optional)

The first step has three sub-steps, the main purpose of which is to describe the general research field. Submove 1. 1 identifies the research topic, and submave1.2 emphasizes its importance. These two sub-movements are usually completed in the first few sentences of the article. Please note that only the general theme is mentioned here, not the specific work introduced in this article. Submove 1.3 is the place where the author summarizes the basic work in this field and puts the current work in an appropriate environment. This sub-mobile does not provide a detailed literature review, but includes "sound clips" to remind readers of works that have an important impact on current work or lead to basic knowledge in this field. The whole movement is usually completed in several paragraphs, and most attention is focused on the sub-movement 1.3. All three sub-movements are strengthened by quoting literature. Cited the works of other authors and the previous related works of the current author.

The second step in the introduction (finding the gap) shifts the reader's attention from what has been done (or what he knows or understands) to what still needs to be done (or what he knows or understands). This sentence summarizes the essence of this move. "Although I know a lot about X, I know very little about Y." Of course, in order to find out the gap correctly, the author must thoroughly review the literature; Therefore, references to documents are also common in this migration.

After determining the gap, the third and final step in the introduction part is to fill the gap. This step usually includes a short paragraph at the end of the introduction and begins with the phrase "In this paper, we ..." Finally, the author can refer to the current work, and many people use the personal pronoun "we" to complete this task. The author gives a brief description of the current work (usually a few words), emphasizing how the work fills the identified gas (submove 3. 1). The introduction can end here, or the authors can choose to preview their main findings (sub-mobile 3.2). If the author adopts the latter, he must be careful not to repeat the sentences that appear elsewhere in the paper word for word.

The "basic formula" for writing an introduction mentioned above. Combined with my own experience, the precautions for writing an introduction are as follows:

1. The introduction structure is like an inverted pyramid, that is, from a "broad research field" to a "specific thing to be done in this paper". The structure cannot be reversed, and the "base" of the "inverted pyramid" cannot be infinitely broad, that is, it cannot start from a loose place. For example, if someone writes a research paper on catalysis, he will first say, "How important catalysis is in national production, and 80% of chemical processes depend on catalysis. Oxidation is very important in catalysis. Selective oxidation is very important in oxidation. Selective oxidation using air as oxidant is very important. Air selective oxidation using non-toxic catalysts is very important. " Then the prologue of this introduction is too much, not to the point.

2. When introducing what others and themselves have done in the preliminary work, we should make a targeted summary according to the function of this small part (submove 1.3), and we should not "pile up materials". The so-called "accumulation of materials" means that when each document is quoted, it is described with a lot of space, and the main points related to this article are not summarized, but the abstracts of the documents are copied. Others cite literature in order to quote literature when writing. For example, when introducing gold catalysts, they said that the current gold catalysts include Au/ZrO2, Au/TiO2 _ 2, Au/SnO2 _ 2, Au/Fe2O3, Au/Al2O3, Au/ZnO, Au/CuO, Au/C ..., and each catalyst randomly cited 5 documents and 40 voluminous articles. After reading this sentence, the commentator said that there are far more than five articles on a gold catalyst, so what is the standard for you to quote these five articles? Why not quote 5 comments instead of 40 lengthy documents?

3. Avoid using fashionable words and abusing cliches. Fashionable words such as "the research of gold catalyst is the diamond in the crown of catalytic research today, not the North Star". Seeing this, the judge raised his axe and cut it down. In addition, the consciousness of avoiding the abuse of cliché s means that the introduction part can't be full of "which topics arouse widespread interest and are widely used in which areas". If you say this in every paragraph, it will be boring to have several such sentences in every paragraph.

4. Point out the connection and difference between the last article and this article. Answer: Since several articles have been published before, why is this article worth publishing? Since the express delivery was sent, why send a long article now? What are the new methods, contents and theories compared with the previous article? Does it achieve better application effect? If you don't write these things clearly, the reviewer will certainly not take the initiative to answer these questions for the author; If these things are clearly written in the introduction, the reviewer's thinking will judge whether they are credible according to these things, and often when writing the review comments, they will repeat the reasons you wrote, saying that there are indeed new things and suggest publishing them.

At the end of the introduction, it is suggested to preview the important achievements of this paper with concise words. Ratnov said in 198 1 that reading a scientific article is not the same as reading a detective novel. We want to know from the beginning that the housekeeper did it. It ... (See R.A.Day, B.Gastel How to Write and Publish Scientific Papers (6th Edition). But be careful not to use large-scale preview, and don't put information in the text (for example, what did you do with XRD to find this peak and that peak; What did you do with infrared rays? You can see the details of this peak. If you preview it in a large space, readers will not read the article again. This is just a certain length requirement compared with the commercial of the movie, generally 1-3 minutes, and there is no 20-minute commercial.

In the ACS style guide (third edition). Page 22 concludes that a good introduction is a clear statement of the problem or project and the reason for studying it. This information should be included in the third report. The first few sentences. Give a concise and appropriate background discussion on the problem and the scope of significance, and limit the scope of work. Before quoting the truly relevant literature, summarize the completed work, but not the semi-relevant literature. State how your work is different from or related to previously published works. Show the continuity between your job and your previous job.

This passage is short, but it is worth understanding. The conclusion is that the author says his research topic is a hot topic in the world, which is of great significance and has aroused widespread interest. This does not prove that the author's current article can be accepted and published by reviewers. This is like some people applying for research funding and saying how serious the energy crisis is, but as we all know, the seriousness of the energy crisis does not mean that the government should give this applicant research funding. The author still has to think about a set of arguments to prove the legitimacy of this article and it is worth publishing.