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The purpose of the introduction in a paper or chapter:
To strap the reader / reviewer in to YOUR journey. Your concept, your argument, your contribution. It is to keep them on your path
To tell the reader what it is you are doing
To show the reader why it is important
To tell the reader your original contribution to knowledge
To demonstrate that you are a part of a wider academic conversation and to show who you are in conversation with
The introduction is not:
A three page mini paper on your actual paper – it is not a precis of what is to come
It is not about ‘doing a lit review’
It is not about defending the position in the paper you are writing
It is not about defending all the things you don’t do in this paper
It is not about introducing every single thing you need to say in this paper
Each box represents a paragraph of text – your introduction should be about 10% of your word count. I’ve made paragraphs 2+3 quite slim as many people bang these together, and that is fine to do so.
This is the hardest to write and will be one of the last things you write well. This does not mean you leave it until the last minute, but that you keep revising it. You need to cover: your purpose, contribution to scholarship (how are you moving knowledge forward), how you did it (method) and your ARGURMENT - the take home message of the paper.
The next two paragraphs can be written together or separately, but must be covered. The literature that covers the main concepts you deploy must be mentioned here, and the main scholars in the applicable area. You need to demonstrate why and how your work fits with theirs, and what you do is different, AND you need to state why should we care about it, why it matters.
Last, you need to do the signposting where you tell the reader what happens next in each of the section. This is a brief signpost, but tells the reader what happens in S1, and WHY, and what happens in S2 and WHY and so on. Don’t forget the why; this makes this paragraph not only a signpost, but a justification of your approach and why it was the right one to solve this puzzle.
Writing the introduction of a paper or chapter is everything. Badly written, and you get rejected out of hand. Badly written and you get major revisions that bear no resemblance to your original idea or paper. This is because you did not communicate what you had to say in a way that other people - who have not done the reading and thought about it - can understand.
Do you want proven reliable step-by-step frameworks for writing your journal papers?
Do you want to produce polished academic papers, quickly and reliably, using proven templates so you can get more time back in your life instead of stressing endlessly about getting your writing done?
Lots of writing coaches act as cheerleaders or accountability partners, but they don’t have the technical guidance to move you from stuck to finished, from confusion to clarity and help you understand the journal publishing ecosystem so you can get better publishing outcomes.
We all know that publications are the currency of academic careers, and prolific publishers get tenure, get promoted, get jobs. It is that simple. Many people stumble around for years and years trying to crack this code, whilst others never do and are constantly feeling frustrated at their lack of progress.
It doesn’t have to be this hard. I’m here to show you they way. What’s more, I will help you implement this learning over a 12 month fortnightly live coaching where you can bring your papers to be workshopped, and get your questions answered.