How to Write Introduction in Research Paper

Introduction 

The introduction is the first thing that your audience would read after the title and the abstract. It introduces the research topic to the audience in order to get their attention and tell them why the paper is worth reading or not. Today, we’ll discuss how to write introduction in research paper. 

The important thing to keep in mind is that the pattern of the introduction would be different depending upon the argument construction paper or the original empirical research paper. 

How to write introduction in research paper 

It’s time to discuss how to write introduction in research paper, some of the main steps are as follows; 

Topic Introduction 

First of all, you have to introduce the topic to the reader and let them know why it’s important and interesting. You can do that by starting with strong opening sentences that are relevant to your topic. It could be in the form of a light anecdote, an interesting question, a strong statement, or a statistical fact that makes them curious about the topic. 

For instance, if your paper is about cattle farming and the environmental impact, then your opening sentence could be; 

“Are cows the main reason for climate change?”

If your research paper is about body image issues among young girls and its connection with Instagram, then your opening statement could be like; 

“The usage of social media has a significant link with body image issues in young girls and women.” 

You shouldn’t pay over-attention to the opening sentences in terms of making them innovative and highly impressive. It should be relevant to the topic and clear rather than just catchy. 

Background 

When it comes to discussing the background information of the research paper, then you should keep in mind what type of approach your paper is following. You’ll present the general background information in the argumentative paper, and offer the previous review in the empirical paper. 

Argumentative Paper 

After introducing the topic in a creative way and attracting the attention of readers. You should be specific, precise, adding contextual information in order to narrow down the topic. 

However, you should keep in mind the relevancy while presenting the information. You should avoid adding too many details in the introduction. If the background information is very important to include, then you should add it in the body section. 

Empirical Paper

If the paper is empirical and you’re adding the original research, then you should include a summary of the most relevant conducted research. It could be a short literature review comprising of the current state of affairs, and you should narrow it down to a few sentences. 

The point is to generate reader engagement with the literature, and your research is economical than the lengthy literature review. That’s why it’s important to include the relevant information in order to let them know about your work. 

You should start with the research information that you have already established, and finish it with the gaps and limitations that your research plans to address it. 

Research Problem 

Here you explain and clarify your research and how it would address the problems. You can do it in two ways by emphasizing its significance and make it relevant to the literature for an argumentative and empirical paper. 

Emphasizing Significance/Argumentative Paper 

You present the problem that you want to discuss in the argumentative paper by discussing the significant and original points of your arguments. 

Relating Literature/Empirical Paper

Here you address the main problem or question based on your research literature in the empirical paper. You should keep in mind the following questions; 

• The contribution of your research on the current knowledge
• Is the addressing the limitations in the past researches? 
• Is your research filling the gaps of previous works?

You should develop a link between the existing research and the current problem with suitable phrases like; 

• Although the study has put a lot of attention on factor X, it paid very little attention to factor Y. 
• Factor X requires more research and further exploration. 
• The research was considering factor X, but the study was referring to factor Y. 

Objectives 

You should make your goals and objectives clear in the introduction that what your research plans to do. You present a thesis statement and research question of argumentative and empirical paper respectively. 

Thesis Statement/Argumentative Paper

The thesis statement outlines the argument and the following paper would offer arguments and evidence defending it. You can write the statement in few sentences, make your position direct and clear, and don’t offer any defending arguments at this point. 

Hypothesis & Research Question/Empirical Paper

The main research question that you intend to answer, you do in the empirical paper. You should directly and clearly declare your question with limited arguments. You can discuss and investigate the question in the paper. However, you pose the research question directly or indirectly. 

If your research comprises of experimenting hypothesis, then you should mention it with your research question. Usually, you use the past tense for the hypothesis, because by the time you write it, it has already been tested out.

Mapping out Paper 

The final element of the introduction is to add a short summary/overview of the whole paper. It’s not mandatory to write discussion format, result, method, and introduction while structuring the paper. However, if your paper doesn’t have a proper structure, then give it a shape for the ease of readers. While writing the overview, make sure to use the present tense, be direct, and concise. 

Conclusion: How to Write Introduction in Research Paper 

After an in-depth study of how to write introduction in research paper, we’ve realized that writing the introduction of the research paper depends on many variables. If you’re writing the introduction of the paper, then follow and practice the abovementioned steps while drafting it.