How to Write an Introduction for a Research Paper

Introductions are a roadmap showing the reader why and how you carried out your investigation. A Greek thinker once said, "A bad beginning makes a bad ending." So it is with introductions in academic writing. An introduction can be seen as the first impression of your paper. It can determine whether or not your reader is interested in the argument you set out.

The introduction orients the reader to your study. After reading it the reader should understand what the nature of the problem is, your personal relationship with the problem, and how importan it is for that problem to be understood or solved.

What is the introduction section of a research paper?

The introduction is the section of a research paper that presents the scope and background of the investigation, as well as the aims, objectives, and theses or hypotheses. In the introduction, you present the problem and explain how you plan to solve it. It is essentially a roadmap from problem to solution. 

This is true for all sorts of research papers, including your thesis or dissertation or a journal paper that you co-authored with others. Just as introducing someone in real life suggests something happening in real-time and the present, your introduction should also be current. Present tense should almost always be used when making introductions. The introduction has a number of elements that you should follow or implement:

1. Implementing the Funnel Approach

2. Defining the Problem Scope

3. Locating the Research Gap

4. Defining the hypothesis

Each of these aspects will be discussed in detail in the article. To ensure that your introduction does its job of impressing your readers and walking them from the problem being tackled by your research to the solution that you propose, you should adopt the funnel approach. What exactly is the funnel approach to writing your introduction?

1. What is the Funnel Approach?

The funnel approach describes a specific strategy that begins with a broad perspective that progressively narrows down to the specific details of your research. This would entail breaking your introduction into the following parts:

1. The scope of the problem

2. A review of the relevant literature

3. Make your objectives clear

4. Define your objectives and hypotheses

Each of these components is broader in terms of perspective than the one that precedes it. The scope of the problem means introducing readers to a problem with broad social implications. This is true regardless of how scientific or technical the topic is. All research is motivated by a solution to problems that affect human society. 

The literature review provides an account of the research that has gone into investigating the problem that you are interested in. For your objectives, you begin to narrow things down even more. The objectives describe the specific aspect or aspects of the problem that you are investigating or working toward solving. 

The method refers to the instruments that you use to collect data or conduct data analysis. In the introduction, only a brief mention should be made of the introduction. The details should be reserved for the method section. Think of the rest of the paper--the method, analysis, and results--as the opportunity to showcase the credibility of the previously mentioned results. 

Now, let's take a look at each of the components of a properly written introduction to give you a better idea of how to write your own. In the process, we will also use real or even mock examples to demonstrate the best approach to take.

2. What is the problem scope?

The problem scope in research refers to the extent or range of the subject matter that your research topic addresses or pertains to. One must be careful in choosing the scope of the problem. On the one hand, it should never be too broad. On the other, it can almost always never be too narrow. 

The problems facing this world are too big and too complex to go "big" when it comes to doing research. This is something that students and scholars new to academic writing find quite difficult to grasp. Students coming from high school typically have a broad and optimistic outlook, and in their early starts at academic writing, tend to "go big." 

For example, if they are interested in global warming, they will write an introduction where they talk about how to solve the problem of "global warming." But this is impossible in research writing or academic writing. This is true especially if we're talking about a paper that has to be published. 

In the introduction, you should narrow down the focus of the problem of you're investigating.

An example of the problem scope

The problem scope should be made manageable. I will proceed to provide an example of a properly written problem scope. However, first it has to be explained that problems can only be addressed only on a human level one aspect at a time. For example, if the student is in the field of social science, they can examine or investigate how effectively a certain course taught in an environmental awareness course improved the environmental knowledge of students. 

If they are in a natural or technical science program, they can choose a topic that investigates the effectiveness of replacing chemical fertilizer, the production of which leads to high levels of energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gasses (GHGs), with an organic fertilizer that is more environmentally friendly. 

 Let us look at an example of a problem scope in the introduction to illustrate the importance of the research scope:

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera Frugiperda, is a moth of the family Noctuidae and originates from the western hemisphere where it is a major agricultural pests, infesting up to 186 different plant species from 42 families. In 2016, it was sighted in West and Central Africa, where it causes great agricultural and economic damage. Year-round occurrence of the fall armyworm is observed only in subtropical and tropical regions due to its inability to survive colder regions. However, their migratory patterns could make their spread to South, Southeast Asia, and Australia possible through trade and travel ineveitable. Chemical pesticides represent one of the most effective control against this pest. However, pesticides pose risks to humans and the environment. They contain methomyl, methyl parathion, endosulfan and lindane, highly hazardous substances. 

There is a need to develop safer products. Biopesticides based on natural antagonists of the fall armyworm could be used. In general, these include viruses, bacteria, fungi, mites, nematodes or other insects. Insect viruses play an important role because they do not only occur naturally, but are host-specific and pose no danger to humans (Julius Kuhn-Institute). Nonetheless, little research on this has been conducted but are fundamentally important to ensure suitable and user-friendly integrated pest management, which urged me to consider this topic for further research.

This is a portion of an introduction written by a student in an academic writing class. The assignment specifically required the student to define the scope of the problem. There is much wrong with the post, including the lack of citations for many of the claims made. However, this is not our focus. We are interested in how well the research scope was narrowed down. 

The author--let's call her Jill--was specific. She mentioned a problem: The spread of the fall armyworm from the West to Asia. She provided interesting background information by mentioning how it has already spread to Africa and that it may soon reach Asia. 

She also mentioned the need for using biopesticides (she actually meant natural enemies) as an alternative to chemical pesticides. This is all good. 

However, this is neither narrow, specific, or manageable enough. Jill mentions biopesticides as an alternative to chemical pesticides to deal with the threats posed by the fall armyworm. But what exactly will she be investigating? 

1. What specific natural control method will be used?

2. Will it be viruses, bacteria, fungi, a combination, or all of them? 

3. Will it be tested only against fall armyworms? 

This introduction simply appears to be stating awareness of a threat posed by a pest and the potential of various natural control methods as an alternative to chemical pesticide use. This means that it is way too general. Focusing on measuring the effectiveness of a specific natural pest control method would have been ideal. 

3. What is the research gap?

A research gap can be defined as a problem that has not been sufficiently addressed by the current literature within your field. Locating a research gap is essential to justify your research. Research gaps or literature gaps may exist for the following reasons:

• There is a concept or new idea that has never been investigated in the primary literature

• The existing research is outdated and requires updates

• A specific population has been ignored in prior studies

Being able to recognize a research gap depends on conducting a proper account of the literature review. A literature review, although sometimes included in the introduction, is often its own separate section, located directly after the introduction.

Many literature gaps are stated after a summary or analysis of the current literature. This is because a well-defined research gap is a direct result of a deep and thorough review of the current state of the literature. Your research gap is supposed to describe how your specific investigation can address issues or aspects of the issue that have been passed over or insufficiently explored by the current literature. 

This could include an overlooked population or sample, a specific research method, or other research variables or conditions. A thorough review of the literature is essential for this. There is little point in conducting research that has already been done. The only way to recognize these gaps is by researching and familiarizing yourself with the literature or research in a certain area. 

4. What are the objectives?

Objectives explain the immediate goals of the research that you're conducting. Clear objectives are essential for writing an introduction. A clear statement of your objectives brings your research closer to the specific details of the problem you are trying to solve as well as your proposed solution. Objectives can be described as specific and measurable actions or approaches that you intend to take for your research.

Here, it is useful to describe the differences between objectives and goals. A goal can be seen as an outcome that is achievable but is usually broad and long-term. In our example with the armyworm-based research in Figure 1, the author comes close enough to describing the goal of her research: finding alternatives to chemical pesticide use for the fall armyworm to reduce the risks to human health and the environment. 

However, the objectives remain unclear. Questions still remain. What method will be used to find that solution? Will the researcher use the natural enemies of the worm (e.g., other insects)? Will they use natural pathogens (e.g., bacteria or viruses)? Will they use natural plant-based chemicals (which is what biopesticides actually mean)? Making your objectives clear means allowing these specific questions relating to your research to be answered clearly in the minds of your readers. 

5. What is the hypothesis?

A hypothesis is an intelligent guess about the conclusions that can be drawn from your observation, experiment, or data. The point of the hypothesis is to predict what the outcome of the research might be.

How to write the hypothesis

A hypothesis should be written as a statement. This means you should avoid conditional terms like should, might, or could. A hypothesis should be written in either one of the following ways:

• An if/then format

• When x, then y format.

• A simple statement

  
  

The table below shows examples of each type of hypothesis:

Type of Hypothesis	Example of Hypothesis
If/then hypothesis	If Treatment A is used as an antibiotic, it will result in a 50% improvement in bacterial resistance.
When "x", then "y" hypothesis	When poultry were fed a steady diet of mint, the incidence of E. coli infection was reduced by 25%.
A simple statement hypothesis	Zingiber officinale is an effective treatment against inflammation in humans.

The point of a hypothesis is not to make an argument. It is meant to be proven as either verifiable or falsifiable based on your methods and results. If it is proven to be verifiable, then your hypothesis is accepted. If it is proven to be falsifiable, then it should be rejected.

The hypothesis should be seen as the culmination of the introduction in your research paper. Remember how we mentioned earlier the funnel approach to writing the introduction? Think of the hypothesis as the narrowest point of the introduction funnel. It is as specific as your research can get. The credibility of your research depends on how well your methods and results support (or not) your hypothesis.

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How EminentEdit can help with your Introduction

At EminentEdit, our editors have a complete understanding of how to write the various parts of a research paper, including the introduction. Some of us have published papers on our own and have helped hundreds of students polish their manuscripts to the highest standards.

Our editing and proofreading services include:

• Developmental editing to make sure your introduction sets forth the tone for the entirety of your paper

• Ensuring that the literature review is written according to the required style guide

• Substantive editing to improve the quality of your writing on a sentence level

• Proofreading to make sure your writing is grammatically correct with proper spelling and punctuation

• Style guide accuracy to make sure your paper is formatted according to the standards of your target journal

So feel free to get in touch through our contact page here: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT. Good luck with your research writing!

References

American Psychological Association, A. (2013). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. APA

Day, R. A. & B., Gastel. (2022). How to write and publish a scientific paper. ABC-CLIO.

The University of Chicago. (2017). The Chicago Manual of Style, Seventeenth Edition. University of Chicago Press.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, August 03). How to Write an Introduction for a Research Paper. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/how-to-write-an-introduction-for-your-research-paper