The Introduction
The introduction provides crucial information that allows your reader to understand why you have chosen the question you hope to answer. To write an introduction that will successfully help your reader comprehend current knowledge in the area of study, past research, and what is unknown, there are few rules to be followed.
- Go from broad to specific. Start from the overarching topic that encompasses your specific research goal. For example, if you’re studying the role of the D2 receptor in the early stages of mouse models of Parkinson’s disease, you could start by explaining neurodegeneration in the dopaminergic system on a general level. You must be clear, concise, and informative so that a reader with little to no prior knowledge can understand.
- Refer to current literature. As you are writing, each piece of information should be cited. Ensure that you are not getting a large chunk of information from only one or two studies and that you are staying in connection with the focus of your research.
- Encounter problems. What is the current literature failing to understand? What has yet to be tested? What results have been unexplained? These problems should be reduced to a single issue, which will be the question you are trying to answer with your research.
- State your solution. Lastly, you should include the solution that your work has produced. Describe the information that was involved in this solution and related data. This should be clearly expressed; the reader should not have to derive their own solution to the issue you have researched.
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