Hi.
I'm Karen McKee, retired scientist and author with another look at how to improve your scientific
writing.
Today, I'm going to focus on the paper's introduction.
Novice writers are often clueless when it comes to how to write an effective introduction.
I know, because when I started writing, I had no idea what was expected in the introduction
of a scientific article.
There are two important components that must be included in all introductions.
One.
You must state a clear question or hypothesis addressed by your research.
And two, you have to explain why the topic of your research is important.
I sometimes get manuscripts to review, and it quickly becomes clear that the author doesn't
know how to state the study's main goal or why it's important.
Sometimes, the author just lacks writing experience.
Other times, the author may think that they don't need to state what's obvious to them.
That the editor and reviewers will somehow figure out why the work is important.
Big mistake.
Explicitly making the case for the importance of your research is key to convincing a journal
to publish your work.
And the place to do that convincing is in the introduction.
But exactly how do you accomplish this?
Well, there is a really simple formula for structuring your introduction, which I'm going
to cover using examples from one of my own papers.
First.
You need to explain why the problem you researched is important.
Next.
Describe what is known about the problem and what information is missing.
This is the literature review.
And third.
State your research question and explain how it will address that gap in knowledge.
Let's now look at a specific example from a published paper.
We'll scroll down to the beginning of the introduction
Generally, you want to start with the big picture.
How does your research relate to larger issues of interest to your field of study?
The first sentence tells the reader that this work falls into the larger topic of global
warming and consequent effects of sea-level rise on coastal wetlands worldwide.
The second sentence begins explaining the mechanisms whereby low-lying ecosystems keep
pace with changing sea level.
This opening paragraph then narrows the focus down to systems undergoing rapid subsidence
or sinking, such as the Mississippi River Delta, which is where this study was conducted.
Once you've set the stage by putting your work into the bigger picture, you next need
to explain what is currently known about the topic and what information is lacking.
Let's look at the topic sentences of the next couple of paragraphs.
In the first one, basic information about salt marshes and mangroves is given and it's
explained how their distributions overlap at subtropical latitudes.
The paragraph ends by pointing out information that is needed to predict the future submergence
of coastal wetlands in regions undergoing vegetation shifts.
The next paragraph provides more review of the literature and what is known about expansion
of mangroves worldwide.
The possible role of disturbance in causing vegetation shifts is also reviewed because
that was a factor investigated in this study.
The end of that paragraph points out that vegetation shifts may alter the plant community's
capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise.
In the next paragraph is a clear statement of the information need.
"Comparative information is needed about how vegetation shifts affect capacity to keep
pace with relative sea-level rise, especially if accompanied by disturbance."
The final paragraph of the introduction states the research objective, which was to
experimentally tested whether vegetation type, with or without disturbance, can influence
elevation trajectories in a salt marsh-mangrove community.
The final sentence of the introduction drives home why the study was needed and how the
results advance the field of knowledge.
Now you can see how easy it is to write an introduction.
All you have to do is answer three main questions the reader will have about your work.
One.
Why is your study important and how does it fit into the big picture?
Two.
What is known about your topic and what information is needed?
Three.
What are your research objectives and how do they fill that information gap?
Now, this is not the only approach to structuring an introduction.
Also, there can be a lot of leeway in how you structure the literature review or introduce
your objectives or questions.
Some journals prefer a certain style of introducing a paper that differs from the example I've
presented here.
It's a good idea to look at a few papers in your target journal and see how the introduction
is structured.
If you found this video helpful, don't forget to hit the like button.
And if you have a specific question about scientific writing, please leave a comment.