Are you having trouble writing the introduction to your scientific article? Not sure what to
include or how to begin? Hi. I'm Karen McKee and this is another video about scientific writing.
In an earlier video, I explained the basic formula for writing the introduction for a
scientific paper using one of my published papers as an example. In this video,
I'm going to provide more examples and elaborate a bit more on how to write an introduction.
There are three basic parts to an introduction. The first part of the introduction establishes
what your paper is about and why your research topic is of interest. The second part reviews the
literature in greater detail, pointing out what is known and what information is missing. The third
part states your research objectives and describes your basic approach. Let's look at an example.
This study examined how rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations might affect a subtropical wetland
plant community. To begin an introduction, it's important to put your work into a broader
perspective and to also tell the reader why your paper is of value to them.
To do this, you want to start with the big picture and then quickly reveal how your work
will provide a key insight about the topic. The idea is to capture the reader's attention early
and make them want to read further. In this paper, we first stated that many studies had
looked at plant response to elevated atmospheric CO2 and found that higher concentrations
generally promoted the growth of plants with a particular type of photosynthesis, so called
C3 plants. This is the broader topic our work addressed. The big picture in one sentence.
Next, we pointed out a major gap in knowledge that our study would address. And that is that
few studies had examined how other factors such as plant competition affected how C3 plants respond
to CO2 enrichment. This second sentence tells the reader that they are going to learn
something that perhaps they had not considered but that is important to a complete understanding
of CO2 effects on natural plant communities.The third sentence describes where this information
might be needed. In this case, it is plant communities containing a mixture of tropical
and temperate species with different responses to CO2. Specifically, a subtropical wetland
containing C3 mangroves and C4 grasses, the latter being less responsive to CO2 enrichment.
This brief opening paragraph sets the stage for the paper by pointing out the importance of
the topic, why it is of value to the reader, and justifies the choice of plant community studied.
The next paragraph provides more background about the system studied and why it is important.
This description begins by pointing out the geographic occurrence of the salt marsh-mangrove community,
which tells the reader that the results will be globally relevant. It also explains why
transitional communities are important to study. You want to do the same with your research topic.
The next paragraph briefly reviews what is known about the salt marsh-mangrove communities
in the northern Gulf of Mexico where we worked and how they might respond to increases in CO2.
These two sentences state what information is lacking and why it s important to know it.
The review thus gradually focuses in on the specific community and plant species studied
and identifies what information is lacking about it.
In writing the literature review, you want to bring in citations of similar studies conducted in
other settings or situations to put your work into the broadest perspective possible
and drive home the idea that your study adds to this larger body of knowledge.
The third paragraph spells out the overall aim of the study and lists four questions that the
research sought to answer. By clearly stating the main goal of your study or listing specific
questions or hypotheses, you leave no doubt in the reader's mind about what information you seek.
The next few sentences in the paragraph describe the experimental approach and provide a brief
rationale for it. Although details are given in the Methods section, it's a good idea to give an
overview of your approach in the introduction. Especially if your study took place in a unique
setting or experimental facility or involved a new technique. Highlighting what s unique about
your study at this juncture helps convey the impression that your work is novel
and of interest to readers. The final sentences can reemphasize why your research is important,
give a preview of the main finding, or suggest a practical application for your findings.
In this case, we briefly described the main finding and how that information might be useful to others
who are monitoring vegetation shifts at this ecotone. Now, the introduction can be longer or
shorter than this example. Here's another paper with a short, three-paragraph introduction.
But it follows a similar template as the earlier example. The first paragraph sets the stage by
describing the ecosystem studied and some of the unique characteristics of the plants.
The second paragraph reviews the specific factors studied and points out a lack of information
that hinders an understanding of how these plants respond to stressful environmental conditions.
The third paragraph states the study objective and gives a preview of the results and their
importance. Note that in both examples, I did not rely on the readers to know why my
topic was important or what information was needed. I told them in the introduction.
Of course, what I've presented with these examples is not the only way to write an introduction.
But the three components I've described provide a useful template to follow
if you are uncertain about what goes into an introduction. As always, it's a good idea to
look at papers in your target journal and see how their introductions are structured, as well
as how long they are. Thanks for watching and please leave a comment if you have a question.