{"id":328,"date":"2018-09-18T07:23:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T07:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/4-step-approach-to-writing-the-introduction-section-of-a-research-paper\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T04:00:17","slug":"4-step-approach-to-writing-the-introduction-section-of-a-research-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/4-step-approach-to-writing-the-introduction-section-of-a-research-paper","title":{"rendered":"4 Step approach to writing the Introduction section of a research paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want others to cite<\/i> your paper, you should make sure they read<\/i> it first. Let us assume that the title and the abstract of your paper have convinced your peers that they should see your paper. It is then the job of the Introduction section to ensure that they start reading it and keep reading it, to pull them in and to show them around as it were, guiding them to the other parts of the paper (Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This article tells you, with examples, what you should include in the Introduction and what you should leave out, and what reviewers and journal editors look for in this section.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What is the function of the Introduction section?<\/a><\/p>\n

The 4-step approach to writing the Introduction section<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the function of the Introduction section?<\/h2>\n

Put simply, the Introduction should answer the question \u2018Why:\u2019 why you choose that topic for research; why it is important; why you adopted a particular method or approach; and so on. You can also think of the Introduction as the section that points out the gap in knowledge that the rest of the paper will fill, or the section in which you define and claim your territory within the broad area of research. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The other job the Introduction should do is to give some background information and set the context. You can do this by describing the research problem you considered or the research question<\/a> you asked (in the main body of the paper, you will offer the solution to the problem or the answer to the question) and by briefly reviewing any other solutions or approaches that have been tried in the past. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Remember that a thesis or a dissertation usually has a separate chapter titled \u2018Review of literature,\u2019 but a research paper has no such section; instead, the Introduction includes a review in brief.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now that you have given the background and set the context, the last part of the Introduction should specify the objectives of the experiment or analysis of the study described in the paper. This concluding part of the Introduction should include specific details or the exact question(s) to be answered later in the paper.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 4-step approach to writing the Introduction section<\/h2>\n

As a rule of thumb, this section accounts for about 10% of the total word count of the body of a typical research paper, or about 400 words spread over three paragraphs in a 4000-word paper.1<\/sup> With that, let us now understand how to write the Introduction section step-by-step: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Provide background information and set the context<\/h3>\n

This initial part of the Introduction prepares the readers for more detailed and specific information that is given later. The first couple of sentences are typically broad. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Below are some examples:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n