Where to start with the Introduction!

We are diving right in to our Introduction and students are starting to post outlines for this section.

The Introduction of a Paper is much like chapter two of one's dissertation (though much shorter, to be sure). Here, our job is to 'sell' our academic argument as professionally, objectively, and logically as possible. At the end of the Intro, we want our readers to know what I want to study and test and why we need to study it - both from the perspective of the social problems involved as well as because there is a true gap in the literature/no one has studied the problem the way we are proposing to study it. Our work is original.

This can be hard to do because even though we have collected the data and therefore know the variables/study parts at hand, we have to think critically and creatively in a sense to put forth the necessary academic argument.

I often suggest to students that we want to go from general to specific in the Introduction meaning we start out by talking about the broad, far reaching social problems resulting from the issue at hand (e.g. if we don't study how the oldest old perceive their healthcare/provider, increased mortality, decreased quality of living, and increased healthcare costs may ensue). By the end of the Intro however, we want to have left the reader with a clear sense of the specific problem (questions and variables/themes of interest) under examination. Why? Well - the next section following the Intro is the Methods and in order for the reader to be able to understand our methodological choices, we had better do a very clear job of presenting the academic argument behind the methods!

If my academic argument indicates we need to study group differences in regard to elder care, then it does not make sense to see a regression in our methods section - but rather we should see an Anova, right? In other words, the Introduction must *align* with the Methods. The pieces of a research study should ideally fit together as such, like a puzzle.

This requires a lot of critical thinking and being able to conceptualize beyond the mechanics of last quarter and data collection.

Hopefully, our students are working to make this shift in mind set; it can be challenging!

AES