Writing the Introduction

Depending on how many words you wish to devote to the introductory section of your thesis or academic article, it can take many forms.

Yet whatever you decide, introductions are basically arguments to convince the reader that what you write is worth paying attention to. Just as an abstract has been compared to a film trailer that tries to draw people in to the full-length creation, so an introduction should make people aware of why you bothered to write something. You may wish to begin with a very brief general look at the subject matter, explaining why it is important. Keep in mind that your readers will have relatively little time to devote to your writings, so they will appreciate it if you state immediately what your paper is and why it exists. They probably will not need much generalized information about your field that they can find elsewhere and they may even feel somewhat insulted that you presumed they needed to be reminded about basic facts in your field of study. If space is short, you can instead start with a quick overview of other literature in the field, and point out what is lacking. If knowledge was complete in your field, there would be no need for you to write anything, but since something has been neglected, overlooked, or inadequately treated in the past, you have decided to solve the problem with what you have written. This section of your thesis or paper is especially important because it shows the reader you have a comprehensive awareness of the development of your field, and the imagination to indicate where things might be improved. You are not just swallowing a lot of information and regurgitating it on command at exams, like so many high school and college students are required to do.

Literature and not “literatures.”

This may be a good place to observe that among many other eccentric Thai English formulations, intelligent and educated people in the Kingdom make the mistake of writing “literatures” when they mean writings. When describing a collection of research on a topic, the plural for the word literature remains literature. So you would not write about the “literatures” on molecular biology, but rather the “literature.” This may seem like a small point, but it makes an illiterate impression to write or speak about “literatures.”  You are safer to speak of literature rather than “literatures.”

The rest of your introduction.

Returning to your introduction, after you have established the gap which exists in your field of study and which you plan to fill, then you must say what you are going to do and why. You may wish to include some of the theories you wished to prove in your research although this is not strictly necessary at this point. Likewise, it is usually not required to include any conclusions in your introduction, since there will be plenty of opportunity later in your research to state your findings. Follow the advice of your ajarn or editor.  It all depends how much space you have to write your introduction. If your ajarn or an editor indicates that a shorter introduction is better, then some of these elements can be left out without harming your introduction.

Look at what excellent ajarns do.

As usual, if you are doubt about any aspect of writing for publication or developing theses, it can help to look at the best examples of published material to find a style model. Study the introductions – or other sections – in papers published by winners of the Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, or other overachievers. Almost no one ever looks at the bound theses in libraries. Try examining the thesis written by your ajarn as a style model, keeping in mind that this person’s work resulted in a  degree which you are now working for. Maybe you can learn from how things are presented in it. Chances are that it will give you a good idea of the structure and function of what you are trying to write.

Identifying authorities.

A common mistake in Thai English is, when citing the names of experts, failing to properly identify them by associating them with a university or other affiliation. All too often the names of experts are spelled wrong, so be sure to Google the name of every farang you mention in your introduction. Even if you mention the name of Thai researchers, Google these too because as you know, Thai names are sometimes transliterated into English (using the Roman alphabet) with varied spellings. If you are in doubt about what is the most common English spelling of a Thai name, Google all the different choices, and whichever turns up the most results is clearly the most popular transliteration, so choose that. Another method is to look up the name in a standard library catalog such as Worldcat or the Library of Congress, or the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, or Harvard universities. If you copy the spelling from these catalogs, you will probably be safe.

Do not assume too much.

While it is obvious that your readers will most likely be people in your field who have had similar educations and share a knowledge base, never use acronyms, or abbreviations formed by adding the first letters in a series of words or phrases, without defining the full terms the first time you cite them. So if you are a medical student, do not write CNS the first time you refer to the central nervous system in a paper or article. Instead, write central nervous system (CNS). Thereafter, it is fine to use CNS as a short way of referring to the central nervous system, and indeed your reader will expect you to use CNS instead of wasting space by typing out the whole term central nervous system each time. The point is that while some acronyms or abbreviations are well known to your colleagues, others may not be, so it is always more courteous to provide information about what you are discussing to make sure that your argument gets across. You do not need to over-explain, such as informing your reader that Albert Einstein was a scientist or other facts that are commonly known to the general reader.  Avoid giving the impression that you think your readers were born yesterday and know nothing at all unless you tell them every single bit of information, however trivial, surrounding your subject.

Problems and arguments.

Writers of theses are familiar with the challenge of creating a statement of the problem, just as people who produce articles must focus on arguments. In both cases, an element of drama and conflict is required. I have seen Thai students whose idea of a statement of the problem is just to write something like “Alcohol consumption in Bhutan.” Or “Alcohol consumption in Bhutan is rising.” This is not a statement of the problem, since it does not present the fact that there is a conflict, contradiction, or unresolved issue. Instead, it would be better to say, “Alcohol sales are an important part of the Bhutanese economy, but the rise in alcohol-related violence and crime is causing worry in the country.” A sentence like the preceding one offers not just flat information, but both sides of a topic which may be examined in research. Likewise, an argument is a statement with which your readers may disagree, such as “The rise in violence and crime in Bhutan can be directly related to the dramatic increase in alcohol consumption in the country.” Specialists in Bhutan may point to other social factors as causes of crime, but your argument will focus on the primary cause of alcohol abuse.

Back up statements with data.

Whatever your field, it is a good idea to show that you have not just invented arguments, but based them on solid data, whether publications, unpublished materials in archives, interviews, or other sources. Be clear and specific about where you have obtained your facts, to give some idea of your own depth of expertise in the field. This reassuringly shows that you are a serious researcher with a strong understanding of the efforts of the scholarly community, not just an isolated dreamer cooking up odd theories without any realistic support for your ideas.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).