Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [228]
Voices from Across the Curriculum
An introduction is not simply the statement of a thesis but also the place where the student needs to set a context, a framework that makes such a thesis statement interesting, timely, or in some other way important. It is common to see papers in political science begin by pointing out a discrepancy between conventional wisdom (what the pundits say) and recent political developments, between popular opinion and empirical evidence, or between theoretical frameworks and particular test cases. Papers, in other words, oft en begin by presenting anomalies.
I encourage students to write opening paragraphs that attempt to elucidate such anomalies by:
1. Stating the specific point of departure: Are they taking issue with a bit of conventional wisdom? Popular opinions? A theoretical perspective? This provides the context in which a student is able to “frame” a particular problem, issue, and so forth.
2. Explaining why the wisdom/opinion/theory has become problematic or controversial by focusing on a particular issue, event, test case, or empirical evidence.
3. Formulating a brief statement of the tentative thesis/position to be pursued in the paper. This can take several forms, including the revising of conventional wisdom/theory/opinion, discarding it in favor of alternative conceptions, or calling for redefinition of an issue and question.
—Jack Gambino, Professor of Political Science
INTRODUCTIONS AND ABSTRACTS IN THE SCIENCES
The natural and social sciences both rely on a fairly tightly defined format for reports on research. The professors quoted in the remainder of this chapter emphasize the importance of isolating a specific question or issue and locating it within a wider context. Notice, as you read these voices, how little the model for an introduction changes in moving from social science to natural science.
In the sciences, the introduction is an especially important and somewhat challenging section of the report to compose because it requires a writer not merely to assemble but also to assimilate the background of information and ideas that frame his or her hypothesis.
One distinctive feature of scientific papers is that a separate prefatory section called the abstract precedes the introduction. Authors also produce abstracts for papers in many other disciplines, but these are usually published separately—for example, in a bibliography, in a journal’s table of contents, and so forth.
The abstract provides a very concise summary of the paper. Here is a brief definition from a professor of biochemistry at our college, Keri Colabroy: “what you did (experimental approach), why you did it (the problem, some background), and what you found (major findings and conclusions). You might want to know that there are subtle differences in the format of abstracts depending on the journal.” (For more on science writing, see Chapter 15, Forms and Formats Across the Curriculum.)
Introductions in the Sciences: Three Professors Speak
In the following Voices from Across the Curriculum, biology professor Richard Niesenbaum and psychology professors Laura Edelman and Mark Sciutto address the challenges of introducing and contextualizing research in science writing. Introductions in the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/ Conclusions), the standard form for lab reports and other kinds of science writing, must do a lot of work in a small space.
Voices from Across the Curriculum
A paper usually starts by making some general observation or a description of known phenomena and by providing the reader with some background information. The first paragraphs should illustrate an understanding of the issues at hand and should present an argument for why the research should be done.In other words, a context or framework is established for the entire paper. This background information must lead to a clear statement of the objectives of the paper and the hypothesis that will be experimentally tested. This