96 – Introductions
The usual function of an introduction in academic writing is to tell
the reader what issue is being raised and what justifies the writer in
raising it. You will see this kind of introduction in the articles to be
found in academic journals and in the preface or introduction to a
book; and we shall examine it later in this chapter, where we discuss
how to write an introduction to a research paper (section 5, p. 107).
For the most part it is not appropriate to an essay in answer to a
question set by your tutor, since you need not offer the reader an
excuse or a reason for taking up the matter.
This is not to say, however, that no material which might be
considered introductory to the main argument should be included
in your introduction. It may, just so long as it does not replace the
essential feature of that introduction, a statement of your case. There
is often good cause to indicate how you will tackle your case. Some
essay topics, as we have seen in chapter 2 (pp. 39–41), are either
ambiguous in meaning or very general in scope, such that you need
to say how you have interpreted the topic, and, further, to say why
this interpretation is a fruitful one. It might be that you suspect
the answer will not be as obvious as it appears on the surface, that it
has implications beyond the immediate problem, that you are aware of
significant new evidence which might suggest a revised interpretation
of the problem, that it throws up an interesting methodological issue,
and so on. In such situations you need to inform your reader how
you have interpreted the topic, what it is you find interesting in your
question, and what needs to be concentrated on to answer it.
Any such introductory material should, as far as possible, be
thus integrated into some aspect of your statement of the case. The criterion to be employed in choosing and integrating this material is its
relevance to your case. There is no point in ‘defining your terms’ unless
your case is going to hinge in part upon the definition (or interpretation) you give of a term. ‘Background material’ (historical, biographical, geographical, sociological, cultural, etc.) must similarly be selected
for its relevance, or passed over so quickly as not to disturb the
reader’s concentration on the case you are putting. For example, the
facts that the nineteenth-century German composer Richard Wagner
would wear nothing but silk or satin next to his skin, and that in
private moments, it seems, he liked to wear women’s clothes, might
be a trivial distraction to one essay introduction. In another, it might
The usual function of an introduction in academic writing is to tell
the reader what issue is being raised and what justifies the writer in
raising it. You will see this kind of introduction in the articles to be
found in academic journals and in the preface or introduction to a
book; and we shall examine it later in this chapter, where we discuss
how to write an introduction to a research paper (section 5, p. 107).
For the most part it is not appropriate to an essay in answer to a
question set by your tutor, since you need not offer the reader an
excuse or a reason for taking up the matter.
This is not to say, however, that no material which might be
considered introductory to the main argument should be included
in your introduction. It may, just so long as it does not replace the
essential feature of that introduction, a statement of your case. There
is often good cause to indicate how you will tackle your case. Some
essay topics, as we have seen in chapter 2 (pp. 39–41), are either
ambiguous in meaning or very general in scope, such that you need
to say how you have interpreted the topic, and, further, to say why
this interpretation is a fruitful one. It might be that you suspect
the answer will not be as obvious as it appears on the surface, that it
has implications beyond the immediate problem, that you are aware of
significant new evidence which might suggest a revised interpretation
of the problem, that it throws up an interesting methodological issue,
and so on. In such situations you need to inform your reader how
you have interpreted the topic, what it is you find interesting in your
question, and what needs to be concentrated on to answer it.
Any such introductory material should, as far as possible, be
thus integrated into some aspect of your statement of the case. The criterion to be employed in choosing and integrating this material is its
relevance to your case. There is no point in ‘defining your terms’ unless
your case is going to hinge in part upon the definition (or interpretation) you give of a term. ‘Background material’ (historical, biographical, geographical, sociological, cultural, etc.) must similarly be selected
for its relevance, or passed over so quickly as not to disturb the
reader’s concentration on the case you are putting. For example, the
facts that the nineteenth-century German composer Richard Wagner
would wear nothing but silk or satin next to his skin, and that in
private moments, it seems, he liked to wear women’s clothes, might
be a trivial distraction to one essay introduction. In another, it might