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Introduction Outline
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I. General Comments
| The larger part of the introduction of a research paper describes past
studies that led to your experiment. Perhaps your study is based on questions
left unanswered in previous studies. Often you may replicate an earlier
study using a new procedure. In any case, your introduction should clearly
point out findings and weaknesses in past experiments to justify conducting
your study.
Abstract the important information from each article first. Then, and
this is even more important, write a concise, coherent, logical summary
of the information in your own words. Do not use an outline format. Equally
important, do not assume that your reader is the instructor; I already
know what you are writing about. Rather, your reader is some stranger who
may not know the studies you are describing, and your literature review
should make sense to him or her. The best strategy is to give your introduction
to someone who is not in the class and ask this person whether the logical
structure and the content makes sense. If this
person cannot follow your arguments, then you still have work to do.
Organizing your introduction in a logical manner, progressing from very
general findings to findings that are specifically related to the study
you have conducted is extremely important. One common approach is to describe
past experiments in chronological order of publication, because your study
will usually be based on more recent findings. Another useful framework
is to compare and contrast studies which support alternative theoretical
explanations for the relationship you are interested. If you are confused
as to how an introduction should flow, then a good idea is to find a journal
article that you think was well written and use that as a
"conceptual model" to structure your own introduction.
You should be able to integrate the information into concise paragraphs
that are no longer than four or five sentences. Each paragraph must have
a topic sentence that links the paragraph to the others. You need only
cite relevant findings and make sure you briefly mention the manipulations.
The impression your should draw from these suggestions is that good introductions
take some work. Do not expect to do a “one draft” introduction. The extra
time you put into this section will be favorably reflected in your grade.
If you have problems, then please ask for help.
After you have established the historical and/or theoretical context
for your experiment, you conclude the introduction by presenting the purpose
and experimental hypotheses of your study. You should also briefly describe
the procedures you used to manipulate the independent variables and to
measure the dependent variables.
A special comment about length. Good introductions are very concise.
Only the information that is relevant to the research question and design
that you use is abstracted from each past study. For this reason, each
study
should be described in about a paragraph (not a page or page and a half
paragraph!). If your summary of a study runs more than 1/2 or 3/4 of a
page, then the summary is much too long. Get our your red pen and delete
any unessential information, such as the number of participants or where
they were from, overly detailed descriptions of the manipulations and measures.
Also, you should notice sentences that could be combined to decrease the
chance you are being “wordy.” Your introductions should be based on a “framework”
that organizes and integrates the material to be cited. Think of the framework
as a “wide-angle” view of the introduction that makes explicit how references
are to be used. The frame work is absolutely essential if your desired
goal is a logical, coherent, and progressively more specific narrative. |
II. Organization and Content of the Introduction
The introduction has no formal
sections. However, you should proceed logically and
coherently through each
study in the literature review, using transition words and phrases to
emphasize the connections
between important ideas. Point out the main hypotheses, results
and conclusions for each
experiment. Briefly describe the manipulations and measures,
particularly when they are
important for interpreting the results. Try to reduce each article to
an “abstract” containing
the most essential information to background your study, but DO
NOT simply copy the abstract
from the article! Remember to describe the results in words
only, no numbers.
Title of Report
(should be the same as the title on the title page)
A. Begin the introduction with a general
statement about the relationship of interest.
An example might be:
Research on physical attractiveness has shown that attractive individuals
have many interpersonal advantages over unattractive individuals.
B. Write the literature review. Describe
each study, for example:
1. Downs and Lyons (1991)
example of
The effect of the defendant's attractiveness on guilt also affects
a reviewed the legal system.
For example, Downs and Lyons (1991) conducted
study
a study to determine whether judges are affected by physical appearance.
The researchers collected data on the bail amount assigned to defendants
by judges. Next, police officers not involved with the case were asked
to
rate the attractiveness of the defendant in actual court cases. The results
showed that attractive defendants were given significantly lower bail
amounts compared to attractive defendants. These results suggest that
an attractiveness bias is present in the legal system.
2. Efran (1974).
example of
Physical attractiveness also appears to effect the evaluations of
a topic
transgressions by adults, even though most people believe that decisions
sentence
should not be based on irrelevant information, such as appearance. Efran
(1974) found ...
C. End the introduction with a statement
of the purpose, variables, and hypotheses of
your study. You will need
to describe the participant sample (college undergraduates,
etc.), the nature of their
task including your independent and dependent variables, and
your predictions. A good
example of a purpose and hypothesis paragraph is presented
below.
The purpose of this study was to examine further the relationship between
physical
attractiveness and judgments
of criminal behavior. Participants read newspaper accounts
of a robbery by a woman
described as physically attractive or unattractive. All
participants then rated
the degree of guilt and length of prison sentence. It was expected
that judgments of the defendant
would be influenced by her physical attractiveness (e.g.,
Dion et al., 1972). Specifically,
it was predicted that an attractive versus unattractive
defendant would be viewed
as less guilty (Efran, 1974). Also, it was predicted that an
attractive defendant would
receive a shorter prison sentence than an unattractive defendant
(Efran, 1974).
Please note that where applicable
I have referenced studies that provide support for each
of my hypotheses. |