Introduction writing guide

Introduction Writing Guide

Write compelling research paper introductions using the CARS (Create A Research Space) model with structured approaches for establishing context, identifying gaps, and motivating your study.

The CARS Model

John Swales' Create A Research Space (CARS) model is the most widely used framework for structuring academic introductions. It consists of three rhetorical "moves":

Move	Purpose	Typical Length
Move 1: Establishing a territory	Show the research area is important and active	2-4 paragraphs
Move 2: Establishing a niche	Identify a gap, question, or problem	1-2 paragraphs
Move 3: Occupying the niche	State what your paper does to address the gap	1-2 paragraphs

Move 1: Establishing a Territory

Strategy 1A: Claiming Centrality

Signal that the topic is important, interesting, or well-established:

Pattern phrases:
- "X has attracted considerable attention in recent years..."
- "The role of X in Y is well established..."
- "X is a fundamental aspect of..."
- "Understanding X is critical for..."
- "Recent advances in X have transformed..."

Strategy 1B: Making Topic Generalizations

Summarize the current state of knowledge:

Pattern phrases:
- "Previous studies have demonstrated that..."
- "It is widely accepted that X leads to Y..."
- "Several approaches have been proposed to address X, including..."
- "Research in this area has traditionally focused on..."

Strategy 1C: Reviewing Previous Research

Cite specific studies to build the scholarly context:

Example paragraph:
"Smith et al. (2020) demonstrated that X improves Y by 30%.
Building on this finding, Jones (2021) extended the approach to Z domain,
reporting similar gains. Meanwhile, Chen and Lee (2022) proposed an
alternative framework that addresses the scalability limitations of
earlier methods."

Tips for Move 1:

• Funnel from broad to narrow: start with the general field, then narrow to your specific topic
• Cite 10-20 papers across Move 1 (varies by field)
• Balance classic/foundational references with recent work
• Use present tense for established knowledge, past tense for specific findings

Move 2: Establishing a Niche

This is the most critical move. You must convince the reader that there is a problem worth solving.

Strategy 2A: Counter-Claiming (Challenging Previous Work)

Pattern phrases:
- "However, these approaches suffer from..."
- "Despite these advances, X remains poorly understood..."
- "A major limitation of existing methods is..."
- "These findings have been contradicted by..."

Strategy 2B: Indicating a Gap

Pattern phrases:
- "To date, no study has examined..."
- "Little attention has been paid to..."
- "The relationship between X and Y has not been explored..."
- "A comprehensive analysis of X is still lacking..."

Strategy 2C: Raising a Question

Pattern phrases:
- "An open question is whether X can be applied to..."
- "It remains unclear how X affects Y under conditions Z..."
- "This raises the question of..."

Strategy 2D: Continuing a Tradition

Pattern phrases:
- "Following the approach of Smith (2020), we extend..."
- "Building on recent advances in X, this paper..."

Tips for Move 2:

• The gap must be clearly linked to the context established in Move 1
• Do not criticize previous work too harshly; use hedging language
• The gap must be specific enough that your paper can plausibly fill it

Move 3: Occupying the Niche

Strategy 3A: Outlining Purposes

Pattern phrases:
- "In this paper, we propose..."
- "The present study aims to..."
- "This work introduces a novel approach to..."
- "We address this gap by..."

Strategy 3B: Announcing Principal Findings

Pattern phrases:
- "Our results demonstrate that..."
- "We show that X outperforms Y by Z%..."
- "The key finding is that..."

Strategy 3C: Indicating Article Structure

Example:
"The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
reviews related work. Section 3 describes our methodology. Section 4
presents experimental results. Section 5 discusses implications and
limitations. Section 6 concludes."

Complete Introduction Template

[Move 1A: Centrality claim - 1-2 sentences]
[Topic] is a critical challenge in [field], with applications
in [area 1], [area 2], and [area 3].

[Move 1B-1C: Background and review - 2-3 paragraphs]
Previous work has established that [known fact]. Smith et al. (2020)
showed [finding 1]. Jones (2021) extended this to [finding 2].
More recently, Chen (2022) demonstrated [finding 3].

[Move 2: Gap identification - 1 paragraph]
However, existing approaches have several limitations. First, [limitation 1].
Second, [limitation 2]. To date, no work has addressed [specific gap].

[Move 3A: Purpose statement - 1-2 sentences]
In this paper, we propose [method/framework] to address [gap].
Our approach differs from prior work in [key difference].

[Move 3B: Key findings - 1-2 sentences]
Our experiments on [benchmark] demonstrate that [main result],
achieving [quantitative improvement] over the state of the art.

[Move 3C: Structure outline - optional, 1-2 sentences]
The rest of this paper is organized as follows...

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake	Problem	Fix
Too broad opening	"Since the dawn of time..."	Start at the field level, not civilization level
No clear gap	Reader does not understand why the paper is needed	State the gap explicitly in 1-2 sentences
Overpromising	Claims too broad relative to actual contribution	Use hedging: "we investigate" not "we solve"
Citing too few papers	Appears unaware of related work	Cite 15-25 papers in a typical introduction
Too long	Buries the contribution	Aim for 1-2 pages (conference) or 2-4 pages (journal)
Jargon overload	Inaccessible to non-specialist reviewers	Define key terms on first use

Discipline-Specific Variations

• STEM: Move 3B (findings preview) is common; quantitative results often stated in the introduction
• Social Sciences: More extensive literature review in Move 1; theoretical framing is expected
• Humanities: Move 2 often involves interpretive questions rather than empirical gaps; longer introductions are acceptable
• Medical/Clinical: Often follows IMRAD strictly; hypothesis stated explicitly in Move 3