How to Write a Dissertation Introduction

Dissertation introduction is a section of your dissertation or research paper where you introduce your reader with the dissertation by briefing them about it in an impactful way. This article guides you to write a first-class introduction in a simplified way.

The writing of the introduction should follow the following steps to make it more engaging and push the readers forward to be interested in reading the dissertation.

These are the five parts you should be focusing on while writing an introduction

• Subject and context
  It should mention the topic of your dissertation with some context.
• Central point and scope
  It should state the scope of your central point or aim.
• Relationship and importance
  It should mention that how the research is an add on to the past studies.
• Objective and aim
  What does your objective and aim to find out in the research?
• Overview
  Write an overall idea of how each section contributes to the central point

Good ways to write your dissertation introduction

The introduction is probably not the first thing you should be writing in a dissertation or research paper. It is suggested to write the introduction in the last while writing the abstract. You can write your first draft at the beginning of the writing process and keeping it as a reference while writing the rest of the dissertation.

Subject and context

Start by writing the topic of your research with some context. Including a recent study and headlines. This might engage the reader at how important your research is.

Example-

Research topic- Study to show the pattern of city daily commuters

Topic context- Recent news stories the sudden increment in the pollution level of the city to hazardous

Central point and scope

Once you have written briefly about the research subject. It’s time to limit down the focus to the central point of the research and the scope of the study. In this, you’ll be focusing on the following points.

• scope of the study in the demography and community
• the geographical area you are analyzing in
• the period which your research covers

Relationship and importance

The importance of your research has to be shown here. Write how this study bridge the gap between previous studies and research. You can add some references from the literature review section here but don’t be descriptive because you’ll be discussing more in that section.

Also, be brief in writing this part. you can write two to three lines to convey the importance of the study.

brief how your dissertation:

• focuses on solving a problem
• bridge the gaps in the studies
• Provide a new understanding of the topic

Objective and aim

This is a crucial part of your introduction. You will be setting up the expectation for the rest of the dissertation in this part. How you draw up your research question and objective will depend upon your focus and topic but you should always mention the central point of your research.

You can mention the research methodology, but if you going to include a separate section for methodology later in the dissertation you can skip that here.

Example-

Research question- To find out the pattern of the daily city commuters
Research objective- Conduct surveys and interviews at various public places to both private and public transport users.

Overview

End the introduction by summarizing each section to show how it supports and contributes to the central aim of the research. It should be brief, the content of each section should be written in two-three lines.

If the research is complex and is not in a conventional way then each section can be written and described in a paragraph.

So we hope now you can write a dissertation introduction for your masters.

FAQ

Q1. How long should a dissertation introduction be?
There is no rule for the rule of the length of a dissertation introduction. It depends upon the total content of the your dissertation. The introduction can be 5-7% of the total dissertation and it is also widely acceptable. do check guidelines from your university.

Q2. What does a dissertation introduction consists of ?
A dissertation introduction consists of a introduction of your dissertation. It is the first chapter of the dissertation. So it kind of launch your dissertation.