In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to write a dissertation introduction that your instruction and board of reviewers can’t shy away from reading.
The introduction for a dissertation is an important part of the project that, if written well, draws in the attention of the target reader to immerse themselves even deeper into the dissertation research topic under investigation.
Appearing immediately after the abstract, the introduction of a dissertation or thesis informs your target audience about the significance of your topic, the research question you wish to investigate, and your declarative statement.
More importantly, the introduction provides a clear outline of the structure for the rest of the project.
How to Write a Dissertation Introduction
Just to reiterate, the introduction chapter should introduce the reader to your research in order for them to grasp what you’re trying to discover or solve.
In other words, the introduction chapter should provide an outline of the study you intend to conduct, as well as a compelling explanation for it.
Now that you understand what your introduction chapter should do, we can get into the details on how to write it.
Quite too often, a good introduction chapter for a dissertation will have an introduction section, the context of the study, research aims, question, and objective, the significance of the study, constraints, and a framework that outlines the structure of your dissertation.
Now, let’s look at each of the sections below:
1. The Introduction Section
As with any other chapter, your introductory chapter should begin with a quick review of the material covered in the chapter. This part should captivate the reader with simple, straightforward language that they can easily grasp and digest.
Write a paragraph or two introducing your research’s overall subject, a statement of the topic of your research, a sentence describing the purpose and objectives of your research, and a phrase summarizing the chapter’s structure.
This chapter will introduce the study by explaining the backdrop and context, the research problem, the research aims, objectives, and questions, the importance, and ultimately, the limits.
2. The study’s context
This section of your introduction chapter should include a high-level overview of the subject area for which you’ll be conducting research, as well as the present contextual elements.
This could include a brief history of the subject, recent advancements in the field, and major pieces of research in the field.
Do the best you can to include sufficient background material to give a reader the solid understanding of your research area.
3. The Research Question
The objective of this part is to reduce the emphasis and emphasize the single research question (or research problem) on which you will concentrate your efforts.
A research problem, on the other hand, can be any issue or question for which there is no well-established and widely accepted answer in existing research.
In other words, a research challenge emerges when there is a requirement to answer a question (or group of questions), but the current literature is deficient, conflicted, or inconsistent.
4. The Study’s Objectives, Targets, and Questions
Now that you’ve defined your research topic clearly, it’s time to define your research objectives and goals, as well as your research questions.
To begin, explicitly identify your study objective (or aims). The research objective is the dissertation or thesis’s primary objective or overarching purpose.
Establish your research questions. Your research questions help to bring the goals and objectives “down to earth.”
These are the precise issues that your dissertation or thesis will attempt to address. They are not vague, unclear, or conceptual – they are quite precise, and you must address them clearly in your conclusions chapter.
5. Importance of the Study
Now that you’ve defined the subject of your research, it’s important to build a compelling case for the study’s importance and significance.
Of course, you’ve already made a passing reference to the significance of your study in the background and research problem sections, but you haven’t indicated exactly how your research findings would benefit the world.
So, this is your opportunity to articulate precisely how your study will assist industry, academia, or both.
6. The Constraints
After you’ve “sold” your research to the reader and perhaps piqued their interest in the remainder of your dissertation, it’s time to highlight the potential constraints of your research in brief.
Understand that no piece of study is flawless. This is especially true for dissertations and theses, which often have a very little or non-existent budget, strict time limits, and a researcher with inadequate expertise.
Because your dissertation is likely to be your first or second formal research endeavor, it is unlikely to receive any research awards.
So the idea is to acknowledge and be entirely clear about the constraints up front, so that future researchers are aware of them and can enhance the study’s design to mitigate the limits and strengthen the findings.
In general, you’ll want to consider at least four of the following common constraints.
- Your scope – for instance, if your focus is too limited and ignores the interaction of key variables.
- Your research methodology — for instance, a qualitative methodology may be criticized for being excessively subjective, whilst a quantitative methodology may be criticized for oversimplification of the scenario (learn more about methodologies here).
- Your resources – such as a lack of time, money, equipment, or research experience.
- The generalizability of your findings – for instance, conclusions from a research of a particular industry or country cannot always be generalized to other industries or countries.
Do not attempt to conceal your feelings here. It is pointless to attempt to conceal the limitations or inadequacies of your study. Indeed, the more critical of your studies you can be, the better. The markers want to see that you are aware of the constraints because this displays your comprehension of study design.
7. The Structural Framework
After you’ve explained what your study will be about, why it’s vital, and what the research’s constraints will be, the final component is the structural outline.
The objective of this part is to inform your reader on the structure of your dissertation or thesis. This part requires you to offer a concise description of the goal and content of each chapter (including the introduction chapter).
Generally, a phrase or two stating what you’re going to do in each chapter is sufficient to orient the reader. You don’t want to go into too much detail here.