7 Things to Know about the Dissertation Introduction Structure

The introduction of a dissertation is a very important chapter. It gives the reader an understanding of what they’re going to learn from your paper. You should put some effort when writing your introduction to structure it properly. Poor opening chapters aren’t likely to attract the reader’s attention and they might not continue reading. Here are the tips that you should follow:

1. Give the background of your topic.

The reader should understand what your paper is about. You should introduce the subject of your research and write briefly about its history. Mention the key investigators and their findings. Indicate the gaps in their research.

2. State your goal.

You should move on to a specific gap in the knowledge and state that you’re going to fill it. You shouldn’t immediately explain why it’s important to research this issue. Enriching the knowledge is significant by itself.

3. Explain who will benefit from your research.

Now, you should explain how exactly filling this gap in the knowledge will help other people. List those who will be able to use this knowledge in order to make better decisions, create new technologies, etc.

4. State your research questions and hypothesis.

The results of your dissertation are answers to your primary research questions, so you should clearly state them so that the reader understands your actions. You should also express your hypothesis which is a prediction for the gap in the knowledge that you’re trying to fill.

5. Present your methodology.

You should explain the methods that are used in your study. List the participants of your tests, instruments that you used to collect data, and procedures that were carried out. This will be described in detail further in your paper, so don’t make this part too long.

6. Indicate the theoretical framework and scope.

You should write about the main theory on which your study is based. You should also indicate the assumptions that you’re relying on. The limitations of your research should be mentioned as early as possible too.

7. Define the terms.

In many sciences, there are some terms that can have different meanings. You should clearly state what you mean when you use a particular term within your study. Your explanations should be based on the fact that the reader is familiar with your field, so you shouldn’t list all the different meanings of the terms.

Make sure that your dissertation introduction contains these parts. You should end it by giving a quick summary of the two following chapters.

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