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The Introduction needs to be very concise, well structured, and inclusive of all the information needed to follow the development of your findings. Some people recommend that the Introduction be the first section written when writing a manuscript.
The purpose of the Introduction is to stimulate the reader’s interest and to provide pertinent background information necessary to understand the rest of the paper. You must summarize the problem to be addressed, give background on the subject, discuss previous research on the topic, and explain exactly what the paper will address, why, and how. Besides motivating a reader to read your manuscript and to care about your results, the Introduction is useful also to the journal’s reviewers and editors in judging the importance of your manuscript.
However, since every journal is different, it is important that you look at papers in your targeted journal to determine whether they use all of these steps. For example, some journals do not include conclusions in the Introduction.
For more detailed information regarding writing a manuscript for publication, please review some of our other articles at http://www.sfedit.net
These articles approach such subjects as Writing the First Draft, Writing Effective Results, Methods and Materials, Discussions, Selecting a Journal, Responding to Reviewers, etc.