Guiding Question:
How do I persuade readers that this study needs to be read?

Learning Objectives

• recognize rhetorical moves in introductions;

• establish an educational problem and its significance;

• position research in relation to existing scholarship;

• create an appropriate research space;

• communicate purpose and research questions effectively.

Mentor Reading

Furberg & Silseth (2022): Introduction.

Topics

• Purposes of research introductions

• Establishing a research territory

• Establishing significance

• Creating a research space

• Research gaps and alternatives to gap-spotting

• Research purpose

• Research questions

• Previewing contribution

Workshop — Introduction Surgery

Students annotate each paragraph of the mentor article

What intellectual and rhetorical work is this paragraph doing?

They then create a rhetorical map for their own introduction.

Writing Studio Task — Introduction Draft

Draft the Introduction.

Indicative length: 800–1,200 words, adjusted to the conventions of the target journal.