Writing introductions

1. Writing introductions Session 8

2. RevisitingIMRaD, the structureof a report General concern Specificconcern provides a rationale for the paper, presents the particularquestion or hypothesis Introduction (I) describesmethodology, materials, procedures Methods and materials (M) describesfindings, and commentsthose Results (R) Specificconcern General concern Discussion and Conclusion (D) an accountofwhat has beenfoundout and refers back to the introduction Swales and Feak, pp 220

3. Introductions • Function? Guide, Anticipate, Enhance • How? Topic, Scope, Audience, Purpose As much background as necessary on the topic and the situation A map • Qualities? Reader-oriented, step by step information, inclusive, evocative • Requirements? Starts on page 1, Reader analysis, Specific

4. Results and discussions Should contain: • A factual statement of what you have observed, supported by statistics, tables or graphs derived from your analysis • Any exceptions and any lack of correlation and define any unsettled points Should not contain: • Results from all experiments, successful or not • How the experiment was performed (method)

5. Conclusions (so what?) • Analysis • Consequences • Reflection of the Purpose / the “message” • Echo of Introduction

6. Introductions: a first exploration (10 minutes) • Read through the introductionyou havebeen given • Try and think of 5 reasonswhy this is a goodintroduction! • Are thereanyreasonswhy this is a bad introduction? • Find a partner who has beenworking with the otherexample. • Report the qualities as well as the weaknesses of your example. • Make a decisionaboutwhich text is the betterone!

7. ‘CARS’: Creating a Research Space Move I : Establishing a territory Move II: Establishing a niche Move III: Occupying the niche Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for gradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

8. ‘CARS’: Creating a Research Space Move I : Establishing a territory (a. claiming centrality and / or) b. making topic generalisations and / or c. reviewing items of previous research Move II: Move III: Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for ggradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

9. Move 1: Establishing a territory • The increasinginterest in high angle-of-attackaerodynamics has heightened the need for computationaltoolssuitable to predict the flowfield and aerodynamiccoefficients in this regime. Of particularinterest and complexity are the symmetric and asymmetricseparatedvortexflowswhichdevelopaboutslenderbodies as the angle of attack is increased. Almosino 1985 in Swales p.250

10. ‘CARS’: Creating a Research Space Move I : Move II: Establishing a niche 1a. counter claims 1b. indicating a gap 1c. question raising (1d. continuing a tradition) Move III: Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for grgadutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

11. Move 2: Establishing a niche • However, the previouslymentionedmethodssuffer from some limitations mainlyconcerning the treatment of the vortexwake formation and its interaction with the body. The first group of methods (2-4) cannottreat 3D flows and is limited to veryslenderbodies. The second group of computationalmethods (5-8) is time consuming and thereforeexpensive, and its separation prediction is not sufficientlyaccurate….Thesteady 3D nonlinearvortex-latticemethod, uponwhich the present method is based, eliminatesmany of these limitations by introducing a moreconsistentmodel, but it cantreatonlysymmetrical flow cases. Almosino 1985 in Swales p.261

12. ‘CARS’: Creating a Research Space Move I : Move II: Move III: Occupying the niche 1a. outline purpose 1b. announce present research 2. announcing principal findings 3. indicating structure Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for gradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

13. Move 3: Occupying the niche • The present work extends the use of the last model to aymmetric, body-vortexcases, thusincreasing the range of flow patterns that can be investigated. In addition, an effort is made to improve the numericalprocedure to accelerate the convergence of the iterative solution and to get a betterrollup of the vortexlinesrepresenting the wake. Almosino 1985 in Swales p.264

14. ‘CARS’ analysis on your examples - What territories do your examples establish? - What niche do they establish? - How do they occupy the niche ? Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for gradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

15. IS III: Information ’forms’ Swales & Feak, 223.

16. Citing references Swales and Feak, pp 254 “Several studies have shown that at least two-thirds of all citing statements follow one of these three major patterns:” Adapted from Swales, & Feak (1990/2004) Academic writing for gradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

17. Citing references • Past – single study , often negative “But there seemed to be a latent prejudice in the field of information theory: because the foundation of digital communications relied on potent mathematical considerations [3], error correcting codes where believed to belong solely to the world of mathematics.” • Present perfect – area of inquiry “Many studies have been carried out uing MRI flow profile measurements to examine the flow in a tube (Groover and Singer1971; Kose and others 1985; Callaghan and Xia 1991).” • Present – current knowledge “Many lead artifacts are damaged after being kept for a short period in small enclosures that contain carboxylic acid emmissive materials [1-6]”