brycewang-stanford/introduction-writing-guide

Introduction Writing Guide

Write compelling research paper introductions using the CARS (Create A Research Space) model with structured approaches for establishing context, identifying gaps, and motivating your study.

The CARS Model

John Swales' Create A Research Space (CARS) model is the most widely used framework for structuring academic introductions. It consists of three rhetorical "moves":

| Move | Purpose | Typical Length | |------|---------|---------------| | Move 1: Establishing a territory | Show the research area is important and active | 2-4 paragraphs | | Move 2: Establishing a niche | Identify a gap, question, or problem | 1-2 paragraphs | | Move 3: Occupying the niche | State what your paper does to address the gap | 1-2 paragraphs |

Move 1: Establishing a Territory

Strategy 1A: Claiming Centrality

Signal that the topic is important, interesting, or well-established:

Pattern phrases:
- "X has attracted considerable attention in recent years..."
- "The role of X in Y is well established..."
- "X is a fundamental aspect of..."
- "Understanding X is critical for..."
- "Recent advances in X have transformed..."

Strategy 1B: Making Topic Generalizations

Summarize the current state of knowledge:

Pattern phrases:
- "Previous studies have demonstrated that..."
- "It is widely accepted that X leads to Y..."
- "Several approaches have been proposed to address X, including..."
- "Research in this area has traditionally focused on..."

Strategy 1C: Reviewing Previous Research

Cite specific studies to build the scholarly context:

Example paragraph:
"Smith et al. (2020) demonstrated that X improves Y by 30%.
Building on this finding, Jones (2021) extended the approach to Z domain,
reporting similar gains. Meanwhile, Chen and Lee (2022) proposed an
alternative framework that addresses the scalability limitations of
earlier methods."

Tips for Move 1:

• Funnel from broad to narrow: start with the general field, then narrow to your specific topic
• Cite 10-20 papers across Move 1 (varies by field)
• Balance classic/foundational references with recent work
• Use present tense for established knowledge, past tense for specific findings

Move 2: Establishing a Niche

This is the most critical move. You must convince the reader that there is a problem worth solving.

Strategy 2A: Counter-Claiming (Challenging Previous Work)

Pattern phrases:
- "However, these approaches suffer from..."
- "Despite these advances, X remains poorly understood..."
- "A major limitation of existing methods is..."
- "These findings have been contradicted by..."

Strategy 2B: Indicating a Gap

Pattern phrases:
- "To date, no study has examined..."
- "Little attention has been paid to..."
- "The relationship between X and Y has not been explored..."
- "A comprehensive analysis of X is still lacking..."

Strategy 2C: Raising a Question

Pattern phrases:
- "An open question is whether X can be applied to..."
- "It remains unclear how X affects Y under conditions Z..."
- "This raises the question of..."

Strategy 2D: Continuing a Tradition

Pattern phrases:
- "Following the approach of Smith (2020), we extend..."
- "Building on recent advances in X, this paper..."

Tips for Move 2:

• The gap must be clearly linked to the context established in Move 1
• Do not criticize previous work too harshly; use hedging language
• The gap must be specific enough that your paper can plausibly fill it

Move 3: Occupying the Niche

Strategy 3A: Outlining Purposes

Pattern phrases:
- "In this paper, we propose..."
- "The present study aims to..."
- "This work introduces a novel approach to..."
- "We address this gap by..."

Strategy 3B: Announcing Principal Findings

Pattern phrases:
- "Our results demonstrate that..."
- "We show that X outperforms Y by Z%..."
- "The key finding is that..."

Strategy 3C: Indicating Article Structure

Example:
"The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
reviews related work. Section 3 describes our methodology. Section 4
presents experimental results. Section 5 discusses implications and
limitations. Section 6 concludes."

Complete Introduction Template

[Move 1A: Centrality claim - 1-2 sentences]
[Topic] is a critical challenge in [field], with applications
in [area 1], [area 2], and [area 3].

[Move 1B-1C: Background and review - 2-3 paragraphs]
Previous work has established that [known fact]. Smith et al. (2020)
showed [finding 1]. Jones (2021) extended this to [finding 2].
More recently, Chen (2022) demonstrated [finding 3].

[Move 2: Gap identification - 1 paragraph]
However, existing approaches have several limitations. First, [limitation 1].
Second, [limitation 2]. To date, no work has addressed [specific gap].

[Move 3A: Purpose statement - 1-2 sentences]
In this paper, we propose [method/framework] to address [gap].
Our approach differs from prior work in [key difference].

[Move 3B: Key findings - 1-2 sentences]
Our experiments on [benchmark] demonstrate that [main result],
achieving [quantitative improvement] over the state of the art.

[Move 3C: Structure outline - optional, 1-2 sentences]
The rest of this paper is organized as follows...

Common Mistakes to Avoid

| Mistake | Problem | Fix | |---------|---------|-----| | Too broad opening | "Since the dawn of time..." | Start at the field level, not civilization level | | No clear gap | Reader does not understand why the paper is needed | State the gap explicitly in 1-2 sentences | | Overpromising | Claims too broad relative to actual contribution | Use hedging: "we investigate" not "we solve" | | Citing too few papers | Appears unaware of related work | Cite 15-25 papers in a typical introduction | | Too long | Buries the contribution | Aim for 1-2 pages (conference) or 2-4 pages (journal) | | Jargon overload | Inaccessible to non-specialist reviewers | Define key terms on first use |

Discipline-Specific Variations

• STEM: Move 3B (findings preview) is common; quantitative results often stated in the introduction
• Social Sciences: More extensive literature review in Move 1; theoretical framing is expected
• Humanities: Move 2 often involves interpretive questions rather than empirical gaps; longer introductions are acceptable
• Medical/Clinical: Often follows IMRAD strictly; hypothesis stated explicitly in Move 3