Introductions to journal articles
Pat Thomson
@ThomsonPat
patthomson.net

The work of the introduction
• It must interest and engage the reader. Give them
a taste of what is to come.
• It should create the warrant for the paper – in
policy, practice, current event, disciplinary issue,
literatures.
• It helps to introduce the writer. Establish
credibility. Give a flavour of ‘voice’.
• Conventionally the introduction also maps out
the paper and indicates the shape of the
argument

The usual introduction moves
• Locate – situate the study in a broad context
and connect this to the journal reader
• Focus – say what the paper is about in
particular
• Argue/Expand – say what the paper is going
to say
• Outline – lay out the steps that the paper will
take and signal their order

• Introductions vary a lot
• Don’t confuse a move with a formula – they
are not the same!
• Some of the four moves are often left out
Sometimes they are not sequential
• Its important to check the target journal to
see what’s expected

In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice
. . . the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man. (Inscription at the
FDR National Memorial, Washington, D.C., from a campaign speech on October 2, 1932, in Detroit,
Michigan)
FDR’s words—spoken over 80 years ago—resonate profoundly in the twenty-first century.
Around the world, we see vocal and public calls for more socially just economic and political
arrangements: the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, labor rights rallies, and Save Our Schools
marches.1 In today’s “days of difficulty,” these movements share more than a call for social justice.
Rather, at the heart of these twenty-first century protests is a call for fundamental human rights,
which was also at the heart of FDR’s vision of social justice: the right to work, for example, and
the right to protest peacefully, to be free from discrimination, to join labor unions, to participate in
democracy, and to be guaranteed adequate health care, shelter, education, and wages. Protection
and enactment of fundamental human rights are at the core of these twenty-first century calls
for social justice. This remains as true in education as in other justice movements. While critics
decry calls for social justice as class warfare, the rise of the welfare state, or even anarchy, we
believe that calls for social justice are simply calls for fundamental human rights.
To that end, we endeavor here to (re)historicize social justice—specifically social justice
education—in the context of human rights. As we seek to understand today’s social justice
movements, we often turn to the protest movements of the late twentieth century, such as the…
“The path of social justice”: A Human Rights History of Social Justice Education
Carl A. Grant and Melissa Leigh Gibson
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Equity and Ecce;lencei n education 46(1) 81-99 (2013)

In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice
. . . the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man. (Inscription at the
FDR National Memorial, Washington, D.C., from a campaign speech on October 2, 1932, in Detroit,
Michigan)
LOCATE FDR’s words—spoken over 80 years ago—resonate profoundly in the twenty-first century.
Around the world, we see vocal and public calls for more socially just economic and political
arrangements: the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, labor rights rallies, and Save Our Schools
marches.1 In today’s “days of difficulty,” these movements share more than a call for social justice.
Rather, at the heart of these twenty-first century protests is a call for fundamental human rights,
which was also at the heart of FDR’s vision of social justice: the right to work, for example, and
the right to protest peacefully, to be free from discrimination, to join labor unions, to participate in
democracy, and to be guaranteed adequate health care, shelter, education, and wages. Protection
and enactment of fundamental human rights are at the core of these twenty-first century calls
for social justice. This remains as true in education as in other justice movements. While critics
decry calls for social justice as class warfare, the rise of the welfare state, or even anarchy, we
believe that calls for social justice are simply calls for fundamental human rights.
FOCUS To that end, we endeavor here to (re)historicize social justice—specifically social justice
education—in the context of human rights. ARGUE As we seek to understand today’s social justice
movements, we often turn to the protest movements of the late twentieth century, such as the…
“The path of social justice”: A Human Rights History of Social Justice Education”
Carl A. Grant and Melissa Leigh Gibson
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Equity and Excellence in Education 46(1) 81-99 (2013)

Recently, there has been a call to situate narrative construction within social dynamics
and context and to find analytic strategies that would allow treating narratives not
only as a “window” into the subjective or private aspects of the narrator’s experience
but also as communicative acts, based on shared socio-cultural resources and
practices (e.g., Atkinson, 1997; Duranti, 1986; Edwards, 1997a, 1997b; Gubrium &
Holstein, 2009; Lerner, 1992). Gubrium and Hostein, for example, highlighted that
“stories aren’t simply conveyed, but they are given shape in the course of social
interaction” (p. 16). Potter and Edwards (1999) argued that analyses often fail to
address the activities (e.g., accusation, justification, refusal, request) done by people
in telling stories. Riessman (2005) similarly discussed the “danger of over-personalising
the personal narrative” (p. 6).
In this article we propose that the integration of narrative and discursive forms of
inquiry, if epistemologically affordable, can be fruitful, particularly for conducting
“interactional” analyses of narratives. Although narrative inquiry contextualizes the
sense-making process by focusing on the storyteller and, in some cases, taking into
account the role of the audience as a shaper of narrative (e.g., Riessman, 2008; Riley
& Hawe, 2005), it often lacks the means for explicating the details of how narrative
structures and the context of storytelling are produced through talk and writing
(Atkinson, 1997), which discursive forms of inquiry can offer. As an illustration of this
discursive narrative approach we explore the construction of autobiographical
accounts, focusing on narrative sequences.
“Discursive Narrative Analysis: A Study of Online Autobiographical Accounts of Self-Injury”
Olga Sutherland, Andrea V. Breen, and Stephen P. Lewis
The Qualitative Report 2013 Volume 18, Article 95, 1-17 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/sutherland95.pdf

LOCATE Recently, there has been a call to situate narrative construction within social
dynamics and context and to find analytic strategies that would allow treating
narratives not only as a “window” into the subjective or private aspects of the
narrator’s experience but also as communicative acts, based on shared socio-cultural
resources and practices (e.g., Atkinson, 1997; Duranti, 1986; Edwards, 1997a, 1997b;
Gubrium & Holstein, 2009; Lerner, 1992). Gubrium and Hostein, for example,
highlighted that “stories aren’t simply conveyed, but they are given shape in the
course of social interaction” (p. 16). Potter and Edwards (1999) argued that analyses
often fail to address the activities (e.g., accusation, justification, refusal, request) done
by people in telling stories. Riessman (2005) similarly discussed the “danger of over-
personalising the personal narrative” (p. 6).
FOCUS In this article we propose that the integration of narrative and discursive forms
of inquiry, if epistemologically affordable, can be fruitful, particularly for conducting
“interactional” analyses of narratives. ARGUE Although narrative inquiry
contextualizes the sense-making process by focusing on the storyteller and, in some
cases, taking into account the role of the audience as a shaper of narrative (e.g.,
Riessman, 2008; Riley & Hawe, 2005), it often lacks the means for explicating the
details of how narrative structures and the context of storytelling are produced
through talk and writing (Atkinson, 1997), which discursive forms of inquiry can offer.
OUTLINE? As an illustration of this discursive narrative approach we explore the
construction of autobiographical accounts, focusing on narrative sequences.
Discursive Narrative Analysis: A Study of Online Autobiographical Accounts of Self-Injury
Olga Sutherland, Andrea V. Breen, and Stephen P. Lewis
The Qualitative Report 2013 Volume 18, Article 95, 1-17 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/sutherland95.pdf

Over the past decade, there has been a striking renewal of interest in the analysis of social class
inequality, driven by accumulating evidence of escalating social inequalities, notably with respect to
wealth and income, but also around numerous social and cultural indicators, such as mortality rates,
educational attainment, housing conditions and forms of leisure participation (e.g. Bennett et al., 2008;
Dorling, 2011; Hills, 2010; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2008). Theoretically, this interest has been influenced
by the deployment of Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual armoury to elaborate a model of class linked not
exclusively to employment inequalities, but to the interplay between economic, social and cultural
capital (see Bennett et al., 2008; Crompton, 2008; Savage, 2010; Savage et al., 2005). This current of
work, sometimes called ‘cultural class analysis’ (Atkinson, 2010) has cross-fertilised with feminist
currents (e.g. Adkins and Skeggs, 2005; Skeggs, 1997) to champion multi-dimensional approaches to
the analysis of stratification (Yuval-Davis, 2011).
This article contributes to this current interest by elaborating a new model of social class which shows
how measures of economic, cultural and social capital can be combined to provide a powerful way of
mapping contemporary class divisions in the UK. We analyse the largest survey of social class ever
conducted in the UK, the BBC’s Great British Class Survey (GBCS), a web survey with the unusually high
number of 161,400 respondents, complemented by a parallel national representative survey. Using
these two surveys in tandem allows us to provide unusual detail on the link between class and specific
occupational, educational and geographical profiles which offer unparalleled insights into the
organisation of class inequality in 2011–12. We will show that although a large ‘rump’ of the
established middle (or ‘service’) class, and the traditional working class exists, there are five other
classes which fit less easily into this conventional sociological framing, and which reveal the extent of
social polarisation and class fragmentation in contemporary Britain.
Our analysis proceeds in five steps. Firstly, we discuss how our analysis represents a new phase in class
analysis. Secondly, we introduce the two surveys. Thirdly, we explain our measures of economic,
cultural and social capital. Fourthly, and most importantly, we explain how we combined our measures
of the three capitals, using latent class analysis, to generate our new model of social class. Finally, we
describe and explicate each of our seven classes, showing how they intersect with age and gender
divisions, drawing out their specific occupational and educational profiles. In our conclusion we draw
out our findings for the analysis of social class.
Mike Savage, Fiona Devine, Niall Cunningham, Mark Taylor, Yaojun Li, Johs Hjellbrekke, Brigitte Le Roux, Sam Friedman, and Andrew Miles
A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment
Sociology April 2013 47: 219-250

LOCATE Over the past decade, there has been a striking renewal of interest in the analysis of social
class inequality, driven by accumulating evidence of escalating social inequalities, notably with respect
to wealth and income, but also around numerous social and cultural indicators, such as mortality rates,
educational attainment, housing conditions and forms of leisure participation (e.g. Bennett et al., 2008;
Dorling, 2011; Hills, 2010; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2008). Theoretically, this interest has been influenced
by the deployment of Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual armoury to elaborate a model of class linked not
exclusively to employment inequalities, but to the interplay between economic, social and cultural
capital (see Bennett et al., 2008; Crompton, 2008; Savage, 2010; Savage et al., 2005). This current of
work, sometimes called ‘cultural class analysis’ (Atkinson, 2010) has cross-fertilised with feminist
currents (e.g. Adkins and Skeggs, 2005; Skeggs, 1997) to champion multi-dimensional approaches to
the analysis of stratification (Yuval-Davis, 2011).
FOCUS This article contributes to this current interest by elaborating a new model of social class which
shows how measures of economic, cultural and social capital can be combined to provide a powerful
way of mapping contemporary class divisions in the UK. We analyse the largest survey of social class
ever conducted in the UK, the BBC’s Great British Class Survey (GBCS), a web survey with the unusually
high number of 161,400 respondents, complemented by a parallel national representative survey.
Using these two surveys in tandem allows us to provide unusual detail on the link between class and
specific occupational, educational and geographical profiles which offer unparalleled insights into the
organisation of class inequality in 2011–12. ARGUE/EXPAND We will show that although a large ‘rump’
of the established middle (or ‘service’) class, and the traditional working class exists, there are five
other classes which fit less easily into this conventional sociological framing, and which reveal the
extent of social polarisation and class fragmentation in contemporary Britain.
OUTLINE Our analysis proceeds in five steps. Firstly, we discuss how our analysis represents a new
phase in class analysis. Secondly, we introduce the two surveys. Thirdly, we explain our measures of
economic, cultural and social capital. Fourthly, and most importantly, we explain how we combined our
measures of the three capitals, using latent class analysis, to generate our new model of social class.
Finally, we describe and explicate each of our seven classes, showing how they intersect with age and
gender divisions, drawing out their specific occupational and educational profiles. In our conclusion we
draw out our findings for the analysis of social class.
Mike Savage, Fiona Devine, Niall Cunningham, Mark Taylor, Yaojun Li, Johs Hjellbrekke, Brigitte Le Roux, Sam Friedman, and Andrew Miles
A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment
Sociology April 2013 47: 219-250

Some approaches to Introductions
• Narrative – a vignette from your data
• Media headlines
• Quotations from your data or from relevant literature
• A lively and provocative proposition
• A succinct summary of a current problem or puzzle
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS FIRST TIME ROUND.
You need to get the content of the Introduction sorted
and you can finesse the very opening sentences in second
and third drafts. However, some people do find that
getting the introduction and title going in the right
direction in a first iteration sets the tone, and creates the
‘voice’, for the rest of the writing.