This document provides guidance on writing the introduction chapter of a thesis. The introduction has two parts: a general introduction to the topic and the thesis statement. An introduction should introduce the topic, demonstrate the relevance of the study, present the current scientific situation through a literature review, state the objective and research questions, and briefly describe the research design and thesis outline. While there is no set length, an introduction for a 5-page paper would be half a page and longer for longer papers. The introduction sets up the thesis and engages the reader in the topic.

1. How to write Introduction of
Thesis
Dr. Ghizal Fatima
Assistant Professor,
Department of Biotechnology
ERA’S LUCKNOW MEDICAL COLLEGE AND
HOSPITAL
LUCKNOW, INDIA
GHIZALFATIMA8@GMAIL.COM

2. Introduction is the first chapter of your thesis.
It has two parts:
1. A general introduction to the topic
2. Your Thesis Statement

3. • What should be included in the introduction?
• The introductory paragraph should include
the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline
for the paper: it tells the reader what the
thesis is about. The last sentence of this
paragraph must also contain a transitional
"hook" which moves the reader to the first
paragraph of the body of the paper.

4. • How long is an introduction for a thesis?
• There is no rule for exactly how long an
introduction should be. You must consider the
length of your overall paper when writing your
introduction. An appropriate length for a five-
page is about half a page, but if you are
writing a 40-page paper, your introduction will
span several pages and multiple paragraphs.

5. • Introductions can be tricky.
• Because the introduction is the first portion of
your thesis that the reader encounters.
• A good introduction presents a broad
overview of your topic and your thesis, and
should convince the reader that it is worth
their time to actually read the rest of your
thesis.

6. Start your introduction broad, but not
too broad.
• Your introduction should provide the reader
with a sense of what they should expect out
of your essay, not to expound upon every
piece of knowledge ever developed by man.
Go ahead and start relatively broad, then
narrow to your thesis, but make sure you’re
still on topic.

7. • The introduction is the first chapter of your
thesis and thus is the starting point of your
thesis.
• You describe the topic of your thesis,
• formulate the problem statement
• and write an overview of your thesis.

8. Purpose of Introduction
• Introduce the topic. What is the purpose of
the study and what is the topic?
• Gain the reader’s interest. Make sure that you
get the reader’s attention by using clear
examples from recent research.
• Demonstrate the relevance of the
study. Convince the reader of the scientific
and practical relevance.

9. Parts of the Introduction
A clear introduction often consists of the
following parts
• Motivation
• relevance of the research
• Current scientific situation (Put review of
Literature)
• Objective of the study
• Brief description of the research design

10. Motivation (Problem indication)
• What is the motive for your research? This can
be a recent research or something that has
always interested you. By choosing an
interesting example, the reader is immediately
encouraged to read the rest of your
introduction.

11. Relevance of the research
• Using arguments, state the scientific relevance
of your research. You can do this by citing
scientific articles and combining them.
• Also, highlight here the discussion chapters of
studies that you are going to use for your own
research.
• Next, explain how your work will benefit the
patients, importance of your research.

12. Scientific validity related to the
theme of your research
• In this element of the introduction, you will
specify the most important scientific
articles that relate to your topic and you
briefly explain them.
• Thus, you show that many studies have been
conducted around the topic, and that you
won’t get stuck due to finding too little
information on your topic.

13. Objective, problem statement and
research questions
• In this part, you describe the objective of your
study and the problem statement that you have
formulated.
• Pay attention: there is a difference between the
objective and the problem statement. To answer
the problem statement, you can use research
questions.
• These are sometimes also called sub-questions. If
you use hypotheses instead of research
questions, you can also note them here.

14. • The basis of the hypotheses is the conceptual
framework.
• However, sometimes you are not yet able to
formulate hypotheses, because you are first
going to conduct a literature review.
• In this case you develop the hypotheses and
the conceptual framework later, after
the literature review.

15. Brief description of the research
design
• Later in your research, you develop
the research design in detail. However, in the
introduction you also provide a brief summary
of your research design. How, where, when
and with whom are you going to conduct your
research?

16. Thesis outline
• Here, you briefly describe how your thesis is
constructed.
• Summarize each chapter briefly in one
paragraph at the most, but preferably in one
sentence.
• Make sure your thesis outline is not
repetitively phrased because it does not vary
its word choice.

17. Begin with your thesis
• Often, the research proposal or the action
plan is a good start for writing your
introduction.
• You will notice that you already have written
many parts of the introduction in your thesis.

18. • Although the introduction is at the beginning of
your thesis, this placement doesn’t mean that
you must finish the introduction before you can
start the rest of your chapters.
• The further you get in your research, the easier it
will be to write a good introduction that is to the
point.
• Thus, it’s no disaster if you can’t write a perfect
introduction right away. Take up the introduction
again at a later time and keep writing and editing
until you arrive at a nice whole Introduction

19. Verb tenses
• To introduce your subject and indicate what
you wish to discuss, you should use the simple
present tense.
• Background information is written in
the simple past tense or present perfect tense.

20. Length of the introduction
• There are no specific requirements with regard to
the length of your introduction. Thus, there’s no
need to squeeze everything together on just one
page, like with the abstract.
• But you do need to write to the point. Don’t
repeat yourself and only write down what’s
actually important to introduce your topic and
research.

21. Checklist: Introduction
• The introduction of the research is written with a stimulating topic.
• The topic is limited.
• The scientific relevance is demonstrated (not applicable to all
theses).
• The practical relevance is demonstrated.
• The most important scientific articles about the topic are
summarized (not applicable to all theses).
• The objective is formulated.
• The problem statement is formulated.
• The conceptual framework is determined.*
• The research questions or hypotheses are formulated.**
• The research design is described briefly.
• The thesis overview is added.

22. • Basically, a good introduction provides the
reader with a brief overview of your topic and
an explanation of your thesis.
• A good introduction is fresh, engaging, and
interesting.
• Successful introductions don’t rely on
irrelevant information to demonstrate their
point.
• Be brief, be concise, be engaging.