Academic Communication in English Introduction

Purposes Be familiar with the 3 moves in an introduction and learn how to write an introduction for the paper Compare and find out the difference between the abstract and the introduction 2 1

Introduction Questions: 1) How is the introduction of a research paper different from that of an essay? 2) What are the three moves in an research paper introduction?

Introduction 1) Over the past 20 years, psychologists have cataloged a long list of differences between East and West. Western culture is more individualistic and analytic-thinking, whereas East Asian culture is more interdependent and holistic- thinking. Analytic thought uses abstract categories and formal reasoning, such as logical laws of non contradiction —if A is true, then “not A” is false. Holistic thought is more intuitive and sometimes even embraces contradiction— both A and “not A” can be true. 2) Even though psychology has cataloged a long list of East-West differences, it still lacks an accepted explanation of what causes these differences. 3) Building on subsistence style theory, we offer the rice theory of culture and compare it with the modernization hypothesis and the more recent pathogen prevalence theory.

Three moves in an introduction: A a. showing that research is important and interesting b. introducing items of previous research Establishing a research territory (Background) B a. indicating a gap in the previous research b. raising a question Establishing a niche (Problem) C a. stating the purpose or nature of research b. formulating the thesis c. providing the structure Occupying the niche (Purpose, thesis, structure)

Introduction sample 1) Heterosexual HIV-1 transmission is an inefficient process with rates reported at <1% per unprotected sexual exposure. When transmission occurs, systemic infection is typically established by a single genetic variant, taken from the swarm of genetically distinct viruses circulating in the donor. 2)Whether that founder virus represents a chance event or was systematically favored is unclear. 3) Our work has tested a central hypothesis that founder virus selection is biased toward certain genetic characteristics. (Source: Nuno, et al Science 346) Compare to the abstract of the same paper

Abstract: 1) Thirty years after the discovery of HIV-1, 2)the early transmission, dissemination, and establishment of the virus in human populations remain unclear. 3) Using statistical approaches applied to HIV-1 sequence data from central Africa, 4) we show that from the 1920s Kinshasa (in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was the focus of early transmission and the source of pre pandemic 流行病 viruses elsewhere. Location and dating estimates were validated using the earliest HIV-1 archival sample, also from Kinshasa. The epidemic histories of HIV-1 group M and nonpandemic group O were similar until ~1960, after which group M underwent an epidemiological transition and outpaced regional population growth. 5) Our results reconstruct the early dynamics of HIV-1 and emphasize the role of social changes and transport networks in the establishment of this virus in human populations.

Task Compare and contrast the abstract and the introduction from the same paper and find out the differences. Examples

Introduction Difference between an abstract and an introduction: Research background The purpose of research The thesis The method(s) and the result(s) The conclusion The wording should be different for similar contents in an abstract and an introduction. is more detailed in an introduction than in an abstract. is stated in both the abstract and the introduction. is stated in an introduction but not in an abstract. are indispensable in an abstract but they do not appear in an introduction. should be given in an abstract but not in an introduction.

Homework 1. Finish tasks of Chapters 6 2. Go on reading for research 3. Write the introduction for your research paper