1. Writing introductions
Session 8

2. Revisiting IMRaD, the structure of a report
General concern
Specific concern
provides a rationale for the paper, presents the particular question or hypothesis
Introduction (I)
describes methodology, materials, procedures
Methods and
materials (M)
describes findings, and comments those
Results (R)
Specific concern
General concern
Discussion and Conclusion (D)
an account of what has been found out 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
CHALMERS
Center for language and communication

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)
CHALMERS
Center for language and communication

5. Conclusions (so what?) Analysis Consequences
Reflection of the Purpose / the “message”
Echo of Introduction
CHALMERS
Center for language and communication

6. Introductions: a first exploration (10 minutes)
Read through the introduction you have been given
Try and think of 5 reasons why this is a good introduction!
Are there any reasons why this is a bad introduction?
Find a partner who has been working with the other example.
Report the qualities as well as the weaknesses of your example.
Make a decision about which text is the better one!
CHALMERS
Center for language and communication

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 g radutate 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 g gradutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

9. Move 1: Establishing a territory
The increasing interest in high angle-of-attack aerodynamics has heightened the need for computational tools suitable to predict the flowfield and aerodynamic coefficients in this regime. Of particular interest and complexity are the symmetric and asymmetric separated vortex flows which develop about slender bodies 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 g rgadutate students. The University of Michigan Press (p, 244)

11. Move 2: Establishing a niche
However, the previously mentioned methods suffer from some limitations mainly concerning the treatment of the vortex wake formation and its interaction with the body. The first group of methods (2-4) cannot treat 3D flows and is limited to very slender bodies. The second group of computational methods (5-8) is time consuming and therefore expensive, and its separation prediction is not sufficiently accurate….The steady 3D nonlinear vortex-lattice method, upon which the present method is based, eliminates many of these limitations by introducing a more consistent model, but it can treat only symmetrical 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-vortex cases, thus increasing the range of flow patterns that can be investigated. In addition, an effort is made to improve the numerical procedure to accelerate the convergence of the iterative solution and to get a better rollup of the vortex lines representing 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’
Intro
Methods
Results
Discussion
Present tense
high
low
Past tense
mid
Passives
varies
Citations
Qualifiers
Commentary
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:”
Past
Researcher as agent, single or specific studies
2. Present perfect
Research area of inquiry
3. Present
Current knowledge, no reference to research activity
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]”

18. Citing references Past – single study , often negative
”The causes of illiteracy were investigated by Jones (1997).”
Present perfect – area of inquiry
“It has been suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.1-4”
”Coronaviruses have been reported to be an important cause of pneumonia in military recruits, accounting for up to 30% of cases in some studies.9”
Present – current knowledge
“The previously known human coronaviruses, types 229E and OC43 are a major cause of the common cold.6”
“However, wild-type measles can infect the central nervous system and even cause postinfectious encephalomyelitis, probably as a result of an immune-mediated response to myelin proteins.7-9”