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The introduction directly follows the abstract. Here, the author provides background on the research problem. You will find a description of the relevant research (this is the researcher’s literature search) and how it logically leads to the research being reported in the article. Usually, near the end of the introduction, you will find a description of the research hypothesis of the author. Again, for information on writing an introduction, see Chapter 14.

Knez’s (2001) article mentioned in the previous section has an introduction with a typical layout. He begins with a general statement about the state of knowledge in the research area. He then presents a discussion of the previous research, organized by variables. He describes the various independent variables that have been identified as important and discusses various confounding variables and how these should be controlled. He also discusses a theoretical framework that is based largely on his own research. And, finally, he defines the purpose of the present research, how it will solve some of the problems identified in the literature review, and why it is important.

Before we continue to a discussion of the method section, it is probably a good idea to review the types of variables you will read about in the introduction of many research articles.