The art of writing an
introduction—for thesis and
papers
Dr. Corum
An introduction should do the
following things:
•
•
•
•
•
Tell the reader simply and clearly what the subject is.
Tell the reader why the subject is important
Tell the reader how you are going to approach the subject i.e. the
methodology of the author. There are several elements to this. What
questions is the author going to ask? What questions will not be asked?
The material that the author will use. How the material is pertinent to the
subject. What books/secondary sources will be used and why they will be
used. In short, the reader ought to know that the work is based on
serious research. This establishes the author’s credibility.
How the thesis is an original contribution. The author ought to briefly
review the major literature on the subject and explain how this work is not
covered by existing works. For example, the author might use well-known
material and ask new questions or approach an old subject with new
questions. Perhaps the author is using new material. In any case, this
part explains the need for this particular work.
The author expresses his goal in writing the thesis. This could be
developing ideas to help determine doctrine or to see if a better way
might be found to solve an acknowledged problem.
A few other rules: Mostly about
argumentation.
• Do NOT frontload your thesis. I.e. “This thesis is to tell
the world that the USAF ought to get 99% of defense
spending”. If you start your research with a conclusion
and then gear all of your work to proving your
conclusion- then you will have no credibility.
• You should not be absolutely sure of your conclusion
when you start your thesis. A really good thesis is one
that objectively analyzes the material and often leads the
author into ideas, solutions and conclusions that he
never expected when he started. If the material shows
that some of the author’s preconceived notions are
faulty, then the author ought to follow the evidence and
revise his thinking.
Use proper argumentation
• Do not set up a straw man – some unnamed people who
have dumb ideas – and characterize the opposition as
such. It’s phony to shoot down a straw man.
• Avoid sweeping language and generalities. Please.
• Opposing arguments need to be examined in turn,
objectively analyzed and their strong and weak points
noted. A thesis that openly and objectively deals with
different approaches in a fair manner and borrows good
ideas from the various approaches is one that will have a
lot of credibility.
• The author needs to discuss the strong and weak
aspects of his approach to the subject.
chapters
• A thesis should be about 5-6 chapters –
with the first chapter being the
introduction, the next 3 chapters the
examination of evidence and arguments
and the final chapter being the author’s
conclusion. In fact, the conclusion ought
to flow from the evidence and
argumentation of the previous three
chapters.
A few points on writing an
introduction for a BDCOL paper.
• A standard 10-page paper ought to have a
one-page introduction. Try for three
paragraphs. The first paragraph should be
short and snappy and be no longer than 4
sentences. You can go into detail in the
2nd paragraph.
More on Introduction
• The main points in introducing an essay or
paper are the same as the main points of a
thesis introduction: Tell the reader what you are
going to write about, Tell the reader how you will
approach the subject, i.e.—what questions are
you going to ask, what framework you will use
etc. .
• Then you will point out the expected result of
your paper—come to some lessons about
leadership, decision making effectiveness etc.
• As with a thesis intro—do NOT tell the reader up
front what the conclusions are.
Simple
• The conclusion should be about 1 page.
Keep it direct and simple. For example,
“there are three major lessons to be
learned about organizational decision
making from studying the air war over
Kosovo in 1999…”. Then discuss each in
turn.
Other tips
• One trick I have leaned in making the transition to
different themes in a paper is to use subheadings. I
assure you, the reader finds it helpful.
• A final tip. From now on—try NOT to write a paper solely
for the course director. Think of a broader audience
(USAF field grade officers or airlifters or whatever) and
explain the subject in a manner that someone who had
not taken the course can understand. It’s good practice
to learn to write for a broad audience. Learn to do that
well and you might get a few things published.
•