Academic Research Booklet

24

Introduction A good introduction will summarise the main points that will be explored in the essay and why those points were essential to answering the question. The introduction should include your methodology or ‘approach to research’. This is where you will refer to specific resources, usually two or three that you leant on most heavily. For some essays you may have an entire methodology section (usually in science based essays) or literature review which will expand the methodology further (included in an EPQ), in this case you do not need to include the information in your introduction. Your teacher or supervisor will advise on a separate methodology section if needed. See page 25 for more on including your methodology in the introduction, and page 26 on for more on writing a literature review. The introduction should include direct reference to the essay question; for an EE the question must be included in full and highlighted in bold. For an EPQ including the question in full isn’t a requirement but is good practice.

The introduction should include a short paragraph beginning, ‘This question/ topic is worthy of investigation because…’