How to write an introduction to a diploma paper

By
Marcelino
-
0
2486

Every student must know how to write and format the introduction to the diploma. Where to start, what to write about? How to formulate the relevance, goals, and objectives? What is the difference between the object and subject of the study? Detailed answers to all your questions – are in this article.

Structure and content of the diploma thesis introduction

The first thing to know is that all introductions to research papers are the same.

It does not matter if you study technical, natural science, or humanitarian specialties at a university or college.

You have already had to write the introduction to term papers and essays, which means you will easily cope with the task.

According to the writers of the top dissertation writing services, obligatory for the introduction to the diploma structural elements are the same: the topic, relevance, hypothesis, object and subject, purpose and objectives, research methods, scientific novelty and practical significance, the structure of the thesis, intermediate and final conclusions, prospects for the development of the topic.

Let’s talk about the subtleties and secrets that will help to make an excellent introduction.

Subtleties and secrets that will help to make an excellent introduction

Relevance

The study’s relevance should always be present, and it only remains to identify it correctly. To do this, answer five questions:

– What topic are you working on, and why did you choose it? How fully is it studied and described in the scientific literature, and what aspects remain uncovered?
– What is the peculiarity of your material? Has it been researched before?
– What new things related to your topic have appeared in recent years?
– To whom can your diploma be practical? All people, members of certain professions, perhaps people with disabilities or those living in remote areas?
– What specific problems does the work help to solve – environmental, social, industrial, general scientific?

Write down the answers, give objective arguments, and it will turn out that the relevance of research – is not only in your interest (to master the necessary knowledge and skills for the specialty and successfully demonstrate them in the defense) but also in scientific novelty, or practical relevance.

In favor of the significance of your work, you can cite experts’ opinions, refer to scientific monographs and articles, statistics, scientific tradition, and the needs of production.

Hypothesis

A hypothesis is an assumption that will be confirmed or disproved during the work.

For example, when studying the percentage of positive decisions on lawsuits, it is possible to predict whether it will be low or high and why.

If the civil lyrics of a specific area are studied, it is possible to predict what themes will sound in it and in what language the poems are written. When introducing new technology into production, the hypothesis will be the possibility of its development and use.

A little trick: you can finish the hypothesis after the findings, fitting it to them. But do not try to do the opposite: by any means trying to confirm an erroneous hypothesis, squeezing and twisting the material to fit it. Such a thesis will “burst at the seams”: inconsistencies, logical violations, and substitution of facts will be immediately apparent.

If the hypothesis is not confirmed, it does not mean the study is done poorly or incorrectly. On the contrary, such paradoxical conclusions, not evident before the beginning of the work, are its “highlight,” opening even more space for science and setting the vector of work for the future.

Goals and tasks

It is essential to distinguish between the goal and tasks of the thesis.

There can be only one goal, and the whole project is devoted to it. It is not difficult to define the goal: substitute the necessary verb for the topic formulation, then match the endings – and the goal is ready.

For example:

– Topic: Analysis of settlements with the personnel on payment for labor in LLC “Emerald City.” Object: To analyze and classify the settlements with the personnel on the payroll in LLC “Emerald City.”
– Topic: Algorithm for diagnosing the system against icing during the flight. Object: To develop an algorithm for analyzing the system against icing during flight.

Tasks are the steps you will take to achieve the goal. The tasks are derived from the structure of the diploma project, their optimal number – 4-6 items:

– To consider the theoretical aspects of the topic (first chapter, subsection – background).
– To give a characteristic of the object of research (the second subsection of the first chapter, application of the general theory to your specific case).
– To collect and systematize the material, to conclude (the second chapter begins, in which there is a sequential study of the subject in the aspect of interest to you).
– Develop, make calculations, and make predictions (the practical importance of the diploma project, the second subsection of the second chapter – practical work).

The researchers from the best writing services recommend keeping the wording clear and concise. One task – one sentence, 7-10 words. Do not use ornate grammatical constructions, in the harmonization of which you can get confused. Do not forget that you will have to read the goals and objectives out loud in defense of your diploma.

Subject and Object

Figuring out how an object differs from a subject is a simple example: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Imagine that your research is devoted to this ancient joke question. If the hen was the first, it is the object, and the egg is only a subject, one of the properties of the hen (the ability to reproduce by laying eggs).

If there used to be an egg, the object of study is the egg as a phenomenon of objective reality, and the subject is animals and birds that hatch from eggs, revealing its property to serve as a “home” for growing embryos.

In other words, the object is always broader than the subject, which reveals only one side, some properties of the object of study.

It is impossible to cover the whole object. It is a piece of objective reality that exists independently of our consciousness.

We can observe the objects’ properties and take them as the subject of study.

For example:

– object is the fruit of different varieties of oranges; the subject is the concentration of vitamin C;
– object – energy-saving technologies; the subject – their suitability for the USA;
– object – the human eye; the subject – the structure of the iris in infants;
– object – larch genome; the subject – the bases encoding parallel traits;
– object – Bio Eco House LLC; the subject – accounting records.

Research Methods

A method is a way of influencing a subject, a technology for studying and describing it.

The secret of good research is based on three pillars: the right problem, the right method, and the right application of the method to the problem.

There are two groups of methods:

– General scientific, which are used in all fields of knowledge. These include analysis, synthesis, observation, experience, induction, and deduction.
– The methods of individual sciences. For example, for linguistics, the methods are a comparative-historical method, linguistic reconstruction, distributive analysis, methods of cognitive linguistics, and hermeneutics.

 

Try to use methods from both groups in your diploma: general, mathematical, sociological, and literary – depending on the specialty.

Scientific novelty and practical relevance

This final part of the introduction echoes the relevance, revealing and complementing it. Thus a circular composition is created, strictly and beautifully framing the content.

Scientific novelty emphasizes the new brought by your theoretical research provisions that have not been recorded before. For example, a pattern, hypothesis, principle, or concept deduced by the author.

Practical significance – developed by the author of the rules, recommendations, advice, methods, means, requirements, and additions, which the author proposes to implement in production.

How to write an introduction

The introduction precedes the diploma structurally and chronologically: it is written immediately after the contents.

After the research has been done, it will be necessary to return to the text of the introduction, supplementing and correcting it, taking into account the progress of the work and the conclusions reached.

Do not forget that all the tasks in the introduction must be solved!

The algorithm, how to write the introduction:

1. Make a plan, and highlight the obligatory structural blocks (they are listed above).
2. Rewrite word for word the approved topic of research, and formulate with its help the purpose.
3. Outline the relevance, scientific novelty, and practical significance, and distinguish them from each other, so as not to repeat.
4. Based on the content, set the tasks the author will solve in work.
5. Propose a hypothesis.
6. Distinguish and spell out the object and the subject.
7. Write out the methods, and think which of them will be suitable for the study of the subject.
8. Describe the structure of the work, sections, and subsections.
9. When the study is complete, go back to the introduction, and add a summary of the sections and their conclusions.
10. Outline further perspectives opened to you as you work on the diploma.

The main mistakes in writing an introduction

Carefully check that all mandatory elements of the introduction are present without repeating each other. To avoid confusion, carefully examine the distinction between purpose and tasks, object and subject, topic and purpose, and relevance and purpose.

The second important point – is not to write unnecessary things. Remember that the introduction does not repeat the central part but describes the study and gives it a methodological description. The content of the chapters is displayed literally in 2-3 sentences. 

Third, pay special attention to the design of the text. Check every point, capital letter, and each detail down to the number of lines on the last page (the text should look nice).

Remember that the introduction to your thesis will be used to judge the quality of your thesis project as a whole. If the introduction is not designed correctly, the diploma gets a big minus and goes for revision.