Writing Introductions and Conclusions

Introductions and Conclusions are extremely important chapters in your thesis and it is important that you conceive of them together; they have a complementary function and it is often the case that your examiner will read these sections in tandem. While you will start drafting your Introduction much earlier than your Conclusion, the sections need to inform and mirror each other.

Writing Introductions

Your introduction is one of the first things that your examiner will read, so it’s a very important piece of your thesis.

 

Purpose

Before writing any section of your thesis, it is important that you have a clear sense of the purpose of each section. There are three key things you need to do in your Introduction:

• Identify the rationale for your research - the justification for carrying out the study.
• Locate your research within the wider field of your subject.
• Orient the reader about what to expect.

 

Key moves

Another way of thinking about the purpose of an Introduction is to consider the key moves you need to make in writing it.

• Establish the context (‘set the scene’).
• Identify a gap in the research.
• Demonstrate how your research fills the gap.

 

What to include

Many Introductions include the following elements, although the list is not meant to be prescriptive and will depend on the nature of your project.

• Contextual and background information about the field and the topic (broad).
• Focussed discussion of issues related to the current research (narrow).
• Research gap.
• Research question/s and aims.
• Main argument.
• Rationale or justification for the research.
• Scope of the research.
• Outline of structure of thesis.

 

Further options

Depending on your discipline and the nature of your project, you MAY also include the following:

• Definitions of key terms and concepts.
• Overview of theoretical framework.
• Outline of methodology.
• Literature Review.
• Chapter Summaries.

 

Multiple levels of Introduction

Remember that your first chapter is not the only time you will need to use an Introduction. These will occur in each chapter and sometimes even in new substantial chapter sections. You will be using the same skills and approach for the latter, but you will become increasingly more specific about what you say.

• Level 1: Thesis Introduction
• Level 2: Chapter Introduction
• Level 3: Section Introduction

 

Engaging Openings

The introduction is a place where you should aim to invite your reader into your thesis with an enticing and engaging opening - a 'hook' to pique your reader's interest from the outset. There is often room for more creativity in your Introduction than in other sections, so try out some of the following:

• Use an epigraph – a short quote at the beginning of the chapter – to hint at the themes and ideas to come.
• Pose a question for your reader. If you do this, it is important to answer it as well; overuse of rhetorical questions is discouraged.
• Start with a personal anecdote. Giving your reader a sense of your personal investment in the research helps them see you as a person.
• Tell a story. Some kind of narrative that frames your research for the reader can also be a good hook.

 

Getting started

If you’re not sure where to start, try answering these prompts in 50 words or less:

• My research question is…
• To date, researchers have focused on…
• They argue that…
• Debates centre on the issue of…
• There is still work to be done on…

 

Tips

• Draft the Introduction early in your candidature and return to it often.
• Be prepared to revisit, rewrite or even restart your Introduction once your thesis has taken shape.
• Remember: the Introduction needs to reflect what you actually did (which is not always what you set out to do!)
• The Introduction and Conclusion chapters MUST work together, so once you have drafted both, edit them together to ensure cohesion.

Writing Conclusions

Conclusions are usually one of the last chapters to be drafted and are often shorter than other chapters in a thesis. However, they are more than a simple summary of your thesis. It is important that you allow enough time and cognitive space for this important section. It does need to be carefully crafted so that you leave your examiner absolutely convinced about your message and what you have done.

 

Purpose

There are two main things you need to achieve in your Conclusion:

• Demonstrate that you have achieved the aims/answered the research questions outlined in your Introduction.
• Demonstrate your contribution to knowledge in the field.

 

Lead with research

It is important that you frame your Conclusion around the research that you have done and what you have found, and that this mirrors what you wrote in the Introduction.

Mirror the Introduction

• Set out your aims/research questions in the Introduction and return to them in the Conclusion.
  • e.g. This is what this thesis will do/This is what this thesis has done.
  • Consider putting your aims/research questions in the same order in your Introduction and Conclusion.
• Read your Introduction and Conclusion in tandem – do they match?
  • Repeat key words or phrases, but don’t copy/paste entire sentences.
• Try to revise/edit the Introduction and Conclusion at the same time.

 

Key moves

In planning your conclusion, you should seek to answer these questions:

• What have you found?
• What are your claims/arguments?
• What are the implications of this?

 

What to Include

• Restate the aims and research question(s)
• Summarise your main findings
• State your contribution to the field and its significance
• Acknowledge any limitations
• Outline the implications of your findings (for theory/practice/further research)
• Provide recommendations for further research (what do we still need to know?)

 

Your 'Contribution'

Your contribution is your answer(s) to the research question(s)

• Consider the relationship between your findings and the literature: how do your findings expand on or depart from what is already known about your topic?
• What do we now know about this topic because your thesis exists? Why is this significant?

 

Getting Started

Use these prompts to get you started.

• What have I found?
• Why does it matter?
• What do I know now that I didn’t know before?
• What should we do with this new knowledge?

 

Tips

• Allow enough time and enough words
• Repeat key words/phrases from the concluding sections of earlier chapters
• Be definitive where you can, but do use tentative language to avoid overstating/overgeneralising your findings and claims
  • e.g. “This suggests that…” , “One interpretation of this is…”
• Position yourself as the expert that you are
• Capture the WHOLE project/thesis
• Conclude with a strong final sentence