研究背景与引言

引言难写？收好这份2000字的教程

Yateendra Joshi

2019年03月29日 33.9万 views

本文将通过实际案例详细说明：引言部分哪些该留，哪些该舍，以及审稿人和编辑在引言中都看些什么。

引言的作用是什么？

简单来说，引言要能回答三个“为什么”

为什么要选择这个研究主题？
为什么这个研究问题很重要？
为什么你选择特定方式开展研究？

可以这么理解，引言指出了目前知识的空白，而这篇论文会填补这块空白。换言之，引言定义了研究范围。

引言还提供一些背景信息。叙述你考虑或提出的研究问题，然后简短地综述过去曾经尝试过方法。（在正文部分，再给出解决方案或者问题答案。）

虽说毕业论文通常会有一个独立的“Review of literature”章节，但研究论文中不会有，通常都是在引言部分进行文献综述。

构件好整个研究背景和框架，引言的最后要明确论文所呈现的研究，其实验或分析的目标。引言的结束部分应该包含论文里待解答的问题。

撰写引言四个步骤

一般来说，引言占整篇论文正文字数的10%，以4000字的论文来说，可以写成三个段落，共400字。

我们来看怎么逐步写出引言：

1. 提供背景信息

在引言的开头要先让读者准备好后续会看到的详细信息，所以一开始的几句话会比较概括。

比如：

土壤有机质相关的论文可以这么开头：Sustainable crop production is a function of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, which, in turn, are markedly affected by the organic matter in soil.
讨论细菌对治疗癌症的作用的文章，第一句可以这么写：The role of bacteria as anticancer agent was recognized almost hundred years back.
锂离子电池论文可以这么开场：The rapid growth of lithium ion batteries and their new uses, such as powering electric cars and storing electricity for grid supply, demands more reliable methods to understand and predict battery performance and life.

同时，开头陈述不能太过空泛，以上面的示例来说，引言开头并没有谈一般的农业、癌症或电池，而是提了土壤中的有机质、细菌的作用和锂离子电池。

在第一句话介绍了主题领域后，下一句可以指出明确的领域。你可能也注意到了，上面示例中的文章可以这样带出子领域：

remission of some types cancer following accidental infection by Streptococcus pyogenes
organic matter in soil as a source of nutrients for plants and of energy for microorganisms
imaging techniques to visualize the 3-dimensional structure of the materials and components of batteries on nanoscale

2. 介绍你的研究的明确主题，说明它的重要性

从上面的范例中，我们可以看到作者开始谈到关于研究的明确主题。那么接着下来，你就可以带进一些统计数据，阐述该主题的重要性，或是该问题的严重性。

比如：

预防疟疾的文章可以提出罹患疟疾的人数、每小时死亡人数或治疗疟疾的花费。
关于开发只需要少量的水就能种植的作物的文章，可以提及严重干旱的频率或是因为干旱造成收成减少。
探讨更有效率的大众运输方式的论文，可以提出因为汽车和机车所造成的空气污染程度，或是汽车数量与道路长度的比值变小。

另外一个强调研究主题重要性的方式，是叙述如果问题解决的话，可以带来哪些好处，如节省多少费用、更高的产能、更耐用的设备等等。

例如，与其说每年因为疟疾损失多少金额，不如换成如果能有效预防疟疾，一年可节省多少费用；或是减少灌溉可以节省多少公升的水；或是改善空气质量或减少空气污染可以避免每人多少小时的生病时间。

3. 提及过去曾经尝试过解决或回答该研究问题的工作

如同前面提到的，一篇研究论文的引言是没有空间进行正式的文献综述的，但可以指出早先的相关研究，说明你的研究跟过去有什么不一样。差异的部分可能很简单，你可能重复一样的实验，但使用不同的有机质，或是用更大更多样的样本，加上使用更先进的分析设备来详述研究，或是采用非常不同的地域设定。

下面提供两个范例：

Although these studies were valuable, they were undertaken when the draft genome sequence had not been available and therefore provide little information on the evolutionary and regulatory mechanisms.
Plant response is altered by insect colonization and behaviour but these aspects have been studied mostly in sole crops, whereas the present paper examines the relationship between crops and their pests in an intercropping system.

4. 以明确的研究目标结尾

以上提到的段落应当自然带出研究的明确目标。要注意，引言的这个部分要提供非常明确的信息，例如引言的开始部分可能已经提到控制疟疾的重要性，那么在引言总结的段落就可以说明使用了什么控制手段，使用哪些指标进行评估。同时，不要太过详细，因为更细节的部分要放在材料与方法里。

举例来说，如果你的研究是关于合金中两种金属的正确混合比例，你试了十种不同的比例，在引言里不用列出是哪十个比例，可以只说测试的比例范围为50:50至10:90。

下面再举两个例子：

We aimed to assess the effectiveness of four disinfection strategies on hospital-wide incidence of multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile
We aimed (1) to assess the epidemiological changes before and after the upsurge of scarlet fever in China in 2011; (2) to explore the reasons for the upsurge and the epidemiological factors that contributed to it; and (3) to assess how these factors could be managed to prevent future epidemics.

阐述研究目标的方式有很多种。问题、假设和使用不定式例举是比较常见的几种（上面两个范例都是不定式），每种方式示范如下：

问题

Do some genes in wheat form gene networks? If they do, to what extent as compared to rice?
Do the regulatory elements in the promoters of those genes display any conserved motifs?
Finally, and more specifically, do those genes in wheat display any tissue- or organ-specific expression pattern?

假设

We decided to test the following four hypotheses related to employees of information-technology companies:
H1: Career stages influence work values.
H2: Career stages influence the level of job satisfaction.
H3: Career stages do not influence organizational commitment.

使用不定式

To examine the response of Oryza sativa to four different doses of nitrogen in terms of 1) biomass production, 2) plant height, and 3) crop duration.’

最后的贴士：虽然引言是论文正文的第一个章节，但不一定一开始就写。你可以在写完论文的其他部分之后再来写，或是写完之后再回头修改这个部分。

意得辑专家视点相关推荐阅读：

参考资料

Araújo C G. 2014. Detailing the writing of scientific manuscripts: 25-30 paragraphs. Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia 102 (2): e21–e23
Boxman R and Boxman E. 2017. Communicating Science: a practical guide for engineers and physical scientists, pp. 7–9. Singapore: World Scientific. 276 pp.

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Here are two more examples:

‘We aimed to assess the effectiveness of four disinfection strategies on hospital-wide incidence of multidrug-resistant organisms andClostridium difficile’
‘We aimed (1) to assess the epidemiological changes before and after the upsurge of scarlet fever in China in 2011; (2) to explore the reasons for the upsurge and the epidemiological factors that contributed to it; and (3) to assess how these factors could be managed to prevent future epidemics.’

There are different ways of constructing the objectives. Using questions², hypotheses, and infinitives are the more common constructions (both examples in the previous paragraph use infinitives), each of which is illustrated below with some fictitious text:

Questions

‘Do some genes in wheat form gene networks? If they do, to what extent as compared to rice?’
‘Do the regulatory elements in the promoters of those genes display any conserved motifs?’
‘Finally, and more specifically, do those genes in wheat display any tissue- or organ-specific expression pattern?’

Hypotheses

‘We decided to test the following four hypotheses related to employees of information-technology companies:

H1: Career stages influence work values.

H2: Career stages influence the level of job satisfaction.

H3: Career stages do not influence organizational commitment.’

Using infinitives

‘To examine the response of Oryza sativa to four different doses of nitrogen in terms of 1) biomass production, 2) plant height, and 3) crop duration.’

Compared to two other sections of a typical research paper, namely Methods and Results, Introduction and Discussion are more difficult to write. However, the 4-step approach described in this article should ease the task.

A final tip: although the Introduction is the first section of the main text of your paper, you don’t have to write that section first. You can write it, or at least revise it, after you have written the rest of the paper: this will make the Introduction not only easier to write but also more compelling.

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