Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Basic rules of writing
- 2 Comments on scientific language
- 3 Drafting the manuscript
- 4 Choosing a journal
- 5 Preparing a graph
- 6 How to design tables
- 7 Title
- 8 Authors
- 9 Abstract
- 10 Introduction
- 11 Methods
- 12 Results
- 13 Discussion
- 14 Acknowledgments
- 15 References
- 16 Numbers
- 17 Abbreviations
- 18 Common statistical errors
- 19 Typing
- 20 The covering letter
- 21 Dealing with editors and referees
- 22 Correcting proofs
- 23 Authors' responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
10 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Basic rules of writing
- 2 Comments on scientific language
- 3 Drafting the manuscript
- 4 Choosing a journal
- 5 Preparing a graph
- 6 How to design tables
- 7 Title
- 8 Authors
- 9 Abstract
- 10 Introduction
- 11 Methods
- 12 Results
- 13 Discussion
- 14 Acknowledgments
- 15 References
- 16 Numbers
- 17 Abbreviations
- 18 Common statistical errors
- 19 Typing
- 20 The covering letter
- 21 Dealing with editors and referees
- 22 Correcting proofs
- 23 Authors' responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
Summary
Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park and many other bestsellers, has a background in medicine. He once wrote the following introduction for a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1975):
Most medical communications are difficult to read. To determine why, contributions to three issues of the New england Journal of Medicine were studied and the prose analyzed.
Chrichton's first sentence awakens interest. It is succinctly written in only seven words. The entire section is short – a mere three lines long, and not a word needs to be added.
Here is another fine introduction, to a paper published in the BMJ (McGarry 1994):
Nose bleeds in adults are the commonest reason for emergency admission to an otolaryngology ward, but the cause of the condition remains unknown. Case reports suggest an association between nose bleeds and regular, high alcohol consumption.
We conducted a prospective case–control study to compare the alcohol habits of adults with nose bleeds with those of controls being treated for other otorhinolaryngological conditions.
This introduction, like many other well-written introductions, includes a brief description of three items:
(1) the problem studied or the hypothesis to be tested;
(2) specific findings by others that you are challenging or have developed in the study you are now presenting;
(3) the main features of the methods you have used.
The first point of the list should be followed by a reference to a carefully selected and recently published review article.
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- How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper , pp. 54 - 55Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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