3d. Draft your Opening

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Section Summary	Opening
Length:	≈1 page for draft
	≈1/2 page for final version
Section title:	none
Position:	After the Title page; before the General Background
Main question to answer:	Why is it important to study this research problem?
Reading strategy:	Look for statistics on how many people are affected or how much money is spent to solve this problem; Look in first paragraph of experimental articles for other reasons

The “opening” of the Lit Review is usually the first half page or first full page of a research paper, in which the author mentions the research problem and explains why it is important for researchers to study this problem. Note that this section is about ALL research on this problem, not an attempt to say why this particular experiment or your research is important. This is very important! It looks extremely unprofessional if you start to brag or glorify your own research.

Goals. The opening (which does not have a subheading) has two goals: make clear what problem you will research and convince the reader that this problem is important.

The opening is especially important if you are writing a proposal where you are asking for funding or other support, if you want the research report to be accepted for presentation or for publication, etc. You might call it the “marketing” section of the paper, where you “sell” the research. Assuming that a problem is inherently or obviously interesting or important is very often FATAL to a research project, just as it is to a product, company, or service in business.

There are at least four ways that a good research problem can be “interesting” or “important”.

• A clear answer to the problem can help people solve some practical problem. Can we improve something or solve some pressing problem with the results of this kind of study? How many people will benefit if we have better information about this problem? Answers to questions like these provide what you can call the practical justification for a research problem.
• A clear answer to the problem can help people understand better how the process works. Will we have answers that we did not have before? Answers to questions like this provide what you can call the theoretical justification for a research problem.
• Researching the problem will produce useful, new data. Will it be easier for other people to study this problem with your results (for example, your new data)? Answers to questions like this provide what you can call the empirical justification for a research problem.
• Researching the problem will produce useful, new information about the methods and techniques used. Will we know more about a particular research method after your study? Answers to questions like this provide what you can call the methodological justification for a research problem.

Note that different readers will think that one kind of justification is more important than another. Experimenters, for example, value highly the empirical and methodological justification of a research study. Theorists, on the other hand, pay more attention to the theoretical justification. Engineers, politicians, business people, and other non-researchers clearly pay much more attention to the practical justification of a research study. The more clearly you can develop all of these aspects of your justification, the stronger your research problem will be.

To develop these kinds of justification, you have to cite other researchers who have studied this or related problems, either using their arguments about why it is an important problem or using their results to show that some things are known and others are not. You need to cite others to give your point of view more credibility.

Reading Strategy. Work on the “definitely read” part of your pile of materials for the Opening. You may need to look for more sources. People often look in a wide range of sources, not just research journals, for information to put in the opening. For example, statistics about how many people are affected or how much money or time is spent dealing with a problem are powerful persuaders.

For this kind of information, you should not be reading articles, but skimming reports or summaries of data.

Research articles can also be helpful for the opening, as well, particularly if they deal with the same research problem. However, just look at the first half-page or so to see how other authors are convincing people that the problem is worth paying attention to. Sometimes, authors elaborate on the same points at the end of the discussion section, as well, so you can also look there.

Skip the rest of an article when you are looking for information to use in your opening.

Organization and what to talk about. Dive in! The very first sentence – the “hook” -- has to have a clear mention of the process or sub-process (and often of the factor(s)) and will say something clear and simple about how the understanding the process or the effects of the factors is important and what it’s important for. One strategy is to cite a list of reasons why it is important and then explain each reason separately in one of the following sentences. Another strategy is to show that not very much is known (or that there are divided opinions) about the particular sub-process or factor (therefore studying it is very important, to cover the gap in our knowledge).

Your next paragraphs will provide evidence (usually from published research) that what you say is reasonably true or at least believable. Offering opinions without evidence is, again, often FATAL for a research project. Evidence is basically specific information found in existing research: data, summarized results, consensus opinions, etc. but YOU have to explain why or how it is relevant for what you are saying. Relevance is never obvious. In sum, citing other sources is very important for this section. In addition, being clear about why you are citing them is also important.

See Sample Openings

Read this topic next: Draft the Closing Paragraph