Composing A Perfect Research Paper Introduction In The MLA Format


One of the most important parts of your research paper is the introduction. It offers general information about the topic and prepares the readers for your ways of solving the problem. A perfect introduction has to meet certain requirements and capture the reader’s attention. Here are some tips that can help you do it right:

  1. Do the research first.
    • Write the introduction after you’ve finished with your paper. In this case you won’t need to change it each time your research changes direction.
    • Study the work of scientists who were interested in the same topic. You should think about how your research is different from the others. It has to be done from your own point of view and you need to emphasize that fact.
  2. Prepare the audience.
    • Give the information that will make the readers understand exactly what your paper is about and what its final goal is.
    • Highlight all the conditions and factors that influence your research, especially the negative ones.
    • Mention what results have you achieved.
  3. Make it comprehensive, but interesting.
    • Don’t write too many words. Your introduction should be short, clear and relevant. If it’s boring and contains a lot of unnecessary information, the readers may refuse to read the whole paper.
    • Make sure your introduction contains the following essential components: the background, the relevance of your work, its objectives, and the methods that you’ve used.
    • Don’t use the facts that are well-known among your prospective readers.
  4. Remember about the MLA format.
    • Use the appropriate font, margins and spacing. The text has to look formal and be formatted according to common rules for academic writing.
    • Include quotations wisely. Don’t use too many of them. Only use them in order to support your own opinion and arguments. You must always refer to the author in the text. Moreover, you can’t change the original quote.
    • Consider the paraphrasing your best friend. As the introduction shouldn’t be too long, you need to learn to sum up the thoughts of the other experts and your colleagues. Additionally, it is extremely important to describe previous research on the subject in your own words and from your point of view. Otherwise it’ll be taken for plagiarism, which is unacceptable. When you paraphrase you don’t need to use quotation marks, but it still requires references to the author of the original text.

In conclusion, you should make sure that the introduction matches with specifically your research paper.

 
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