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 Drawings
- 7 Figure legends
- 8 How to design tables
- 9 Title
- 10 Authors
- 11 Abstract
- 12 Introduction
- 13 Methods
- 14 Results
- 15 Discussion
- 16 Acknowledgments
- 17 References
- 18 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses
- 19 Letters and case reports
- 20 Numbers
- 21 Abbreviations
- 22 How to present statistical results
- 23 Typing
- 24 Dealing with editors and referees
- 25 Correcting proofs
- 26 Authors‘ responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
12 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- 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 Drawings
- 7 Figure legends
- 8 How to design tables
- 9 Title
- 10 Authors
- 11 Abstract
- 12 Introduction
- 13 Methods
- 14 Results
- 15 Discussion
- 16 Acknowledgments
- 17 References
- 18 Ph.D. and other doctoral theses
- 19 Letters and case reports
- 20 Numbers
- 21 Abbreviations
- 22 How to present statistical results
- 23 Typing
- 24 Dealing with editors and referees
- 25 Correcting proofs
- 26 Authors‘ responsibilities
- Literature needed on your desk
- Further reading
- Literature cited
- Index
Summary
Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park and 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.
Crichton'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.1 Case reports suggest an association between nose bleeds and regular, high alcohol consumption.2-5
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.
These introductions, like many other well-written introductions, contain a brief description of two items:
(1) the problem;
(2) the proposed solution.
However, the first few sentences sometimes contain general, even vapid, statements, as in this example from a manuscript under preparation submitted by a course participant of mine:
Respiratory diseases are important health problems throughout the world and often lead to morbidity and death.
These platitudes could be omitted ruthlessly, as could also the empty words of the next sentence.
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- How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper , pp. 61 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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