ABSTRACT
Research reports in academic journals usually begin with an introduction in which literature is cited. This chapter presents evaluation questions regarding the introductory material in a research report. Some researchers start their introductions with statements that are so broad they fail to identify the specific area of investigation. Researchers select research problems they believe are important, and they should specifically address this belief early in their introductions. Instead of providing statistics on the prevalence of problems, researchers sometimes use other strategies to convince readers of the importance of the research problems they have studied. If a theory is named in the introduction to a research article, the theory should be adequately described. For instance, a researcher might inappropriately first summarize Smith's study, then Jones's study, then Miller's study, and so on.
