ABSTRACT
All academic and technical writing is constructed as a series of arguments, supporting claims with evidence and reasoning. Three underlying implicit claims lead to the archetypical IMRD (or IPTC) structure of research articles. The first claim, that your research goal is important and unresolved, is the focus of the first division. The second claim, that the research is connected to but distinct from previous work, is supported in the second division. For the third claim, that the current research makes an important contribution to the field, in IMRD the support is split between Results (evidence) and Discussion (reasoning), but combined as Testing in IPTC. These three general claims can be divided into ten common component claims. These components are common but not obligatory across all disciplines, and tend to occur in in a predictable order, although the specifics, relative importance, and presence or absence of recursion vary considerably. The component claims are supported by evidence from citation of past research, details of the current research, and data from the current research, as well as various types of reasoning and organizational strategies that make it easier for the reader to follow the argument.
