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one key element of a research paper is
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the introduction why is it so important
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well it's one of the first things that
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the reviewers or your future readers are
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going to read so if the introduction
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isn't well written if you haven't
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highlighted the research Gap if the
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contribution and the novelty of your
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paper aren't clear in the introduction
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it's very likely that your paper will
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get rejected so that's why in this video
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I want to show you step by step how to
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write the introduction for a research
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paper so let's dive in and see how this
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is done if you're new here my name
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iskovic and I run academic English now
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where I help PhD students and
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researchers regularly write research
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papers for scopus index journals and in
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this video we're going to be
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specifically focusing on the first
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element of a research paper which is the
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introduction and I know a lot of people
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really struggle writing the
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introductions we get stuck they don't
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know what to right you know that there
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is this idea as well that every
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introduction is completely different and
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it's just you know depends a lot on the
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discipline and so on I mean granted you
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know there are differences between
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different researchers disciplines and so
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on but they are really superficial it's
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kind of like the iceberg so those
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differences are the small that small tip
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of the iceberg above the water and
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everything else 80 of the introduction
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is the same but because the differences
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are above water this is what people
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focus on but we want to be focusing on
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the similarities because you know 80 90
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of introductions across the fields and
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really across research papers whether
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this is a systematic review experimental
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paper more theoretical paper is almost
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exactly the same so what are these
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elements of a research paper I'm gonna
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explain them one by one to you and show
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you as well on examples from real
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research papers from different
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disciplines how these elements are
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applied
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so what is the first one typically there
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are two ways of starting a research
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paper number one you present the
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importance of the topic so you basically
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tell the reader why on Earth should they
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care about your study at all I know your
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study is important to you your topic is
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important to you I mean my topic is the
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most important topic in the world for me
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but why should other people care you
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want to state that right at the very
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beginning you know using phrases like a
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considerable amount of research has been
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devoted to so the importance can be for
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your research field the importance of
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the topic can be for the society in
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general as well right it can be an
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important problem that needs solving but
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this needs to be stated right away and
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the second way of starting the paper
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that often goes together is the
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definition of the key concept so very
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often you know if the importance of the
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topic is connected to the key concept
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the researcher introduces the importance
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and and defines the key concept so for
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example if we think about medicine and a
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disease like Alzheimer you know we could
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State the importance of for the society
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you know that you know millions of
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people every day well you would have to
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give a specific number are suffering
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from Alzheimer's disease and this
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disease is characterized by and then you
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provide a definition right or you can
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separate these two elements have the
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importance of the topic and then a
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definition right this is the usual way
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of starting a paper number two the
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second really important element is a
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brief literature review and I stress the
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word brief how brief it is can differ
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from field to field in some Fields it
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can be very short like one paragraph or
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maybe two paragraphs in other fields it
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can be slightly longer like maybe three
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or five paragraphs but it's brief right
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what you need to do here is identify
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between two and maybe four any topics
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that need to be introduced to the reader
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before we can identify the research Gap
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and stay at the end and you want to
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organize these topics from General to
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specific think about that as sort of the
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inverted pyramid you know you have
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General and then you go more and more
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specific with these topics and basically
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each paragraph in your literature review
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will be devoted to one of these topics
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right so you want to have between two
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and maybe four paragraphs for this brief
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literature review element number three
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is the research Gap and if there's like
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one element that is the most important
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it is this one it's the research Gap I
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can't tell you you know the number of
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examples that I have where this was the
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element that made the paper be rejected
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you know even very recently on my
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program when I was helping
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um two different researchers from two
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different disciplines both of them one
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of their papers got rejected and the
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other one came back with major
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Corrections and you know when we read
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the reviewers comments it seemed like
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you know the paper was a total mess and
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it they needed to start from scratch but
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really the main problem was that the
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contribution the novelty of the paper
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just wasn't that like that the research
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Gap wasn't there either so this is a
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crucial element stating the research
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graph this can be done in numerous
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different ways right and I have another
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video when I talk about the different
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types of a research Camp but you know
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you can point out the lack of research
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limitations of previous studies you know
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a specific problem that needs solving a
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practical problem that needs solving
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right and you want to do it in one nice
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paragraph typically you start with
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something like you know numerous studies
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on XY and that have been conducted
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however there is a lack of research on X
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Y and Z in addition the previous studies
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are limited because X Y and Z right and
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then you explain what the problem is
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once you've pointed out the research Gap
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and it is clear why you're doing your
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study well now you can tell us what your
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study is about and state the aim of your
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study please don't you know State the
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AIM research questions objectives and
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stuff like this you know just in one
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maximum two sentences say what the aim
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of your study is simply and and that's
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it right now very often this is where
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introductions end however there are two
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optional elements that can sometimes be
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useful and are sometimes used in
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different fields and in different
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journals the first one right after the
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research Gap is you know kind of a quick
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recap like a summary of the results in
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like one or two sentences you know what
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this paper shows you know and then also
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connected to that what is the main
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contribution of your paper most of the
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time you know this is just said in the
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conclusion section but in some journals
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and some researchers like to say it
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right in the introduction so it's clear
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to the reviewers as well what novelty
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your paper brings right so feel free to
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do that right after the introduction in
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one paragraph and say what the main
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contribution is now the second optional
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element which would end the introduction
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is to present the structure of your
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paper and this is common in some Fields
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I wouldn't say it's very common across
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different fields but you can do it if
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you want to especially if you notice
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that other people in your field are
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doing it very simply you know in one
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paragraph States how the paper is
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organized that this paper is organized
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into six sections and then in each
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following sentence you can tell us what
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each section is about
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so now let me show you exactly how this
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is actually done on an example of a
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research paper and we'll look at each of
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the sections that I've just mentioned to
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you and we'll see how the writers
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presented so let me show you two
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examples in here from two different
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fields so you have an idea how you know
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the introduction is structured written
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in slightly different fields so the
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first example is actually from a paper
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that I published a couple of years ago
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so it's kind of social sciences teaching
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English and the introduction is much
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shorter the other paper is going to be
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from psychology medicine that sort of
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thing so much more sort of exact
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sciences and the introduction is going
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to be much longer so you're going to see
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two very different ways of approaching
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it which nevertheless follow a very
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similar pattern
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so this one starts with you know
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establishing the importance of the topic
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and defining the topic in here it's one
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of and the same thing so we Define the
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thing that we're going to talk about
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because this thing is very important
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right so you kind of kill two birds with
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one stone and therefore make your
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introduction shorter right so that's the
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first element right importance of the
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topic and defining any key Concepts and
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number two we've got literature review
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right and in here it's rather short it's
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just one paragraph really right but it's
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enough to kind of
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present us what we need and the reason
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why it's so short in here as well just
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so you know is because in this
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particular Journal they like having a
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separate literature review section right
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so that's why there is a um the one in
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the introduction is very short
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and then after that what we've got is
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the research Gap basically right so
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we've got nevertheless despite all this
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literature we've got a lack of studies
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right and we've got limitations of these
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studies in terms of whether we're
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conducted right and then this ends with
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presenting the aim of the study right so
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a very short introduction just three
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paragraphs but notice that it follows
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the same pattern that we've discussed
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now moving to the other introduction
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this one is slightly longer but well
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actually much longer probably twice the
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length but it still follows the same
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pattern so we've got the importance of
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the topic right and the definition of
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the topic as well and then we continue
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discussing that importance of the topic
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right the growing complexity so we
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basically talk about the importance of
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the topic for the discipline right and
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this is further explored here again why
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is this topic so crucial for this
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discipline right now right and then
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we've got a literature review in here
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you'll see that the literature review is
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much longer right so we basically
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reviewing and reviewing the the
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literature leading to the problem and
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first we've got a more practical problem
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in here right despite all this progress
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and all these that is there is this
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problem in practice in medical education
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right and then afterwards we also have
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the research Gap right so we've got a
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lack of understanding that there's
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uncertainty about something right and
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there is a lack of research so there are
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different research gaps combined here
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which makes it much stronger right and
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then we've got the aim of the study and
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specifically what was done and they also
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present that hypothesis right in here
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um as well notice that none of the two
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papers that I showed here present the
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kind of the main contributions and the
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structure of the paper which as I
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mentioned are optional and they're not
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really that common across disciplines so
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as you can see an introduction to the
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research paper follows a very
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predictable structure that is almost
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exactly the same regardless of the field
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that you're in and regardless of the
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type of the paper that you're actually
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writing so start with the importance of
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the top topic and maybe the definition
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of a key concept then briefly review the
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literature present the research Gap and
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this is crucial super important don't
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forget to present the research Gap State
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the aim and then optionally State the
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main contributions of your paper and
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present the organization of the paper
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now if you want to work with me more
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personally to help you to publish papers
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in top journals in your field then
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schedule a free one-to-one consultation
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we're going to get on a call and help
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you to identify the key challenges that
00:13:00
you're facing and will outline a
00:13:02
personalized strategy that will help you
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to achieve your goals faster if this is
00:13:06
something that interests you then the
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link to schedule that call is right
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below this video
