Extract
1. INTRODUCTION
‘I wonder if they liked me?’ Many will have heard of the ‘seven second rule’ in meeting other people for the first time, like on a first date. First impressions count and, once made, it is an uphill battle to overturn them. The same is true of academic writing. Writing a good introduction is important because that section sets up the rest of the article and is where readers will quickly make up their minds about whether to carry on reading. The purpose of this commentary is to examine how to write an effective introduction to a journal article in order to help people produce better academic writing. Although aimed predominantly at early career researchers, it may also challenge some of the ingrained habits of mid-career scholars and senior academics. In this piece, I argue that there are some key elements that every good introduction should possess, but that precisely what you should include will depend on whether your work is doctrinal/theoretical or empirical socio-legal in nature, with mention of data sources more key for the latter for example
