The introduction is the chapter supervisors most often send back, and it is almost never because the writing is poor. It is because the chapter was written first, before the student knew what the dissertation would actually argue.
This guide covers how to write a dissertation introduction that does its job: setting up a question the rest of your work goes on to answer.
What the introduction is actually for
It is not a summary of your dissertation, and it is not background about your topic. Its job is to make the reader accept that your research question is worth asking before they read a single finding.
An examiner reading your introduction should finish it able to state, without help, what you studied and why it needed studying. If they cannot, nothing later in the dissertation will fully recover.
This is a different chapter from an essay introduction, which does similar work in a single paragraph. If that is what you are writing, our guide on how to write an essay introduction covers it properly.
The six things it has to contain
Almost every marking rubric asks for the same elements, in roughly this order.
Context
Establish the field and why it matters, in a paragraph or two rather than a page. Resist the urge to start at the beginning of the discipline. Start close to your question and widen only as far as the reader needs.
The problem
Name the specific difficulty your research addresses. This should be a problem in the literature or in practice, not a personal one. “Little is known about X in Y setting” is a starting point, though on its own it is weak. Better is a tension: two credible bodies of work that disagree, or a finding nobody has tested outside the conditions that produced it.
The gap
State plainly what has not been established. Your literature review argues this case in detail; the introduction asserts it in two or three sentences so the reader knows where the dissertation is going.
Aim and objectives
One aim, stated as a sentence. Three or four objectives, stated as things you will do. Aims and objectives are not interchangeable, and departments mark the difference. The aim is the destination. The objectives are the steps.
Research questions
Two to four, phrased so they can actually be answered by the method you chose. If a question cannot be answered by your data, either the question or the method is wrong, and it is far cheaper to discover that now.
Significance and structure
Say who benefits from the answer, then give a short chapter-by-chapter outline. Keep the outline to one paragraph. It is a signpost, not a summary.
Write it last
This is the single most useful piece of advice on this page, and the one students most often ignore.
You cannot introduce an argument you have not finished making. The gap you name in month one is rarely the gap your dissertation actually fills by month six, because your understanding moves as you read and analyse. Draft something rough at the start so you have direction, then rewrite the chapter properly once your findings exist.
Markers spot introductions that were never revisited. They promise a study that the rest of the dissertation does not quite deliver.
How long it should be
Roughly ten per cent of your total word count, which gives you:
- 8,000-word dissertation — around 800 words
- 10,000-word dissertation — around 1,000 words
- 15,000-word masters dissertation — 1,200 to 1,800 words
- 80,000-word PhD thesis — 4,000 to 8,000 words, often a full chapter
Your handbook overrides this. Where a department specifies a chapter breakdown, follow it exactly.
The opening paragraph
Two approaches work, and one does not.
Start with the problem. Open on the difficulty itself, then explain why it persists. This suits applied and practice-based research.
Start with the tension. Open on a disagreement in the field, then position your study as the thing that tests it. This suits theoretical work.
Do not start with a dictionary definition, a broad claim about the modern world, or a sentence beginning “Since the dawn of”. These read as throat-clearing, and an examiner has seen several hundred of them.
Mistakes that cost marks
Reviewing the literature. The introduction refers to the literature; it does not survey it. That is the next chapter’s job, and duplicating it wastes words in both.
Reporting findings. Save them. An introduction that announces the results removes any reason to read on, and it is not the convention in most disciplines.
Vague aims. “To explore the impact of social media on young people” is not a dissertation aim. It has no population, no outcome and no boundary. “To examine how Instagram use relates to body image satisfaction among UK undergraduates aged 18 to 21” can actually be researched.
Aims that do not match the method. If you aim to understand lived experience, a questionnaire will not get you there. Examiners check this alignment closely, and it is one of the most common reasons a viva goes badly.
Leaving it unrevised. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is so common.
A structure you can follow
For a masters introduction of around 1,500 words:
- Opening — the problem or the tension. Around 200 words.
- Context — the field, narrowed quickly to your corner of it. Around 350 words.
- Problem and gap — what is unresolved. Around 300 words.
- Aim, objectives and questions — stated plainly, often as a list. Around 300 words.
- Significance — who the answer helps. Around 200 words.
- Structure — one paragraph of signposting. Around 150 words.
Adjust the proportions to your word count, but keep the order. It moves the reader from the world, to the problem, to your response.
Common questions
Should the introduction have references?
Yes, though far fewer than your literature review. Enough to support the claim that a gap exists, typically five to fifteen sources. An introduction with no citations reads as unsupported opinion.
Do I write the introduction or the literature review first?
Draft the introduction roughly first so you have a direction, write the literature review, then rewrite the introduction. The two chapters have to agree, and it is the introduction that should move.
Can I use first person?
It depends on your discipline. Most social sciences now accept “I” in a methodology or reflective section, and many still prefer impersonal constructions in the introduction. Check recent dissertations from your own department rather than a general style guide.
What is the difference between aims and objectives?
The aim is what you want to achieve, expressed as one outcome. Objectives are the steps that get you there, expressed as actions such as identify, compare, evaluate or measure. One aim, three or four objectives, is the usual shape.
If your introduction keeps coming back
When a supervisor returns this chapter repeatedly, the problem is usually alignment rather than writing. The aim, the questions and the method have drifted apart, and no amount of rewriting the prose will reconcile them.
Our dissertation writing help covers introductions at any stage, from turning a proposal into a first draft to reworking a chapter that has been sent back. The chapters either side of this one are covered too, in our guides on literature review length and structuring your methodology chapter. At doctoral level the same support runs through our thesis writing service.