I see a lot of draft academic papers, especially by jr authors, that leave readers guessing what the paper will do - its research questions, core argument, etc - until page 3 or 4.
IMO this should be clear by paragraph 2. (Unless you are Bourdieu, in which case para 2 is pg 3.)
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@GavinMoodie
I have heard the advice, I can't remember from whom, that each sentence of the abstract should be the thesis sentence of a paragraph in the introduction and vice versa. Not sure this works in all contexts or fields, but it's not a bad starting point.
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@WeedenKim
Question though: do you still feel this way if it is quite clear from the abstract? That's page 0/1. I have sometimes delayed to elaborate some of this until page 2 because the abstract imho was clear enough already. Yet still got comments similar to yours.
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@MartijnHuysmans
Yes. The main text of a paper should be self-contained and not require abstract for clarity. IMO.
I don't assume that readers read linearly. Some will read the tables first. Some reviewers may read the abstract last, if at all, to check its match w/ what paper actually delivers.
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@WeedenKim
Yes, as I always tell my students, YOU ARE NOT WRITING A MYSTERY NOVEL
#AcademicTwitter
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@WeedenKim
Agree completely! I "encourage my PhD students to begin paragraph 2 with "The objective of this paper is ..."
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@WeedenKim
I did Graduate Teaching Assistant for 1st year undergrads. Not told to talk about writing, but I'm a published author. So 3 times - about engaging your audience and communicating, not being clever. But then I've been trying to fill in a uni application form today and want to weep
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@WeedenKim
Show, don't tell. Readers need to know what's up early but I HATE the PhD/acad version of the crap 5 para essay. "This paper will..." "To do what I just said I am doing, I am going to do this, and this and..." This paragraph will..." "See, I did what I said I'd do, each step!" 🤮
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@WeedenKim
The earlier the better — I always tell my students that they are competing against lots of other papers that their readers could be reading…same with talks.
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@WeedenKim
The structure of an article, including relative length of sections, can vary according to the sources & methods used as well as disciplinary conventions. I often find overly “transparent” articles boring. If you can tell me the story in one page, why should I read on?
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@WeedenKim
I reviewed a book monograph that kept me guessing the whole time. Actually emailed the publisher asking if she forgot to send me an intro chapter.
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