What’s the purpose of an Introduction?

• Get the reader excited & actually want to keep reading. 
• Provides a general overview of the topic.
• Clearly highlights the gap in the research and how your work is going to help fill it.
• It’s about the why not the how
• Tells the reader your research question, aim

How to structure the Introduction
Paragraph 1 should give the readers a broad overview of the topic area i.e., what is known already. How broad you go here will depend on the journal, e.g., if you are submitting to the British Journal of Sports Medicine your audience will be very broad compared to somewhere like the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. For broad audiences it is a good idea to start with a few sentences on general information on your topic to give some context to your work. For more specific audiences you can start with a more focused introduction as readers will already be familiar with the field.
Paragraph 2 should have information that is more specific and technical. You will cite the important & most recent literature on the topic here to give readers a complete picture of the current landscape of your field. 
Paragraph 3 will identify what the specific gap in knowledge is and why it is important that this gap is filled, e.g., “little is known about....” It might be appropriate here to highlight some of the limitations of previous studies. Here you are helping readers to understand the logic behind your research, how it helps to fill this knowledge gap, and how your research meaningfully contributes to the field. 
Paragraph 4 should wrap things up by clearly stating the primary objective of the research, e.g., “The purpose of this study is to examine X”. In some cases, you might present your research question and/or hypothesis. Make sure this aim matches what is said in the abstract. This final paragraph should be very clear yet brief, it might only be a line or two. Its aim is to clearly outline the purpose of the research.

9 Tips for writing an interesting Introduction
1.    Make sure you fully write out the word in the first instance and then use the abbreviation e.g., World Health Organization (WHO). 
2.    Your introduction is not a literature review. Be sure to stay on point, be precise and always link back to the primary research objective. 
3.    Following on from point 2, make sure you are citing work that is relevant and up to date. You want to make sure that you are backing up your claims with high quality work. Don’t add in citations for the sake of it, always think of quality over quantity.
4.    It is usually a good idea to save writing the introduction until close to the end. Writing in the following order can be helpful: Methods > Results > Discussion > Introduction > Abstract.
5.    The introduction is not the place to start discussing the results or drawing conclusions. Keep it in mind that this section is the why behind your research.
6.    Write in the present tense.
7.    Try to start your paper with a hook, whilst also not being too dramatic, e.g., “The rise of physical inactivity among teenage girls has been associated with an increase in depression and anxiety”. 
8.    Avoid using jargon and don’t fall into the trap of using a thesaurus to write complex sentences, oftentimes the more straight forward your words are the easier your message will get across to the reader. 
9.    Be clear and concise. Sentence should be no longer than they need to be (i.e., 2-3 lines) and the word count of the introduction should be ~10-15% of the total manuscript length.