The way I was taught to structure an introduction was that of an inverted triangle: with the broad, more general stuff at the beginning, narrowing down to your personal objectives and what you studied.
In the broadest sense you want your introduction to answer these questions:
What were you studying?
Why is this important?
What knowledge was there already of this topic?
Where can we go from here?
First describe the purpose and scope of your project and you can summarize current knowledge and information on the topic that you are studying. This leads on to the next step: background. For the background it is useful to expand on what was already written in the abstract, introduce the area (e.g. if it is a field course where were you? ), the organism or molecule studied and stresses on that organism (if applicable).
It is within your introduction that you outline the hypotheses you're investigating and the approach you will use to investigate it.
Show what knowledge there is on your topic, reference primary sources, such as other journals and review articles. Always reference any sources you have used.
Remember to keep everything short and concise but give all the background information required to understand your project.
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