A master's thesis introduction tells the reader what the topic is, why it matters, what earlier research leaves open, which question or aim the thesis takes on, and how the chapters are organized. Guides from Sweden to Estonia list the same core elements. Length and the extra parts depend on your program.
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Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden sums up the job: “The introduction should make it clear how the thesis contributes to the field by explaining the research objectives, showing that the research is important and placing the study in the context of previous research.” NTNU in Norway puts the same idea in terms of position: “In the introduction, you should place yourself within a research space, and demonstrate your knowledge of previous research.”
Chalmers links this to the Create a Research Space (CARS) model by John Swales and lists its three moves: establish the topic and its significance, establish the need for the present research, and introduce the present research. A reader who has finished your introduction should be able to say, in a sentence each, what you study, why, and how the thesis is laid out.
A hypothetical example of a commentYour introduction says no study has looked at broadband use in rural schools, but your literature review discusses two recent studies on that question. How does your study differ from them?
A first comment on one part of your own draft, right away and without an account.
Get a free previewChalmers gives a table of common elements and notes that disciplines differ in which ones they include. The left two columns below follow that table; the right column is our own test for a draft.
| Element | Its function | Check in your draft |
|---|---|---|
| Context | Defines the topic and makes its relevance clear | Could someone outside your field say why the topic matters after the first page? |
| Background | Gives a short history and the main earlier work, or points to a longer background chapter | Does it stay brief, with detail saved for the literature review? |
| Gap | Shows the need for the study: a gap, an open question, or an extension of earlier research | Does your own literature review support the gap you claim? |
| Problem statement and aim | Defines the problem and what the thesis intends to achieve | Is the aim one the method can actually reach? |
| Research questions | The key questions the thesis will answer | Are they worded the same here as in the methods and the conclusion? |
| Scope | What is included and what is left out, and why | Is each exclusion explained, not only listed? |
| Thesis outline | Describes the structure and orients the reader | Does every chapter named here exist, in this order? |
Some programs spell the list out as a requirement. The University of Tartu's Department of Semiotics in Estonia expects this from a master's thesis: “The introduction explains the choice of the research object, delimits it, gives an overview of relevant previous research, opens up the thesis’s theoretical and methodological starting points, states the research objective and research questions, and introduces and justifies the structure of the thesis.” Note the last verb: the structure is introduced and also justified.
Tartu's Institute of Computer Science lists the required components of an introduction: why the topic was chosen (its actuality and novelty), the purpose, an overview of the theoretical background with references, the problem statement with any hypotheses or research questions, the structure by chapter, and a short overview of the appendices. It also allows flexibility in where they go: “Any of the above-listed components may form a separate chapter or a part of a chapter.”
Placement varies. The Aalto University example outline below puts the research objectives and questions in the first subsection of the introduction. The University of Helsinki's master's program in social research reaches them through the literature review, in the chapter after a short introduction. The bachelor's and master's thesis guidelines of the University of Fribourg's Department of Psychology in Switzerland handle the order explicitly. The introduction first sets out the theoretical and empirical background, and its last subsection has this objective: “To develop the research question based on the theoretical overview presented.”
Either way, the question should arrive after the reader has seen why it needs asking. For what makes the question itself workable, see what a research question is.
There is no single figure. The guides below give three different kinds of answer, each for its own type of thesis. Check your own program's guidelines before you use any of them.
| Source | What it says | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Aalto University (Finland), guide based on the thesis guide of the IBC (business communication) program | Example outline: “1 INTRODUCTION (5-10 pages) 1.1 Research objectives/questions 1.2 Structure of the thesis” | A master's thesis that the same guide says “is typically between 60-100 pages.” |
| DTU (Denmark) | “The introduction should never constitute more than 10% of the report length.” | A guide for technical reports in general |
| ISM University of Management and Economics (Lithuania) | Recommended volume: “Introduction (~1000 words)” | Master's thesis in business sustainability management, with a recommended volume for each part |
The guides above point to the same handful of checks. Each one follows from what they ask of an introduction.
NTNU suggests drafting the introduction early, since it gives the work a direction, and returning to it near the end to complete it and check that it matches the rest of the text. That second pass matters most. Your aim may have narrowed, a chapter may have moved, or a finding may have changed what the thesis contributes. Chalmers adds that introductions are short but carry many elements: “Since introductions are short but have very many elements, they have to be very clear and direct.”
This example is made up. A master's student in public health drafts her introduction in the autumn: context on loneliness among older adults, a gap in research on rural areas, two research questions, and an outline with five chapters. By spring, interviews have led her to add a third question about digital contact, and the analysis now runs over two chapters. The introduction still lists two questions and five chapters, and still says rural areas have not been studied, although her literature review now includes a recent rural study. Her last pass adds the third question with a note that it emerged during the fieldwork, updates the outline, and narrows the gap to what the earlier study doesn't cover.
Points drawn from the guides above. The last item is our suggestion.
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Esmond reads the introduction together with the rest of the thesis, from within your field, and flags factual errors, inconsistencies, and blind spots. For an introduction, that can mean a research question worded differently in the conclusion, an outline that names a chapter the thesis doesn't have, or a gap that your own literature review contradicts. Esmond adds no text and doesn't judge your introduction against your program's rules; your supervisor does that. See how Esmond works and the sample report for what a review looks like.
Usually the context and relevance of the topic, a short background, the gap or need for the study, the problem statement and aim, the research questions, the scope, and an outline of the chapters. Which parts your program expects, and where, is set by its guidelines.
There is no single rule. An Aalto University example outline, based on the thesis guide of the IBC (business communication) program, gives 5-10 pages for a thesis of typically 60-100 pages; a DTU report guide caps the introduction at 10% of the report; ISM University of Management and Economics in Lithuania recommends about 1,000 words for a master's thesis in business sustainability management.
Often, yes. Aalto's example outline puts the questions in the first subsection of the introduction; Helsinki's social research program reaches them through the literature review. Check where your program expects them. Keep the wording the same wherever it appears.
An early draft gives the work a direction. NTNU advises returning to it near the end, completing it, and checking that it matches the rest of the text.
Read on November 7, 2026.
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