VincePrep Writing Tips: What is a main idea or contribution?

MAIN IDEA and CONTRIBUTION

· A contribution includes an addition to your field’s overall knowledge.

It is the main idea of your paper and the main purpose of your research.

It answers questions like:

· What are you researching?

· What are you trying to discover, prove, or create?

· How do you plan to add value to your academic field?

Don’t start by describing your methods: “I analyzed mobile information terminals and found many issues related to power failures and natural disasters.”
Instead, focus on your main idea, like this: “A single-function emergency information terminal using energy harvesting technology would allow users to access important information during natural disasters. ”
Distilling your main idea will take some thought and effort.
You might need to rewrite your paper several times.
You might also need to write your discussion section first.
After confirming the terminology and methods described in your discussion section, write your conclusion.
Then, determine your main idea.
Once you decide your main idea, help readers to get it quickly by putting it in your introduction.
Your introduction should include the purpose of your research
What specific question will you explore? How does it fit with previous research?

Your readers are busy and impatient.
Most of them will not read your entire paper from start to finish.
Instead, most readers will skim your text looking at topic sentences, keywords, and headings in order to understand what you are talking about.
After they form their initial impressions, they might review each sentence to understand your logic and methods.
How can you catch and hold their attention during their initial skim?
First of all, be sure to include your main idea and contribution in your first paragraph.
Most writers do not tell us the contribution of their paper until the end of their paper.
Please do not make this mistake.

Find and circle your contribution.
If you cannot find your contribution or if it is spread out across several sentences, spend a moment crystallizing your ideas into one clear contribution sentence.
Then, draw an arrow to the top of the page. Your contribution goes at the top!
Homework: Reorganize and write your paper so that your contribution appears in the first sentence.