How To Write An Accounting Thesis Introduction

Writing an Accounting Thesis Introduction

Writing an accounting thesis is a difficult task. It involves a lot of research, attention to detail, analytical skills and subject matter expertise. The irony is that many people can manage all this but run into difficulties with the actual writing.


No matter what the subject is, any essay should follow the same basic structure. To ensure that it flows logically in needs to be divided into clear sections, each of which has a specific purpose. These sections are as follows:

  • Introduction. In the introduction you set out the purpose of the paper and let the reader know what issues will be discussed.
  • Thesis. This section presents a statement that the paper will discuss. It is generally either in the form of a statement that will be investigated to see if it is true or false or a comparison between two things.
  • Discussion. This is the main body of the essay and discusses the thesis. It is the section where your research and sources are deployed.
  • Conclusion. This states what you have decided from the information laid out in the discussion. It should follow on logically from it and not introduce new concepts that haven’t previously been mentioned.

Each section requires specific information and has its own challenges. This short guide will cover the introduction.

  1. The introduction to your thesis has to achieve five tasks. These are:
  2. To reveal the purpose of the paper
  3. To give an outline of the methodology without getting tied up in details
  4. To explain why the paper is important
  5. To give a short indication of your results
  6. To catch the reader’s interest and make them want to read more

The key point about the introduction is that it is a brief overview. The place for details is in the discussion, and it should not be presented in the introduction; this will disrupt the flow of the paper and make it confusing.
The outline of the methodology should be a single statement, such as “To investigate this issue, a comparison of overall tax revenues in Country A and Country B was carried out.” Technical details should go in the discussion.


The results, again, should be briefly presented in a single sentence. A full explanation will be given in the conclusion, after the reader has gained an understanding of the issue.


Finally, make sure that your introduction is engagingly written. The reader needs to be interested by the first paragraph and motivated to read the thesis to find out how the conclusion was reached. A dull introduction will tend to make readers less enthusiastic and they won’t follow your argument as closely.

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