When you write your thesis, you need to make sure that your paragraphs hold together: that is, that each paragraph has one main idea that is being developed.
This is always important, but is crucial in sections such as your Abstract and your Introduction.
One way of ensuring this is to repeat key information, using slightly different forms of the words, so that your ideas are elaborated on and the reader can understand your key points.
Exercise
Read the following example and see how the student repeats key terms to explain the main idea. NOTE: the example is taken from the first paragraph of the student’s abstract.
Example:
Concrete-filled steel tubes are primarily utilised as columns in modern high-rise building construction. The steel tubes that encase the concrete core within are usually thin and therefore have very high width to thickness ratios, making the tubes susceptible to local buckling. When the tubes are filled with concrete, the presence of the concrete core restraint ensures that the buckles will be delayed and can only form outwards from the core. The result of this is an enhancement in the local buckling capacity of the steel tube.
(Loh 1999 p.v)
Now practise writing either the first paragraph of your Introduction, or the first paragraph of your Abstract, using similar repetition of key information.