What should I put in the Introduction as opposed to the Literature Review? My question is rather short one, how much information should I include when writing the introduction, and how much should be left out for the literature review

Note: the reason for this question, is because my advisor told me that my introduction is to light and he raised several question that eventually will be covered in literature review. When I pointed that out, he said that the introduction should inform the reader about the theme being addressed by the thesis/paper so that the reader will have an overview of the paper from reading the introduction.


  note: my introduction contains the following:



1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Formulation
1.3 Purposes of study and hypotheses being tested
1.4 Data Sampling
1.5 Structure of the paper
(In economics at least.)

Introduction (5 pages)

• start with some broader motivation or backgrund

– maybe a sentence or a paragraph at most

• quickly explain your problem/puzzle

– show not tell

– don't say your work is pathbreaking or the problem is interesting (arrogant)

• clearly, concisely explain what is novel

– crystal clear

• report key results 

– no hiding the punchline! 

• discuss implication

– what does it mean for public policy? for theory? etc

• Layout:

– a clear roadmap

– Section 1 does this. Section 2 does this. Section 3 etc...so they can find what they want. (This is the easiest paragraph to write)