A preface is usually situated on the first page of different books, projects, scientific works, or the initial part of speeches. This part is always forwarded directly to the reader and contains information that refers to the work. In case of books, the author often describes personal feelings and talks about the experience of the present literary work. Talking about the projects and research works, it is best to describe the main goals and motivation. Regardless of the text type, the specifics of higher education demand students to be aware of how to write a preface for a project.
The first chapter of any work is the preface. Usually, this section is located on the third page after the content and title of the work. The ability to write a preface for a project is the vital skill for any researcher. The preface is important not only for the reader but also for the writer. It tells about the basic aspects of the work and shows the qualification of the writer. In order to correctly write a preface for a project, it is necessary to observe the structure and the formal style.
First of all, the author provides the goals and objectives of the project. It is vital to formulate the main goals of the paper, to show its innovations and differences as compared to the other works with similar themes. In addition, it is necessary to include content about the researchers who addressed the target problem previously and reveal the results of their work. However, the outcomes of the actual work should be described only in the conclusive part. Ultimately, it is better to write why the project is relevant to the modern scientific advance.
In the second place, the preface should include information on the methodology used by the author. It is not necessary to thoroughly describe every method, but it is important to specify the main points of the project creation. The author may pay attention to own innovations to the traditional concepts.
In the third place, the brief description of the sources of information should be given. This part is not the same as the bibliography at the end of the project. Only the most important, interesting, and necessary resources must be mentioned in the preface.
To sum it up, the structure of the preface should be the following:
- the project objectives,
- the project ultimate goals,
- its main methods,
- the project innovations and unique values,
- its main stages,
- the brief description of the sources of information.
Additionally, it should be remembered that the preface should be written in a formal style.
Hence, it is vital to write each point of the work with a new paragraph without numbering and with the same font size. In addition, the author can pick out the important words with bold or italic. The preface chapter is usually one or one and a half pages in size. If the author of the project carefully studied the structure of the preface, accurately described the conducted work and highlighted important words in the text, the preface can be considered ready.
