A standard model for describing the structure of research article introductions, the CARS (Create A Research Space) model, is evaluated in terms of how well it can be applied to 12 articles which have received “best paper” awards in the field of software engineering. The results indicate that, although the model adequately describes the main framework of the introductions, a number of important features are not accounted for, in particular: an extensive review of background literature, the inclusion of many definitions and examples, and an evaluation of the research in terms of application or novelty of the results.