a custom capstone project writing help

a custom capstone project writing help

The Art of Crafting a Custom Capstone Project: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Capstone Projects

Section 1: Introduction to Capstone Projects

A capstone is the “crowning achievement” or “piece de resistance” within an arc of activity, often educationally minded. Within the bounds of the English concentration in the Interdisciplinary Programme, this project has manifested in the form of a research and writing project that bridges the disciplines in which the concentrator is also working. Often this is articulated in more specific terms: interdisciplinary work is done as well as professional. This is not, however, a requirement. Just as our field encompasses the largest to the smallest forms of narrative inspiration, so too does a capstone span the scale from the global to the personal, and encompass studies of gender, genre, and a variety of cultural elements and identifications. The guide is written in general terms and is designed to be applied to each individual project in such a way that the nuances of that project are not undermined.

In general, the process of producing the capstone will likely require defining your goals, needs, capabilities, and interests, followed by lots and lots of research into how to meet these elements with the best match for everyone involved. This guide ultimately becomes the resource for you to manage your project (with the aid of your mentor, committee, etc.). In our concentration, the capstone begins formally in the term directly preceding graduation. Thus, one very large element will be establishing what is wanted and needed of the capstone early enough in previous semesters to develop the skills to excel. More about scheduling and learning.

Every college student (and many high school students as well) is able to tell you about capstone projects. From the mundane, middle school “let’s build a volcano!” tasks to the truly momentous “let’s build an electric car” engineering triumphs, capstones serve to do one thing above all else.

2. Choosing a Topic and Research Question

Crafting a Capstone Qualifying Project (CQP), which is the culminating requirement for the Master’s special degree, is an opportunity to work as a qualified professional under the direction and guidance of a committee of faculty members. How you approach this is a highly personal decision and must be based on your strengths and interests. However, the most successful projects have a few things in common. They address a topic based in the literature, with applicability to your field. They follow an approved format, with all sections well written and completed accurately, and they follow the advice of their committee. This guide will walk you through each step of creating your CQP, from topic selection and research through defense and revision.

In several steps, you will be guided through the process of submitting your proposal – and your progress report and final paper – until your official paperwork has been turned in and approved. This guide is designed to help you create a plan for moving through your CQP with the least amount of stress and the largest amount of support. Good luck! The first step in the process of crafting a Qualifying Project is the selection of a topic. Of course, deciding what to spend your time researching and writing about is the first big hurdle. A successful CQP project begins with a good idea for a research question. You should pick something you will be interested in working on because you will be working on it for a long time.

3. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Literature Review & Theoretical Framework

The section of a “research report [that] is dedicated to seeing what other people have done—and thought—along similar lines,” the literature review is “the scholarly answer to this question: ‘What do we already know—or do we know the answer to—the questions we’ve posed in our study?'” (Boote and Beile, 2005, p. 3). As such, literature reviews serve as the scholarly foundation for capstone projects. At its core, constructing a sound literature review is about creating and demonstrating the informed roots of our original research questions while showing how the proposed project differs from the existing scholarly conversation and how it fits into the broader field. It is a fundamental component of our work as academic researchers and scholars.

Theoretical Frameworks. The theories and philosophies of our respective fields of study provide the lens for interpretation of our evidence. They provide the conceptual tools we need to interrogate, understand, and interpret the evidence we gather; they also assist in providing meaningful answers to our research questions. Theoretical frameworks are typically constructed based upon the literature browsed during the literature review process, and they provide a road-map of investigation that orients the literature review toward primary sources and guides one’s approach to coding and analysis. Including theory is often presented as a key marker of whether a paper is appropriate for a particular venue or an essay is fitting for a curriculum. Whether writing or speaking, demonstrating a deep and broad familiarity with subject matter literature and the application of theory is a critical pathway to communicating to audiences that new or innovative research is being proposed for completion. This framework should orient the reader so they can understand what the guiding questions of the research project are, where it is heading, and what they should anticipate encountering as they read.

4. Methodology and Data Collection

Methods, Methodology, and Data Collection

In crafting a custom capstone project, methodological components of a project are often, if not always, a necessary component. Generally, a study is initiated with one or more research queries, and obtaining data to answer these questions requires making decisions about the type of research design, research methods (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) to be employed. Furthermore, sets of procedures for collection and analysis of data (or information) are selected as well. These decisions will be determined by the nature of the research questions being asked, the types of data that need to be collected and analyzed to answer these questions, and the nature of the conclusions we are seeking to obtain. This section is for those investigating the use of methodologies in research and is largely following the tenets of Matei & Ianni (2018).

Selecting a research methodology can seem a difficult task, but in most respects, it hinges on carefully thinking through the type of question, puzzle, or problem that is to be investigated. For example, questions pertaining to things like the cause of events (e.g. why people smoke, why they don’t get cancer) require methodologies that capture human activities/society as they unfold, i.e. as an empirical process. Alternatively, questions requiring the location of patterns, regularities, or probabilities (like how often incarcerated individuals re-offend) will need research methods that are capable of teasing out these types of geometrical relationships. We delve into research design and ways to obtain hypothesis-testing, causal-explanatory, or policy-guidant findings in section five. A final point to mention concerns dealing with collection and analysis of data. If information and data collected is to be quantitatively investigated, for instance, it is appropriate to discuss principles of organizing information, the computing-centric and logical side of formatting, variable organization, poll construction, conducting the interviews, administering questionnaires, patchwork paradigms (of which a discussion can be found in our book), denoting the completion of polls, or even issues related to computable approaches to ascertainment biases. All of these contribute to the robustness, reliability, and validity of the data one acquires to answer the research question.

5. Analysis, Findings, and Conclusion

In this section, you will explain the process of conducting an analysis, interpreting the findings, and providing a conclusion to the custom capstone project. The analysis section is an opportunity to interpret what the data or information indicates in relation to the research question. With this information, the findings will be used to begin stitching together the sections already completed in the project into a whole paper by addressing the implications of the specific data or information. The conclusion goes one step further and interprets the findings of the analysis in relation to the research question. The conclusion should be a reflection of what the capstone project has demonstrated in relation to the research question. It should be based word for word on the research project.

In a custom capstone project, custom service project, or a thesis program you will inevitably have encountered some disconnect between what you proposed to do and what you were actually able to accomplish. This is not unusual, but must be explicitly acknowledged – especially at the end of your paper. This chapter should reflect the work done by the student. Evaluation of the project will be based on the coherence of the work in this section with prior chapters. This section is an opportunity to tell the evaluator that you have worked through and truly understand the implications of what has been presented throughout the project. If you argue that the custom capstone project is an opportunity to draw together the many strands of knowledge then you have to demonstrate that that is what you have done with your own research.