In architectural terms, a Capstone is the final stone laid to symbolize completion and lies on top of a concrete structure. A Capstone project is a type of academic paper that gives the student’s experience in summary. The student is also required to give a presentation of the project. The importance of the presentation is to help the student to express their thoughts and also improve their public speaking skills.
This is the most common type of capstone projects. The student needs to generate unique solutions to a client’s problem in a professional project. They student needs to undertake analysis, make decisions to manage the workflow and gather information.
It is like that of a research apprenticeship project for the award of an honors program. It involves a series of extensive research, analysis of information, field visits and incorporating it in to detailed justification.
They exist in most academic disciplines especially in science, media and business fields. They aim to bring the student face to face with the problems and challenges of a professional work environment. They involve planning and management of day-to-day activity of different events.
They are present in the business fields, design and professional health disciplines.
These do not bring the students to a professional work environment but includes a set of defined activities that are paper-based online simulations.
In the beginning of the program, it is advisable to come up with the topic of choice. Additionally, take notes and put down ideas that arise during the class sessions. Choose the topics that seem manageable and which interested you the most. Look for classmates or department members who have come across the topic before.
It is advisable to focus on topics that connect with your own life and experience. Come up with situations which apply the knowledge acquired in the course. Furthermore, your capstone project should include the skills learned in the course and how you can use them in the work environment.
Submitting a proposal to the facilitator is necessary before the student embarks on writing the paper. The proposal should include the following:
Come up with the sources that you wish to use to collect information. Search for information that relate to your subject. Look for a list of recommended literature from the textbooks from your course and make it a foundation for your project. Additionally, you can create a folder in your PC and save the links that you find helpful and references. To ease navigation list information indifferent files, add tags and name them. Furthermore, identify the main articles that relate to your topic and group them by categories.
A good capstone projects should have the following:
Since a capstone project can be overwhelming it is important to involve your time-planning skills. Additionally, create a calendar with deadlines and tasks. Make corrections with time where necessary. This might come as a result in the difference in the effort put in each of the tasks. To keep track of your time, use organizers in your PC or phone.
The thesis statement is the foundation of your capstone project. Being precise and brief when writing a thesis statement is important. A broader thesis statement may miss out on the important details. Additionally, write the main issue and the limitations of the study.
In the literature review put in summary your findings of the prevailing details on the topic. List general conclusions and a short justification of each source that is valuable for your research. Furthermore, note the gaps in the information. Use of quotes helps to add value to the paper but don’t overuse it.
In the research methodology, test the methods of your research. The target audience should understand what you have done and how: evaluation, analysis, and collecting data. Additionally, make a justification for the methods you chose. Provide the merits and demerits of each method used.
Besides, describe the data you received during the research in the results section. In case you have statistics put them in tables and charts. An interpretation of the data and more descriptions is necessary. In the conclusion, put together the recommendations and findings for further research. Establish the connection between the results and the main subject.
Make corrections where necessary by rereading the final draft. Check through all the sections and identify they are complete and logical. Remove meaningless sentences and add more with better meaning to complete the sections. Highlight the typos, incorrect grammar, and other mistakes and make corrections. Additionally, the tone of the paper should be academic. Finally, make the paper look structured by checking with the requirements provided by the facilitator. Also, ask for feedback from an experienced academic writer.
In most cases, a project should be defended before the capstone projects committee. The evaluation of the whole project will be affected by the quality of the paper. The project committee asks questions that relate with your subject in the paper. Additionally, you need to familiarize yourself with the paper.