The learning process is usually complicated and lengthy. You study different subjects, complete a variety of assignments, write coursework and research papers, take tests, and get grades. A grade is generally a reflection of your knowledge. High grades point to a good level of knowledge, while low grades indicate that some problems occurred, and you have failed to adequately comprehend the required materials. A capstone project is a large paper you write during the whole year and deliver a completely ready paper at the end of the second semester.
The fact that capstone project requires almost a year for writing makes many students stressed. If you feel depressed from having to develop such an assignment, you need to understand the roots of your fear. The main cause of fear and anxiety before writing a capstone project is your lack of knowledge of what a capstone project is and how to write it. Nevertheless, you can also buy capstone project or request professional assistance writing it.
So, what is a capstone project? A capstone project is an assignment that involves theoretical analysis of a topic and practical research and/or experimentation that allows making a final judgment regarding the theme in focus. The conclusions are always based on the information obtained in the course of research. At first, the assignment may seem too complicated and unachievable. However, if you know how to structure the project and how to write each section, you will see that it is not that difficult, and you just have to plan everything thoroughly.
Definition of Capstone Project
A capstone project is a research paper written during two semesters. The main idea of this project is to conduct research and present the findings regarding a unique idea of your interest. This project aims to reflect all your knowledge and experience and present it in a written piece.
You will need to perform deep research, show your critical thinking skills, and write a comprehensive paper. Do not worry that you will not cope. If you start working on the paper step-by-step without any attempt to cover everything at once, you will see how your project gets some form and finally emerges into a final paper. You will write some small pieces, which at the end will comprise your final capstone project.
A capstone project can be required in a high school and in a university. The difference will be in the level of writing and the type of research. A capstone project may emerge as:
- Substantial research
- Development of a product or service
- Theoretical analysis
- Experiment.
There are both individual and group capstone projects, where each section is completed by a different student pursuing the same goal.
Structure of Capstone Project
To write a capstone project of high quality, you need to learn and follow its structure. Typically, a capstone project has a set structure, and your task is to differentiate between the sections and present information in them accordingly.
- Abstract. An abstract is a short, usually 150-250 words, a paragraph that summarizes the whole project. You should briefly write about background information, the aim of the research, the methodology, the results, some discussion of the findings, and draw the conclusions. This is not the introduction. Do not confuse these notions. An abstract is usually placed at the beginning of the project, but we recommend writing it only after the whole paper is completed. It will help you define the major findings and conclusions better.
- Introduction. The introduction is the first section of the project. Although it usually sets background and reasoning for the research, this section is can be divided into several subsections. Still, you need to check your instructions and see what information is required by your college/university. Generally, the introduction contains the problem statement, the purpose of the study, the research questions and/or hypotheses, and the significance of the study. Your introduction may have these subsections properly defined or you may just write these points in several paragraphs without dividing the chapter into subsections.
- Literature review. This section should focus on the analysis of the literature you studied to write your capstone project. You need to synthesize and analyze the sources related to your topic of interest. A literature review is not a summary of the sources under the same topic as yours. It is a synthesis of the information and discussion of the ideas related to your topic with the reference to the literature. The main goal of the literature review is to define the gap in knowledge through its analysis.
- Methodology. This section explains in detail how you prepared and conducted your research and obtained the findings for conclusions. Here, you define the research design and indicate what research you are going to conduct, whether it is qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. If you have chosen a quantitative or mixed research design, you need to state your independent and dependent variables and the connection between them in your research. You also have to indicate the sample and explain the choice of the group in focus. This section has to include and discuss all details that are important for your research.
- Results. This section should provide all the findings you obtained in the course of your research. Remember that you need to properly structure these findings. If there is a possibility to arrange the findings in the tables, do it. Make sure that you present the findings in an easy to understanding way.
- Discussion. This is the section where you interpret the obtained findings and correlate them with the previous research on the topic. Be critical and indicate whether you have managed to confirm the results from other sources or have set some new direction. In addition, the discussion section may indicate the limitations of the study. Define how these limitations have affected the validity and reliability of your findings.
- Conclusion. Summarize your research as a whole. The conclusion section should indicate your findings and develop some ideas regarding future studies. Are there any implications for further research? Try to define the major ideas you have obtained while researching and define how you are going to use them. Provide recommendations of how others can use the results of your research in different fields of study, both in theory and in practice.
Concluding notes on capstone project writing
Although a capstone project is effort and time-consuming, it is not that difficult if you know how to write it. Start working on your capstone with the literature search. It will help you define the knowledge gap, properly develop your research steps and research questions, and start working on your literature review. If you start writing your capstone project with a literature review, you have a good chance to amend your research questions if you see a necessity to do it. Then, proceed to developing and conducting the actual research. Once it is done, reflect on the finding. Simply follow the plan you set for yourself at the very beginning.
