Outline
Now that you have begun to do research in earnest for
your project, begin thinking about how you will organize your material. An
outline is critical to helping you begin to organize your thoughts and the
development of your paper. Consequently, it is imperative you devote your
attention to this outline so that you know with some degree of confidence where
you are going with your research and your writing. You can, of course, modify
your approach after the outline has been submitted based on further research or
considerations. However, at this juncture, it is important to have the
necessary groundwork laid out for how you anticipate moving the capstone
project forward.
- Develop a full-sentence outline
for your entire capstone project. Use at least three levels (I, A, 1). You
may use the following outline template as an example or draft your own.
This will help you to plan out what you intend to research and write about
for each of the major points of your capstone project. As you create this
outline, you will begin to see a flow of ideas and how they relate to your
problem statement, research question, or thesis statement. Using your
increasing knowledge, define the scope of your research question more
completely. Incorporate important concepts or theories that relate to your
topic, and explain how the sources you are finding relate to these
concepts.
- Use alphanumeric or any other
format that Word offers to create your outline (provided you go at least
to the third level) and write in complete sentences (not phrases and not
paragraphs). The use of full sentences will help your mentor better
understand what you have in mind, since phrases can be ambiguous or lack
sufficient information or clarity.
- Review examples of sample full
sentence outlines and various levels using the links below:
- Your outline should conclude with
5 to 7 sources in APA or MLA format with entries alphabetized. These
sources should be academic in nature and indicative of a source that would
be reliable and recognized, though it does not need to necessarily be
peer-reviewed. This information will be useful for your mentor to
understand how you are proceeding with your research and provide helpful
feedback.
Narrative
In your narrative, define the
scope of your research question, determine the key concepts, and relate your
sources directly to the research question or key concepts.
- With
your research question in mind, explain the scope of your project. The
scope includes the specific goals of your project as well as the tasks
that need to be completed in order to reach those goals related to your
research question. After completely defining your project’s scope, defend
the appropriateness of this scope for your project and why it is neither
too broad nor too narrow.
- Determine
the key concepts you must research, study, and analyze to move your
project forward. Provide preliminary definitions of these key concepts and
explain how they relate to your research question.
- Indicate
the types of information sources (i.e. databases, journals, articles) that
you have selected so far and will continue to seek. For each information
source type, explain how it relates directly to your research question or
the key concepts you have identified.
The narrative is intended to help the reader see how you
have approached finding the required information to the resolution of your
problem statement, research question, or continued development of your
hypothesis or thesis statement. In an effort to expand your breadth of
understanding of your topic, it is expected you will continue to actively
engage in research throughout the duration of the course.
RUBRIC
Full-sentence outline |
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Quality of sources |
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Number of sources |
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Narrative |
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Determine extent of information needed |
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Expectations/completeness |
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Mechanics |
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APA or MLA format |
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