If you ever ask any student about the most painful assignment they ever received, you may bet the capstone project will make the top-3. And in many cases, it will be the leader. This assignment is really sophisticated, demanding, and causing as many problems as it can at the stage of preparing the capstone proposal.
But everything is possible if you know what to do. This practical guide on how to write a capstone proposal will help you master this task and write that perfect paper to get 100% approval. You will find helpful tips and successful strategies on crafting a capstone proposal step by step, as we are going to get you equipped with the most effective means to achieve your goals.
What is a capstone proposal?
Before providing any tips, we want to tell you the capstone proposal explanation. A capstone project is a lengthy, complex assignment that students have to complete during their last year in college. It can relate to any subject, and the purpose is to demonstrate the student’s level of competence in that subject. You may consider it a little brother of the dissertation. You have to study the problem in-depth and offer a practical solution. And it takes much time and energy.
The challenge starts with writing a capstone proposal.
What is a capstone proposal? The question is essential because this paper is a separate document with its specific requirements. It has quite a modest size and has to present the essence of your project, its most important points, and the information about the course you took.
You need to submit this piece to prove that you have the skills you were supposed to obtain during that course. Also, this proposal must demonstrate that you can research and analyze the materials, make valuable conclusions, structure the information, and expose your finding efficiently and accurately.
This document is an integral part of writing the capstone project itself. You can’t avoid it.
What should you include in your capstone proposal document?
We have defined why we need the capstone proposal and what it should demonstrate. Yet, what is the point of capstone proposal? Let us proceed to the more concrete things and consider which specific elements we must have there.
It is important to note that you need to have both the capstone project and the capstone proposal. The requirements are similar, though the proposal is much shorter. You may consider the capstone proposal to be the “teaser” to the project – it contains the general information, and the focus is on your ability to summarize and present your findings.
What is in a capstone proposal? | Common Guide
What is in a capstone proposal? This question is very frequent since students don’t face this task often. In writing the capstone proposals, appropriate preparations are the most important factors. Very often, they define the overall result you obtain from your efforts. So, have a look at the things to care about before you start to write the capstone proposal. And pay attention to the things emerging in the process and after the completion. Here are some basic tips for writing a capstone proposal:
- Select the topic of the capstone project wisely. Your work starts with choosing what you will write about. The topic must be relevant for your course and match the requirements set by your professor. On the other hand, it has to be appealing and prospective enough to motivate you to research the problem thoroughly and make your results valuable.
- Take your time to create and polish the capstone project proposal. This document is compulsory. So, you have to make it excellent. Though modest in size, it sets high demands on the contents and the exposition style. You need to provide the basic information – the topic, the main point of your research, the methods you used, and the resources you are grounded on. Revise it and polish each sentence to make it to the point.
- Research the problem. You need to collect the information from different sources. The quality of those sources is crucial. They must be trustworthy. Pay attention to the origins and the authors. You need to check who they are, their backgrounds, where they published their works. In your research, you must rely on authoritative voices. It is unacceptable to use any biased or dubious sources.
- Schedule the work. This relates to the capstone project first of all. The capstone proposal, due to its size, would require a day or two of work. However, the entire project is lengthy and demands a lot of time. It is essential to organize your work appropriately from the very beginning. Consistency is the key. You need to devote a definite amount of time daily and always complete a part of the work daily. Otherwise, it becomes more and more complicated to start working after a break.
- Outline the documents. The proper structure is vital for both the capstone proposal and the project. To make sure that your documents are logical and organized, outline them precisely. Plan the structure with the mandatory parts and define the points you’ll highlight there, your statements, arguments, and references. Each part of the capstone project is crucial and has its requirements. Check them for each segment, such as the introduction, the literature review, or methodology. Make sure that your planned contents will match the requirements completely.
- Start to write early. You need time to complete the capstone project, and there must be enough time to write it, polish, and prepare for the defense. That’s why don’t postpone writing. Start immediately after having the outline done. You don’t have to follow the order of parts in the ready work – start where you can. But you need to write the piece by schedule to keep the working rhythm and avoid writer’s block.
- Proofread the results. This recommendation seems obvious because no one would submit the draft for evaluation. And your capstone proposal and capstone project are nothing but drafts until you edit and proofread them. This process covers more than just tracking and fixing grammar and spelling errors. You may need to check every capstone proposal requirement, rewrite certain sentences or paragraphs, change their order, check capstone proposal format etc. Editing and proofreading may take almost as much time as writing the capstone. Thus, be ready and patient. If you prefer the do-it-yourself approach, you will need to revise the results several times. Besides, if you use online grammar checking software, pay attention that they are helpful, but not universal. You will still need to examine the texts yourself. Another solution is to use the advantage of a fresh eye – you could ask some friend or relative to have a look at the drafts and evaluate them. Or, turn to the professional editors.
- Prepare yourself to defend the capstone project. The defense is an essential part of the final score you collect for the capstone project. You may write a perfect piece, but the weak defense will hurt it terribly. Thus, you need to get ready and plan your presentation for the academic committee. Besides, there will be discussions, and you must be ready for them too. If you are an expert on the topic, there is nothing to worry about. You will make it. Still, consider which questions the committee members may ask you, and be ready to answer them.
The capstone proposal form guide
When you get the capstone proposal requirements, examine them precisely. Your work must meet them all, otherwise, your high grade is jeopardized. The format of the work is essential too, and it must be correct according to the standards. The following capstone project proposal construction must be present, in the below order:
- Name and Last Name
- Banner ID#
- UNA box
- Phone number
- Major
- Anticipated graduation
- The title of the capstone course, the respective department, semester/year, and credit hours
- The director of the capstone course
- The subject description
- The signature of the student, capstone proposal due date and the actual date
- The signature of the capstone director, the actual date
- The signature of the Honors director, the actual date
By this time, you should already have all the necessary capstone proposal requirements. So, you can compose the capstone proposal form according to this template and submit it. You can also check our capstone proposal form example on a website to have a greater understanding of its view. After having this application approved, the student can proceed to the capstone project itself.
However, even with detailed practical guidelines, it may remain complicated to compose the capstone proposal. In this case, we’ll be happy to offer our database of high-quality capstone proposal sample. Of course, you should not use them directly, it will be plagiarism. However, you can refer to them to check the structure of the proposal, get familiar with the writing style and the standard phrases. Based on these references, you can create a perfect capstone proposal for your topic and subject.
Some more practical tips for writing a capstone project proposal template
As we already mentioned, the capstone proposal project introduction is small. Thus, you should focus on exposing the information as briefly and concisely as possible.
- First, you need to have the capstone project itself. Read it with attention and proceed to summarizing a capstone proposal. This way, you receive a sort of “shortened version” for the full project.
- Check the information and relate it to the requirements of the capstone proposal form shown earlier. The primary points to summarize are the thesis statement, the literature overview, and the methods.
- Make sure to put the thesis statement into the last part of the document!
- Check all the sources you are going to mention in the proposal. They all must be trustworthy and contain actual data only.
There are some additional aspects you should take into consideration when working on the capstone proposal and project. They are as follows:
- You can dedicate the capstone project to several subjects at once
This is a common practice, as many topics are complex and require knowledge and skills from different areas of knowledge. Keep this in mind when you are choosing the right topic for your project. - Make sure to work on relevant issues
After collecting the information, you may feel tempted to include everything you found in the project. However, you should not do it. Doing this project, focus on the things that relate to your topic directly. Otherwise, you risk making the piece too vague and losing the necessary sharpness. - It is okay to change the topic
The choice of the topic does not mean you have to stick to it only. You can change it in the process. If you have another idea, or your research led you to a different area with exciting prospects – you can switch and pick a different topic. The only thing is, make sure that you can deliver the results – you have the sources and the time.
As you see, writing a capstone proposal is not really an issue when you know the approach. Follow our recommendations, use the template, refer to the library of the ready example of capstone project proposal – and you can prepare and polish the proposal worth appreciation. And, of course, our professional writing consultants will be glad to assist you personally if you need more information and guidelines, ask our writers “do my capstone project” and get a professional help.
