Top 10 Preproposal and Proposal Fixes for Capstone Writers
Today we’ll be presenting some easy fixes and things to
revise in your preproposal documents to help prepare your work for submission
and, later, to transition to your doctoral documents. Both Claire as a Writing
Instructor and Tara as a Dissertation Editor will be weighing in today with our
ideas about doing some up-front work to help enhance your documents as you
prepare for your capstone, which at Walden University is a term we use to describe the
premise, prospectus, proposal, and dissertation. Note that we will not be
discussing content today, as this is particular to your discipline and project.
Instead, we’ll go through 10 tips to streamline wording, keep your reader in
mind, and review APA errors as you revise.
These easy fixes we’ve identified below fit with
proofreading and revising strategies for the capstone. Based on our experience, these are the some of
the most important, but often overlooked, things that preproposal and proposal
writers can do to make their capstone writing experience as seamless as
possible.
We have arranged the fixes into three main categories:
Streamlining your wording, keeping the reader in mind, and reviewing for APA
errors. These categories were collaboratively created by us after some
discussion of what we most often see both in the Writing Center’s myPASS
preproposal schedule and in the form and style review process. We found that
our top quick fixes all fit into these categories, so if you are in the
preproposal stage start now! If you are already in your capstone work, these
are still useful as you revise prior to submitting at any point in your
process.
Fixes 1-3: Streamlining Your Wording
1. Work to have clear
citations with “I” statements. We often see phrasing like: I will use
qualitative methodology (Barnes, 2018). Since
Barnes didn’t write about your choice--the researcher wrote about the
methodology itself--readers will likely be confused about why a citation is
being included in the sentence. Only
include citations when you have summarized, paraphrased, or quoted from source
materials. A more expansive explanation
of evidence or narrative citation can help clarify things. See also: Creswell Did Not Write About You blog post
2. Be consistent with
your use of verb tenses, and make sure that they reflect the current status of
your research. In the preproposal stages, that means you will likely write in
the future tense “I will interview”. On the Writing Center instructor side of
things, Claire often sees confusing language here in the past tense when at the
preproposal stage, your study hasn’t been approved yet so everything is
hypothetical at that point. In the preproposal stage, make sure it is clear
that you have not yet completed the study itself.
Another important note from Tara is that you will have to
revise your verb tenses as you complete your study (e.g., change future tense
in the proposal to past tense in the final capstone study to reflect the fact
that you have completed your study). Just because you get that initial approval
doesn’t mean you should be done revising or ensuring your work is clear and
correct.
Join us next week as we continue our post and give you the final seven fixes for capstone writers. We'll cover topics like how to keep your reader in mind and how to check your writing for adherence to APA style. Happy writing, Walden writers!
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How do you use both how and what in the same purpose statement?
ReplyDeleteHi Benedict! The premise, prospectus, and proposal are all very specific documents. For help with the sections of these documents (including the purpose statement section), it is best to reach out to your instructor or chair or other committee member. If you are working on the premise or prospectus, you can also make an appointment with us in myPASS.
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