What’s the Difference Between a Summary, a Transition, and a Preview in a Capstone Study?
(Note: For the sake of
simplicity, this blog uses the dissertation terms chapter and section. In doctoral studies, the
cognates are section and
subsection.)
At the end of all but the last chapter of a capstone (dissertation or doctoral study) study,
most rubrics require three elements: a summary
of the current chapter and a transition
statement to get readers from the current chapter to the next chapter. Then, at
the start of that next chapter, there is a preview
of its major sections. Because guidance from the various programs says little
about how these three elements differ, they tend to be treated as equivalent to
one another. For example, the summary may just list the topics covered in the
chapter (much like the Table of Contents does); the transition may just list the
next chapter’s main headings (much like the Table of Contents does); and like
the chapter summary, the preview at the start of the following chapter may just
list the next part of the Table of
Contents. Alas, such redundancy is not very helpful for readers. The goal of
this post is to suggest how to distinguish these elements in the narrative.
Think of Your Study as a Story
First, try to see your study—and write about it—as if it
were a story: There’s a beginning (Introduction, Literature Review), a middle (Methodology,
Results), and an end (Discussion, Conclusions, Recommendations). In the summary
of each chapter, recap the main points or essence of the chapter, but do it in
a way that gives your readers a sense of the study’s evolution. A mere list of
topics (what was covered), is not enough. Make sure it’s clear how all the
elements fit together--for example, the relationship among the problem,
purpose, and research question or guiding question. You’ll be writing from a narrow
perspective, that is, the current chapter.
After the chapter summary comes the transition statement, which forms a bridge between the current
chapter and the following chapter. A mere list of topics is not helpful; guidance
on the interrelationships is needed. Describe how the current chapter leads to the
following chapter and how the next chapter advances your story (study). Write
from a broad perspective, that is, your entire study.
While the transition statement serves to bridge chapters, the
chapter preview opens the following chapter.
In the preview, tell your readers what you will cover in just this chapter. Again,
be clear about how all the elements fit together. A list of topics is not
helpful. The goal is to make sure that your reader does not feel lost. Here,
again, you’ll be writing from a narrow perspective, that is, the current
chapter.
None of these three is easy to write. But you might consider
approaching them as a tour guide or baseball announcer.
The Tour Guide
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| Gettysburg battlefield (image (c) Emilyk | CC by 3.0) |
The Baseball Announcer
 |
| Imagine yourself as an announcer, like Harry Caray, famous American baseball broadcaster (Public domain image modified from the original by Delaywaves.) |
Now envision yourself doing the play-by-play announcing for
a baseball game. At the end of each inning, you announce the score and recap what
happened during that inning (like the chapter summary). Then you might say who’s
coming to bat in the next inning and talk a little about what these players are
facing this inning, based on the team’s history against this particular
opponent, and how the game has progressed so far (like the transition statement).
Finally, you run down the names of the three lead-off batters (like the preview).
Whether visiting a historic site, watching a baseball game,
or trying to follow the argument of a complex research study, guidance is
needed to recall what has been seen or read, how that fits in the bigger
picture, and what is coming up next. Summaries, transition statements, and
previews provide critical continuity in capstone studies.
Summaries, transition statements, and previews provide critical continuity in capstone studies.
Dissertation Editor Tim McIndoo, who joined Walden University in 2007, has more than 30 years of editorial experience in the fields of education, medicine, science and technology, and fiction. When it comes to APA style, he says, "I don't write the rules; I just help users follow them."
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Summaries, transition statements, and previews provide critical continuity in capstone studies.
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Dissertation Editor Tim McIndoo, who joined Walden University in 2007, has more than 30 years of editorial experience in the fields of education, medicine, science and technology, and fiction. When it comes to APA style, he says, "I don't write the rules; I just help users follow them."
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WriteCast Episode 15: What To Do With Negative Feedback on Your Writing
Feeling frustrated, discouraged, or confused about feedback on your writing? Want to know how to handle these feelings in the future? Don't miss our discussion with Dr. Melanie Brown, associate director and manager of writing initiatives at the Walden Writing Center. Dr. Brown also teaches Walden student support courses, and she has a lot of helpful advice for students on what to do with negative faculty feedback.
To download the episode to your computer, press the share button on the player above, then press the download button. Visit the Writing Center's WriteCast page for our episode archive and transcripts. Happy listening!
Blog posts mentioned in this episode: "Help Them Help You: Being Receptive to Faculty Feedback"
WriteCast is hosted by writing instructors Nikolas Nadeau and Brittany Kallman Arneson and produced by writing instructor Anne Shiell. Check out the podcast archive for more episodes.
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How to Give Useful Peer Feedback
Throughout this article are 12 "tweetable takeaways." Click on a Twitter icon () to share one of Lydia's peer review tips.
Giving and getting peer feedback on drafts can be an incredible tool for improving your writing, but only if that feedback is clear and specific about what to do next. Having someone say, “I liked it!” or “Well done!” can feel good for a moment, but it won’t help anyone improve.
) to share one of Lydia's peer review tips. Giving and getting peer feedback on drafts can be an incredible tool for improving your writing, but only if that feedback is clear and specific about what to do next. Having someone say, “I liked it!” or “Well done!” can feel good for a moment, but it won’t help anyone improve.
You also don’t have to “know
everything” to give helpful writing feedback; just be self-aware about your own
reading experience. The whole point of feedback is to just show the author what
a reader will see in a draft.
 |
| Is peer review part of your writing process? |
General Strategies
Find out what the author wants, but keep in mind you may see things
the author hasn’t considered yet, too.
Don’t give too much; don’t give too little. Sometimes it is not
helpful to point out every error and make suggestions on every line—this can be
overwhelming. Vague or incomplete feedback can be just as frustrating and can
feel like a waste of time.
Follow the golden rule. Give the kind of feedback that you would
like to get. That is, be respectful, constructive, thorough, and honest.
Trust yourself as a reader. If something is not clear to you, the
author probably needs to make it clearer. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense
because the author hasn’t made sense of it yet.
Content Critique versus Error Correction
You don’t need to be a grammar or APA expert to give worthwhile feedback. Address the big things first! For example, if you are reading over someone’s problem statement, it is probably more important that the author made sure you could understand the point than if he or she used a semicolon correctly. Focus on content and clarity before you
focus on mechanical errors, like typos or missing punctuation. Proofreading
concerns should come last unless they significantly interfere with a reader’s overall
understanding.
Thinking of Things to Say
Keep track of questions that
occur to you as you read. For example: How does this
point relate to the one before? What does this term mean? Is there a missing
word here?
Offer concrete suggestions
whenever you can. For example: This
paragraph might work better at the beginning. I was confused here—maybe a
subheading would make the transition clearer.
Examples of things to focus on in
a content critique:
- Organization (are things in a logical order?)
- Consistency/contradiction (does the author say the same thing throughout or seem to change his or her mind?)
- Focus (can you tell what the main ideas are, or is there a lot of extra information?)
- General clarity (make note of passages that don’t seem to make sense to you, either because the wording is confusing, there is not enough explanation, or you can’t tell how the information fits in to the main idea)
- Point out when authors do
something well, too, and let them know why. For example: The obvious topic sentences really helped me follow your argument. The wording
in this paragraph is clear and easy to understand. Explaining it this way is
much better than in the earlier paragraph—now I know what you mean.
Don’t Get Stuck
If you can’t find something
positive to say about a draft, look at it from another perspective: The wording
is dense and hard for you to understand, but maybe you can really tell how
knowledgeable the author is about the topic. (When people have a lot to say, sometimes
it just takes a few drafts to make sure they say everything in the right
order.)
If you come across something you
just don’t understand, tell the author this, but also say what you think it means—sometimes when an author
hears a reader’s interpretation (or misinterpretation) of an idea, the author
can more easily figure out what to fix.
If you can’t find anything to
critique, focus on making sure the author knows why
what he or she did worked. Don’t just say “This is awesome!” Be specific: “I could
really tell how all the scholarly evidence fit together—the way you explained
things and gave examples was really helpful.”
Interpreting Feedback for Your Own Work
Try not to take it personally—you
are very close to your own writing and may think you have settled on the right
way to do things. What makes sense in your
head may not make sense in someone else’s.
Be grateful! Thoughtful feedback
takes time and mental energy. If someone has a lot of suggestions, don’t think
of it as “tearing your paper apart;” think of how many ways he or she is trying
to make it better.
You don’t have to follow every
suggestion, but keep an open mind. A fresh pair of eyes may catch something you
missed.
Getting #writing feedback: Don't take it personally, be grateful, & stay open-minded.
Giving and getting peer review feedback is an excellent way to develop your skills as a writer. We encourage you to join a writing community and/or find a writing partner to make peer review a regular part of your writing process.
Getting #writing feedback: Don't take it personally, be grateful, & stay open-minded.
Tweet this
Giving and getting peer review feedback is an excellent way to develop your skills as a writer. We encourage you to join a writing community and/or find a writing partner to make peer review a regular part of your writing process.
Practice: Find a draft of something you wrote a while ago. Pick something you haven’t written or read recently so that you have some distance from it. Take 10-15 minutes to read over and make comments on the draft, imagining you are giving feedback to a colleague on his or her work. What kinds of things do you notice? What suggestions for revision can you make?
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Lydia Lunning is one of the editors in the Writing Center who conduct the final form and style review of all of Walden’s dissertations and doctoral studies. She was terrible at revising her own work until she joined a peer tutoring program in college.
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Ready, Set, Write! It’s time for #NaNoWriMo and #AcWriMo.
Do you thrive under pressure?
Need to set a few goals for yourself and your writing? Want to challenge
yourself in your writing?
November marks the beginning
of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo).
This is the month for writers and academics across the globe to come together
for accountability and motivation to start that novel they’ve always wanted to
write or to work on an academic writing project. It’s a great chance for
writers to get involved in a goal-oriented and fun writing community!
.jpg "AcWriMo: Are you in?")
Have you ever considered jumping on the writing bandwagon? Tobias Ball (Dissertation Editor and Developmental Editing Coordinator), Amber Cook (Manager of Program Outreach and Faculty Support), and Nathan Sacks (Writing Instructor) of our Writing Center staff have participated or are considering participating in NaNoWriMo. Here’s what they have to say:
Why did you choose to participate in AcWriMo and/or NaNoWriMo?
Tobias Ball (Dissertation Editor and Developmental
Editing Coordinator): “I did it
because [a coworker] ...suggested I give it a try. I had an idea for a novel
that I had not yet started, so I went for it.”
Amber Cook (Manager of Program Outreach and Faculty
Support): “I needed a kickstart for a
writing project I’d been dreaming about for a while. I was always overwhelmed
at the idea of committing to such a long-term goal, so having a month-long
challenge made it seem much more doable.”
Nathan Sacks (Writing Instructor): “Any writing practice is good writing practice, and I
look at NaNoWriMo as a chance to work on a completely new project I have never
thought of or worked on before.”
You participated in NaNoWriMo in the past. What were the drawbacks to participating?
Tobias: “There
were no drawbacks. It was fun and I wrote 85,000 words in 4 weeks. It felt good
to start and complete something.”
Amber: “I
got really behind on my Netflix queue. :) [Also] November is a
tough month, with Thanksgiving travel and pre-holiday business, and I lost some
steam at the end last time. I have a desk job, so it was sometimes hard to make
myself spend yet another few hours at a desk for so many days in a row.”
What particular challenges did you experience or do you expect to encounter?
Tobias: “My
regular pattern is to start my day with about an hour of writing. […] I added
some writing time at night.”
Nathan: “If
you can’t write one day because of an emergency or other reason, it may be
harder to get back on the saddle and keep working for the rest of November. [Another
challenge is] running up against the limits of my knowledge and imagination,
which is always when I generate the best stuff.”
What benefit would it be to Walden students to participate in AcWriMo and/or NaNoWriMo?
Amber: “The
short-term nature of the challenge helps keep the end in sight, so it doesn’t
seem as overwhelming as, say, a 12-month project. It also provides a helpful
accountability framework, allowing you to connect with others on the same solitary
journey and reminding you to stay on track with your page count.”
Are YOU up
for the challenge? See PhD2Published's AcWriMo 2014 announcement and the NaNoWriMo official website for more details.
Practice: For the next 10 minutes, think about a writing goal that you have for this month. Then, declare your goal in the comments! Remember to provide feedback to other writers to help them stay motivated and accountable towards their goals.
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Rachel Grammer is a writing instructor and the coordinator of student messaging at the Walden Writing Center. The best writing advice she has received is to turn off the "internal editor" when beginning a paper--a great tip for starting AcWriMo or NaNoWriMo!
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Writing Center Services Announcement from the Director
As many of you have probably heard by now, the Writing
Center and Academic Skills Center have recalibrated their services to better
support student writing at Walden. In short, we are (a) adding doctoral writing workshops for capstone (premise, prospectus, and proposal) writers and
(b) shifting of our paper review service to serve undergraduate, master’s, and
doctoral students in coursework only. This means that by the end of the year our
paper review schedule will no longer accommodate capstone drafts, but all of
our other services (e.g., course visits, developmental editing, Q&A
support, webinars) will continue to support capstone writers.
The rationale
for this change is twofold: We want to (a) reserve skill-building sessions for
those students still in the formative stages of their degrees and (b) create a
scalable service via the workshops to ensure that all students needing
assistance at this stage can be supported (e.g., we can continue to grow our
faculty to accommodate our enrollment).
While this
change may be welcome to some and less so to others, I do want to remind you about all of the services we offer with the following figure.
Walden Writing Center Services
Key:
Available to All Students
Exclusive to Students Working on Their Capstones
Exclusive to Undergraduate Students
Exclusive to All PreProposal Students
* Available via the Walden Writing Center website
** Membership may be requested at editor@waldenu.edu
ǂ 24-48 hours from day of appointment, exclusive to students working on their coursework
Brian Timmerman is the director of the Walden Writing Center and the Academic Skills Center.
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