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.

3. Ask yourself whether you’re writing as concisely and economically as possible. Read your work aloud. Shorten and connect sentences with effective transitions and synthesis. Tara often recommends that capstone writers try to keep sentences to about three lines, maximum, and paragraphs to about 5-7 sentences (or, about half a page). This may vary slightly depending on your project of course, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind since your readers have a lot to get through.

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! 

 

Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor and Tara Kachgal is a Dissertation Editor in the Walden University Writing Center. Both are dedicated to supporting writers as the begin, progress, and complete their capstone projects. 

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