Top 10 Preproposal and Proposal Fixes for Capstone Writers: Part II

Last week, we began our presentation on top fixes for those working on capstone projects here at Walden University. We made recommendations to writers about streamlining language use to capture an effective scholarly voice. Today, we are pleased to present the rest of our suggestions that cover topics like how to consider your reader as you write and how to review APA errors as you revise. The strategies we present today come from years of working with Walden capstone writers in the preproposal and proposal stages of their programs. We're happy to share what we've learned with you today!

Fixes 4-6: Keeping Your Reader In Mind

4. Try to avoid ending sections with a citation (unless explicitly required by your program). Instead focus on your project. Claire often notes that in preproposal documents the significance or other sections end with a piece of evidence. However, since the purpose of your work should be unique (no one else has done this particular study before), inclusion of a citation at the end of a section gives me as a reader the wrong emphasis. For clarity and flow, I always recommend trying to refocus readers on your project at the end of sections where possible.

5. Students writing a doctoral study or dissertation should make sure that key terms are defined appropriately and helpfully. Readers (and you!) need to be clear about the operational and conceptual definitions used in your document. When composing and revising this section of your study, first ask yourself whether the list includes all of the terms a reader needs to understand to follow your argument. Then, scrutinize the definitions to make sure that they are succinct and sufficiently descriptive and that they provide readers with clear definitions of terms as they are used in your study. Support your definitions with appropriate citations. Remember to arrange definitions in ascending alphabetical order (A, B, C, D, etc.) and indent them like paragraphs. In addition, definitional terms should be italicized and in sentence case and followed by a nonitalicized colon.

6. Be sure to follow APA guidelines for abbreviations. This fix relates to keeping your reader in mind because abbreviations are meant to help out your reader—you want to abbreviate terms you’ll be using over and over and find a helpful and clear abbreviation to use to assist readers. You want to be consistent and to follow APA style specifications. Sometimes, inclusion of abbreviations can be distracting and unhelpful to readers, particularly if many abbreviations are used within a sentence or paragraph. Readers are also distracted by the inconsistent use of abbreviations in a text (e.g., an abbreviation is introduced, but the full term is used in subsequent sentences). See also: our webpage on APA abbreviations. 

Fixes 7-10: Review APA Errors as You Revise

7. Ensure that “References” at the beginning of your reference section is centered, flush left, but not bold. Per APA, References is treated as a title rather than a heading for formatting. See APA, p. 62, for a helpful overview of how to format headings in APA. For doctoral capstone writers, the Form and Style Review Checklist also includes a quick and easy-to-grasp overview of headings.

8. Don’t list the library or a database as your source URL. A reader who isn’t a Walden student or who does not have access to a certain database can’t use a database URL. Instead, first search for the doi number. If there is no doi number, then type the name of the journal/source into Google. Find that source’s Internet homepage and copy and paste the homepage link after “retrieved from” in your reference (be sure to undo the automatic hyperlink).

9. Make sure your reference list and sources in your document match. You’ll work on these documents over a long period of time, so having some sources that are cut or never used is understandable! But not having a reference entry for a source a reader wants to look up, or listing a source you never reference, is confusing to the reader, so be sure to double check.

10. Check that you’ve used & and “and” correctly in your citations. If a citation is in parentheses (or in your reference list), always use “&”—think of it as a shorthand. If you’ve referenced the authors as part of the meaning of the sentence, spell out “and” as this is part of your larger text. See also: additional citation resources.

We are confident that making the fixes we’ve identified will strengthen your doctoral study and make your experience more enjoyable. The preproposal stage is a great time to start using this list. In the comments box, be sure to share whether you have your own list of easy fixes for capstone proofreading and revising.

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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