A time will definitely come when you will be required to write your capstone project as a student. A capstone project is basically a research assignment which is rather practical in nature. As a student, you will be required to review and analyze a certain problem that is largely associated with the learners’ area of experience. The main aim is to come up with a practical solution to a given problem. The entire process is student-oriented as far as future career experience is concerned. Therefore, a capstone project challenges the critical thinking skills among students, as well as how they can apply the same in ensuring that solid solutions are achieved. Here are the prime elements of a Capstone project:
Abstract
An abstract is essentially the summary of the entire research study. Here, the author focusses on all information that is of high interest to the reader, though in summary form. It is important to note that the abstract is different from the introduction of your paper. Therefore, the main focus should be giving the reader a clear summary of what the paper captures. The main concepts, such as the hypothesis, research methods, and the findings, must be part of the abstract. It is, however, important to note that while the abstract appears in the first page of your research, it should be written once you have completed the entire paper.
Introduction
This is essentially the part where you should familiarize your readers with the topic. In other words, a clear background of the topic you have chosen should be brought out in this section. It is also important to consider other areas, such as significance of the study, research objectives, and purpose of the study, among others. You can opt to segment the introduction into the aforementioned areas to give ample room for understanding among your readers. That is, the introduction should bring out the important information about the topic, and most importantly, knowledge within academic sphere. It is, thus, always important to include a thesis that succinctly describes the objective and beliefs around the capstone project.
Literature Review
This part of your capstone project requires you to find existing literature from different publications, such as books, journals, articles, and experiments, among others. At this juncture, your aim should be to connect the different literature works with your topic. It is recommended that you refer to literature materials that directly relate with your chosen topic for the sake of upholding context. Moreover, a detailed review on literature is needed as a way of either confirming or refuting your arguments and findings. You can further document the analysis of the literature materials you found in the Literature Review section. Most importantly, you must adequately cite all the sources that you found according to the preferred style.
Methodology
This section clearly brings out the approaches that were applied in gathering information. The writer must, therefore, provide and describe each of the data gathering methods, and the approach that will be applied in data analysis. The process of conducting the research must also be clearly covered in this chapter.
Results
After successfully applying the different methods of research, you will be required to provide the results of the entire process. At this juncture, all results must be based on exactly what was generated during the research, as opposed to assumptions of conclusions. In other words, the results should be provided without any interpretation.
Discussion
This part of your capstone project allows the writer to effectively analyze and discuss the results generated in the previous chapter. You should talk about the context and what the previous literature indicates about the study. This section should also discuss about the limitations of the study, as well as what can be done to make the research work more reliable. You are allowed to provide detailed information in this section.
Conclusion and References
This part allows you to conclude your research, whereby a clear summary is required. You must restate the major information captured in the study, which should be presented in a concise manner. Note that the conclusion should not in any way be associated with the introduction of new ideas. It is all about wrapping up the project.