The Value Added of Your Capstone

The goal of scholarship is to add—even if in some small way—to what we believe we already know. There are many ways your capstone can “add value” to our store of knowledge. The Capstone Research Guide details a variety of approaches that all satisfy the Honors Program’s “originality requirement”—from original research to replication studies.

STEPS

First, identify from the Capstone Research Guide which approach you will be adopting that satisfies the originality requirement.

Second, review the literature you found from your work with  library finding aids.  Ask yourself, what is the relationship between the existing scholarly literature on the topic and your own capstone project?

How does your project, to use the words from They Say, I Say, responded to the existing conversation?

Third, in a formal essay of 350 to 550 words, describe using specifics:

• how and in what ways your research responds to the “existing conversation” (be sure it’s clear to the reader what the existing conversation is)
• how your project “adds value” to what we think we know
• Explain how and why, given (1) and (2) above, your project satisfies the originality requirement as detailed in the Capstone Research Guide.  Be sure to write this paragraph in cl/ev/wa format and use textual evidence from the Capstone Research Guide.

Writing Requirements

• Be sure to support your points with textual evidence from your research and source documents.
• When using textual evidence, be sure to follow the requirements for quotations.
• For every piece of textual evidence you provide, take a screenshot from the entire page of your source and include that screenshot at the end of your file when you submit to Blackboard. (how to take a screenshot: pc ; mac)