Running head and p.# top of each page 1
Capstone Project Chapter Guidelines
This description is intended to provide guidelines only, and should be adapted for
individual studies. The headings and subheadings are formatted in APA style. Note also
that your papers need to be double-spaced, with paragraphs indented, and only 1 doublespaced return between each paragraph. (For purposes of saving space, these guidelines
are single-spaced.) One more note—use the header/footer function in Word for the
running head and page number.
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction or Statement of Purpose
Start off with an introductory statement that catches the reader’s attention
(described as a “narrative hook” by Creswell) and a brief paragraph that sets the scene
and leads into your description of the purpose of the study. This chapter should be 3-5
pages.
Purpose of the Study (or Problem Statement)
The purpose of this study was to… Watch your verb tense—be consistent!
Background (or Significance of the Study)
This is the section that “grounds” the study in the field or in the literature. Use 46 references. It consists of a brief synthesis of literature focused primarily on the
significance of the study. Tell the reader know why it’s important, based on gaps in the
field (it’s never been done before), or future or present needs. You can cite local statistics
when relevant, to illustrate the importance.
Setting (and/or Audience)
This is a brief description (not too many details) of your participants and where
the study is being done. You usually do not name the organization or school system or
give other identifying information, unless the group has agreed to be identified.
Assumptions
This is the only place you can refer to yourself in the first person. This is about
who you are, the assumptions or biases you might bring into the study, your experience
and expectations, and why it is important to you.
Limitations (or Scope of the Study)
This can be combined with Assumptions (above) or done separately. Here you
talk about what the study does and does not cover. When appropriate, you would caution
the reader to not generalize or make broad interpretations from your results.
Definitions
Define important terms you use that may have several definitions and that need
clarification for the reader. You can use bullets and do not need complete sentences. Cite
references for definitions when appropriate. These may be backed up by citations, but do
not need to be. This section is needed only for studies that use terms that aren’t in general
usage.
Summary
Briefly wrap up this section with a summary type paragraph that describes the
purpose of the study and its significance.
Each chapter should start on a new page…use the Page Break function in Word to start
new pages. And speaking of pages, watch for one liners, or dangling subheadings at the
end of a page—headings shouldn’t be separated from their content; and if you have one
line left at the bottom or top of a page, move another line so that there are two together!
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
Introduce the literature review first with a reminder about what the study is about.
Next, describe the layout of the chapter, e.g., There were three predominant themes in the
literature on…. This review will first address these themes, then will describe the…, and
finally, will summarize the current thinking in the field on…. The organization of the
chapter that you have described in the first paragraph should parallel the subheadings in
your chapter. This will make your Table of Contents much easier to do. This section
should be 8-10 pages or more.
First Theme Subheading
Here are some ways to think about the literature review. First, you need to give
the reader an overview on the research and thinking that are in the literature on this
topic—give a good background. This may include pros and cons, or several schools of
thought that are not necessarily in agreement with each other. You want to show the
reader that you have done your homework—that you know what is out there and you
have done a balanced search on the topic.
Another Subheading
You may also want to do an historical overview—how was this issue addressed in
the past? Sometimes this historical perspective will be your first theme. The order of your
subheadings will be determined by your topic and the information you find in your
literature, and can be planned out with guidance from your committee chair
Something else to think about is if you have subheadings under subheadings.
Then you need to check with the APA guidelines on “levels of headings” and be sure to
be consistent throughout your paper.
Another Subheading
An important thing about the lit review is that you cannot outline it until you have
delved into the literature—you will not know the themes until you have discovered them.
And then it is a circular kind of process—themes emerge, they lead to more themes, so
you have some additional topics to search for, etc. You want to shoot for 15-20
references here. There will also be some repetition from Chapter One, since you will have
drawn from the literature to describe the significance of the study. Repetition is part of
the process--but do not do it in a word-for-word fashion.
Summary
In this paragraph, remind the reader what the overall study is about, what the
literature review addressed, and do a smooth transition sentence to the next chapter.
CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
This chapter is about what you did and how you did it. Start with a reminder
about the purpose of the study. Then do a brief description of the layout of the chapter,
e.g…. This chapter will first describe the setting and participants studied, will next
discuss the development of the survey, and will conclude with a description of the
process used to gather and analyze the data. This chapter should be 3-5 pages long.
Setting and Participants (or you can do a separate section on each)
Decide if this is anonymous or not; give demographics; you should also talk about
how the participants were selected—randomly? From a school district list? Was it a
purposive sample? Also mention a reference to the Human Subject application, e.g.,
Participants were identified from a list of teachers in the local school district (see
Appendix A for copies of the Human Subjects forms). You will need to include some of
the elements of this in the Appendix—a copy of the letter from IRB granting you
permission to move forward on your study, a blank copy of the Consent Form, the form
or letter that solicited your participants, and the letter from the person in authority who
gave you permission to do the study in their organization.
Research Design (or Survey Development or Curriculum Development, or Research
Procedures)
Here you just describe the process used. Whenever appropriate or possible,
anchor your methods in the literature—use the research text as a reference, or references
on interviewing techniques, or survey development resources. If you are designing a
curriculum, reference sources on curriculum development.
Data Gathering and Analysis (or Curriculum Pilot, or whatever is appropriate)
Describe how you gathered your data—if you did not describe your sampling
procedure above, describe it here. Describe how you made sense of the raw data. For
example, if you did a statistical analysis, describe what you did. If you drew themes from
interviews, describe how you did that. If you piloted a curriculum, describe how you
evaluated it and revised it based on the results of the evaluation.
And remember—this is only about what you did and how you did it—save the
actual results for the next chapter!!
Summary
Just a brief summary paragraph that transitions to the next chapter.
CHAPTER FOUR
Results and Discussion
Start out by reminding the reader what the study was about and how the study was
done, and then describe the layout of the chapter.
You have a couple of choices here—some people prefer to have chapter 4 be just
about results. Then chapter 5 is Discussion and Conclusions. Do what works for you and
your data. At any rate…here’s what you do with results and with the discussion. This
chapter should be 4-10 pages long, but will vary a great deal, depending on the format of
your results and whether you include the discussion.
Results
Always be sure to give the context—if you are reporting on data from survey
questions, remind the reader about the overall survey, and which section you are talking
about at the moment.
Graphs, charts, summaries are appropriate, but no raw data. Check APA for how
to label tables. Instruments (surveys, interview questions, pre and post tests) go in the
appendix. Raw data also go in the appendix. If you did interviews or have open-ended
questions on a survey, you can include quotes as examples in your analysis. (Just a note
here—the word “data” is plural…so you’d say “The data show…” instead of “The data
shows…”)
Subheadings about themes within your results. Depending on your study, you
may want to use another level of subheading to organizing the reporting of your results.
Discussion
Somewhere at this point, either here or above in the results section, you
synthesize your data—summarize your findings, talk about the meaning of what you
found. Then you move into the interpretation of your results—what does it mean in a
focused way, and what does it mean in a more global way?
This is where you close the circle…tie your results to all the foundations you have
established in the first two chapters—why the study was important, how it fit into the
literature in the field, what your study set out to do—make sense of the data in that
context. So you would say things like, These results support what so and so said about
this in 2005, or These results are not consistent with the trend that so and so reported on,
or These results illustrate the importance of …, as documented in several studies in the
last decade. You will need to cite all these references in APA format, as you did in the
earlier chapters.
Summary
Provide a brief summary paragraph about the results and how they fit in the
literature foundation.
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary and Conclusions
In this chapter you do yet another brief summary of what you did and why, and
then talk about the broader implications. This chapter should be 3-6 pages long.
You may want a section subheaded Significant Findings (or you may not).
Educational Implications
You definitely want this section. This should be your finest writing here—in the
long-term, and from the big picture perspective, how can what you did make a difference
in the field of education?
Recommendations for Future Research
This is where you can pull together all those things you learned along the way and
wish you had included in your study or wish you had done differently, or have seen the
need for as a result of your research.
Summary (or Conclusions)
A perfect little paragraph that puts it to rest, or energizes some future student to
pick up where you left off!
Curriculum Projects
If you have developed a curriculum, the last two chapters may not apply to you—
but there will still be a research element, e.g., some type of data gathering/evaluation and
analysis, and this should be written up in the format of a research design. With a
curriculum, it is suggested that you include the results of the pilot (when applicable) or
the input from an advisory board in chapter three, and any revisions you have made based
on those results. The curriculum itself would be included in whatever user-friendly
format you select, and should be attached at the end of your 4-5 chapters.
In most cases, your reference list will follow chapter three. Then, rather than
chapters four and five, you will present your curriculum. It should be a stand-alone
product with its own introduction, table of contents, and resource list of recommended
readings when applicable. It does not need to be in APA format, but should be as userfriendly as possible. The one guideline you do need to follow is the 1 ½ inch margin on
the left, so that it is easily read when bound.