Doctoral Capstone Form and Style Review

Welcome to Walden University's Capstone Form and Style page.

Templates Form and Style Review SMRTguides APA and Writing For Capstone Faculty

Form and Style, editing, and self-editing advice for students writing the capstone.

Introduction to the Form and Style Review

The Form and Style Review is an official step in the doctoral capstone approval process. After the committee approves the completed doctoral capstone study, the chair will release it for review by Walden’s Form and Style editors. The editors read through a large portion of the study for formatting and style, offering suggestions for revision to improve the writing and make sure that the document conforms to APA, Walden, and ProQuest database specifications.

The Form and Style Review Process

The Form and Style Review is conducted by Walden’s Form and Style Editors and is one of the stages of approval during the capstone process. Each dissertation, doctoral study, and project study (capstone) at Walden will go through this process. The Form and Style Review occurs after the committee has approved the final document, and the chair passes it on to our team.

After editors spend 6-10 hours on a manuscript, students can expect direct edits, suggestions, and identified patterns of required revisions.. Students will receive two versions of their manuscript:

An edited version of their manuscript with track changes and in-text comments, along with a query letter and checklist for revisions. All formatting changes will be made to margins, pagination, tables, figures, appendices, etc.
A mostly clean copy, with track changes accepted for the student and only a few comments for students to address before moving forward.

When we return the document, we will include a cover letter to explain the general types of changes that we have implemented, as well as general comments for improvement going forward. We also include a Form and Style Checklist to help the student with any other changes that need to be made

The items listed on the left side of this page are intended to aid students in the capstone writing process as well as provide resources for preparing for the Form and Style Review. We also provide resources on creating a final version after we return the review and support for ProQuest and publication.If you have writing or APA questions about the proposal or final doctoral study, contact editor@mail.waldenu.edu.

Form and Style Office Hours for Students

Form and Style, editing, and self-editing advice for students writing the capstone.

Office Hours provide an informal, group advising setting where students may ask questions and receive advice about APA, writing, grammar, formatting, and general editing and self-editing in the capstone.

Students may ask any questions pertaining to writing the proposal or final study. The editor will provide advice and resources. Because this is a group advising environment, individual students will take turns to ask their questions and receive answers. The advisors may address the questions from two or more students at the same time whenever it is possible, in consideration of the time limit or the long turn-around time of some questions. Students who are waiting for their turn can often learn useful information from listening to other students’ questions.

Editors

Learn more about our team of editors.

Read Full Bios.

Please note the following:

Office Hours are appropriate for brief questions and answers (usually no more than 10 minutes) and the editors do not approve or disapprove any studies during this time.
Time permitting, editors can demonstrate MS Word formatting actions, but will not perform editing on student work during Office Hours.
An office hours session may occasionally need to be canceled on short notice.
Inquiries about approval and status of current submitted Form and Style Reviews cannot be addressed in Editor Office Hours. If you have questions about your Form and Style submission, please reply to the welcome email you received from your assigned Form and Style Editor.