These resources are for doctoral students who are working on completing their final capstone studies.
Working on the final study means that the committee has approved a doctoral student’s proposal, Walden IRB has approved the application to conduct the study, and the student has collected data. At this stage, students are ready to begin writing the final chapters/sections of the capstone. All Walden capstones, whether from professional programs or PhD programs, cover five main areas: introduction, literature review (or the background and context, for students doing a DNP project), research method/design, analysis/findings, and conclusions/applications/implications for social change. Every student should check his or her program checklist or rubric for specific content guidance, as different programs vary in the required number of chapters or sections in the final capstone document.
This kit will help students more specifically with how to describe the results, format tables and figures to display findings, discuss social change, and reflect on the research process and conclusions.
A student’s committee chairperson, second committee member, and the URR oversee the doctoral process, directing content development and assuring the capstone meets program guidelines.
In addition, the Doctoral Capstone Resources website includes all of the capstone support services provided by the university in one convenient place.
This page offers options for writing support once students have finished collecting data and begun their final draft of the study. These tips and links focus on writing the main areas after the proposal: data analysis, findings, conclusions, and social change. The following pages in this kit address three broad questions students should ask when they begin to draft the final chapters or sections of the study:
OASIS