Walden Capstone Writing Collaborative:

For Capstone Multilingual Writers

The challenges of writing a project study/doctoral study/dissertation are not unique to multilingual and international students. However, cultural or linguistic differences can often amplify these challenges. This page contains multilingual writing tips as well as capstone multilingual resources available through the Doctoral Capstone Form and Style website.

If you are a multilingual capstone writer, the following resources may be helpful:

• The Doctoral Multilingual Writers Kit is directed at doctoral multilingual students who are working on their final project, doctoral study, or dissertation. This kit contains tips and resources to help multilingual doctoral students navigate their final written document.
• The Grammar and Mechanics pages on the Form and Style website provide explanations and examples of some of the various elements of English grammar and punctuation that capstone writers often have questions about.
• The SMRTguides for Grammar Checks and Strategies may be helpful for identifying and revising grammatical errors and for improving scholarly voice:
  • SMRTguides: Tips to Revise for Scholarly Voice (PDF file)
  • SMRTguides: Using a Corpus to Revise for Grammar and Scholarly Voice (PDF file)
  • SMRTguides: Using a Grammar Revision Journal (PDF file)
  • SMRTguides: Article Usage Flowchart (PDF file)
• The following Multilingual Writing Tips address various aspects of writing and revising a doctoral capstone:
  • Overall Capstone Support
    • Communication and Responsibility
    • Most Helpful Supports for Writing a Dissertation
    • Follow-Up Resources for Capstone Multilingual Writers
    • Citing Sources in American Academic English
  • Cohesion and Flow
    • Rhetorical Structure
    • Cohesion
    • Word Choice: Sentence Connectors
    • Conjunctions in Equal and Unequal Clauses
  • Scholarly Voice and Word Choice
    • Verb Choice
    • Adverb Placement
    • “Amount of” Versus “Number of”
    • “Less” Versus “Fewer”
  • Grammar and Mechanics
    • Revising for Sentence-Level Grammar
    • English Sentence Structures
    • Run-On Sentences and Sentence Fragments
    • Parts of Speech: Definitions
    • Parts of Speech: Usage and Common Errors
    • Verb Tenses to Master for Academic Writing
    • Choosing the Present Perfect Tense in Academic Writing
    • Subject-Verb Agreement
    • Verb Forms: Gerunds and Infinitives Part 1
    • Verb Forms: Gerunds and Infinitives Part 2
    • Verb Forms: Past Participles
    • Articles and Count Vs. Noncount Nouns
    • Prepositions
    • Punctuation Patterns
    • The Colon

• Grammarly software can help identify and revise for some sentence-level errors. This is not foolproof, as it is just a computer software program, but it can be a useful tool in the revision process

The videos for Supporting Capstone Multilingual Writers address various aspects of writing the capstone study as a multilingual writer: