The Capstone Project: an Overview
2008
Prepared by
Kristine Rabberman and Gary Purpura
Revised by
Chris Pastore
Master of Liberal Arts Program
University of Pennsylvania
Table of Contents
1. MLA Capstone Project: an Overview
2. Capstone Project Proposal
3. Capstone Thesis: A Guide to Writing Introductions
4. Submitting the Capstone Project
5. Capstone Project Timetable
6. Capstone and Graduation Deadlines
7. Incomplete Capstone Projects and Master’s Thesis Registration
1. MLA Capstone Project: an Overview
The Capstone Project is the culmination of the MLA student’s interdisciplinary graduate
studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Within the program, each MLA student constructs a
curriculum around a concentration, a central theme that ties together most of the nine courses
required for a degree. The topic of the Capstone Project should reflect this concentration in
some way although the project need not build directly upon research or projects completed in
earlier MLA coursework. It is important, however that in the project’s preface or introduction, all
students should describe how their courses contributed to the evolution of their Capstones.
Capstone Projects are different from Master’s theses. One central difference is that they
must be multidisciplinary. By integrating two or more academic disciplines into a Capstone
Project, each student realizes the mission of the MLA Program itself: to provide a place for
students to create their own graduate curriculum across the arts and sciences. MLA students also
tend to be generalists rather than specialists, which leads to different expectations for the scope
of their knowledge of literature from disciplines within their concentrations. While it is expected
that MLA students should have a good working familiarity with the literature in their fields, their
knowledge of the literature in their fields does not need to be as exhaustive as for students
writing Master’s theses or doctoral dissertations.
There are two common approaches to writing Capstones, and each approach has some
general guidelines. In the first approach, the Capstone is an extended research paper, based on
primary and/or secondary sources. It is suggested that students who select this option limit the
length of their Capstones to 25-30 pages. Capstones should not be shorter than 25 pages, and
some students may elect to complete Projects that are longer than 30 pages. Usually, however, it
is best for students write a focused, high-quality research paper that can be completed in a timely
fashion. In the second approach, students write a more creative Project. For example, some
students write a series of short stories or poems, or a memoir. In this approach, students should
supplement their writings with a short (10-15 pp.) analytical piece that surveys some important
literature in their fields of interest and explains how their creative pieces compare with that
literature. There are many other possibilities for Capstone Projects; samples are on file at the
MLA Program office.
Students should establish more specific guidelines for their Capstone Projects in
conjunction with their primary faculty readers. For example, documentation format is usually
dictated by the reader, and by the central disciplines in which the student is working. Faculty
readers should also approve each Project, from the focus of the topic, to the methods, sources,
and preliminary theses or purpose. To facilitate this process, students are asked to prepare a 3-5
page Capstone proposal, which they must submit to their readers and to the MLA Program for
approval. Students should also meet regularly with their readers to ensure that their Projects are
progressing according to plan.
There are three options for the completion of the capstone within the 9 course unit
program. Some students complete their Capstone Projects by registering for an Independent
Study under the supervision of their primary faculty reader and with the support of their
secondary reader. Other students may register for a course that parallels the focus of their
Capstone Project, and write their Capstone as a course requirement, with the agreement of the
instructor. Finally, students may also register for the MLA Capstone seminar that is taught
through the MLA Program. If an MLA student pursues a project in the MLA Capstone Seminar,
they must still secure the support of a primary reader, but the instructor of the MLA Capstone
Seminar can sign as the secondary reader. The seminar serves as a guide to planning and writing
a Capstone Project, and facilitates peer review of drafts.* The Capstone Seminar does not
replace close contact with faculty readers, but supplements this contact with a focus on the
writing and revising process. In each of these cases, the student must submit a Capstone Proposal
for their readers’ approval before they begin to write their Capstone Project. The project
proposal should be approved by the reader(s) and then submitted to the MLA program director
before the end of classes in the term prior to the term in which the Capstone will be written.
Clearly, the relationship between the MLA student and the faculty reader is critical to the
successful completion of the Capstone Project. We at the MLA Program are eager to answer any
questions about proposed Capstone Projects, the procedures and responsibilities of a faculty
reader, or the standards for Capstone Projects. Please address any questions to the MLA
Program, (215) 898-7326.
*Please note that students selecting the option of the Capstone seminar must have secured their
faculty readers and also must have an approved Capstone proposal at the time of the first class
meeting of the seminar. Students who do not meet both of these requirements will not be
permitted to take the seminar.
2. Capstone Project Proposal
As an extended piece of research and a creative exercise in multidisciplinary scholarship,
the Capstone Project represents the culmination of your work in the MLA program. These
characteristics also make it imperative that you have a clear, focused plan for your Capstone
before you begin to research and write it. For this reason, the MLA program requires you to
submit a Capstone proposal, 3-5 pages in length, to your faculty readers and to your MLA
advisor, at least one month before the start of the semester in which you intend to complete the
project. Below are some guidelines and advice for preparing the proposal. (Please note that
some of these guidelines may need to be modified slightly for Capstone Projects that are not
research projects.) If you have any questions or concerns, please contact an MLA advisor.
1. Provide a clear description of your Project’s topic or focus: You should frame your
Project by identifying the topics that you will include in your research. You can also do this
by explaining why you will study certain topics, not answer certain questions, or use a
particular set of sources. Often, scholars identify broad issues that motivated their study,
and then set limits on their present study. It is far better to set a narrow study and to
thoroughly explore it than it is to delineate a broad scope and to conduct a shallow or
haphazard investigation.
When you situate your research and frame your reader, you need to be aware that you are
writing interdisciplinary theses. Your readers may not be as familiar with the conventions of
interdisciplinary research as they are with conventions in their own discipline, so you may
need to use your introduction to describe the research design and benefits of
interdisciplinary research. Look for models of interdisciplinary introductions for ideas about
how to frame an interdisciplinary study.
2. Describe your preliminary hypothesis or main research questions, if you are writing
a research paper: Writers often feel uncomfortable when they are asked to give
preliminary hypotheses in a proposal, since they may not have completed their research yet.
Bear in mind that your preliminary hypothesis is not your final conclusion. Instead, it
represents the claim that will guide your research. You may feel more comfortable giving a
series of questions that you hope to answer in your Capstone Project in lieu of a thesis. Be
sure that you do not omit this information, since your proposal will be judged on the
likelihood that you can complete your proposed Capstone successfully. It will be very
difficult for your readers to make this assessment without seeing your thesis or research
questions.
3. Explain how your project derives from your courses: Your Capstone Project should
reflect, in some way, your main concentration in the program. This ensures that your
courses have prepared you to research and write your project. Some courses may have
introduced you to a topic, while you may have learned important theories or methods of
analysis in others. When you describe the significance of your Capstone Project, you should
be sure to address this question. (You may need to think creatively here, especially if your
Capstone Project is creative or unusual in some way. You should feel free to discuss your
ideas with one of the MLA advisors.)
4. Establish the significance of your study: Throughout your introduction, you need to
motivate your reader to read your Capstone. You can do this by discussing the significance
of your study. What makes the issues you be discussing important? Are you taking a side in
a current debate? Will you develop a thesis that will help to answer an open research
question in your fields? Study how writers in your fields discuss the significance of their
research if you need models. Since you are writing interdisciplinary Capstones, you can
also explain the significance of combining two or more disciplines in your research. What
do you gain from interdisciplinary research that you would not have from research in one
discipline? Why do your disciplines fit well together?
5. Sources and methodology: If you are writing a research paper, you need to give your
readers a clear overview of the sources that you will use to conduct your research. Different
disciplines require different kinds of information. For example, in history you would need
to discuss the dates, provenance, and intended audience of your primary sources. In
anthropology or folklore, you would need an ethnography that describes your informant’s
position in a community and the community itself.
Methodology is a technical term for the methods that you use to identify and analyze
information from your sources. Some methods are qualitative, while others are quantitative.
For example, if I were contrasting the gender roles in two different pieces of travel literature
from the 19th century, I would be using a comparative methodology. People who are
conducting interviews would need to describe their methods of selecting people to interview
and analyzing the information from the interview, as well as consider whether they were
planning to have observation sessions as well. If I were counting the number of legal cases
that fit into certain categories and using statistical methods to analyze changes over time in
the cases, I would be conducting quantitative research. If you’re using a specific, well-
established theory to analyze your evidence you should introduce it in your methodology
section. The best way to decide how to describe your methodology is to study the
introductions of similar studies, since different disciplines have different terminologies and
conventions.
6. Include a literature review: Briefly summarize your key scholarly sources and tell how
they are informing your thinking at this preliminary stage. Literature reviews serve several
important purposes. First, they show your readers that you have good working knowledge
of the major sources in your fields, and they help to ensure that you are not simply
reproducing another scholar’s work. Second, they help you to frame your research with
reference to other works in your field. You may be able to establish the significance of your
research by demonstrating that you are addressing an open (or debated) question in the field
of sociology, for example. Since the Capstone is an interdisciplinary thesis, you may need
to discuss works from several different fields that help to inform your approach. If your
Capstone is a collection of short stories or poems, you can discuss other authors’ work that
informs your writing in some way.
7. Attach a preliminary bibliography or works cited page: This reference list cites
sources of what is "out there" on your topic and that you believe you might refer to in doing
this research. This list should not be simply a duplicate of the sources you've selected or
highlighted in your review of the literature, but also give a broader picture of the research
areas informing (or that you imagine might inform) your own perspective. That is, imagine
how your readers might draw connections as they scan your source-list: beyond
demonstrating that you can give proper attribution to leading thinkers in a particular field,
this list suggests you are capable of making creative connections across works of
scholarship. (The bibliography is not included in the suggested length for the Capstone
proposal.)
3. Capstone Project: A Guide to Writing Introductions
As an extended piece of research and a creative exercise in multidisciplinary scholarship,
the Capstone project represents the culmination of your work in the MLA program. These
characteristics also make it imperative that the introduction to each Capstone sets up the thesis
clearly. While conventions for introductions differ from discipline to discipline, especially with
regards to writing style, there are some common traits of introductions that stand as guidelines
for the Capstone introductions.
1. Explain the development of your project: What issues or questions were you first
interested in exploring, and how did your interests develop and change over time? You
should discuss how your understanding of your topic changed and developed during the
research and writing processes. In this regard, you need to describe how your coursework
contributed to your Capstone thesis. If you prefer, you can place this reflection on your
coursework in a preface that comes before your “Introduction.”
2. Situate your readers and frame your research: Carolyn Collette & Richard Johnson
introduce “situating” and “framing” in their Common Ground: Personal Writing & Public
Discourse. When you situate your readers, you enable your readers to find themselves in
your project by using certain terminology, defining certain terms and concepts, and alluding
to key debates in scholarly literature. Throughout your introduction, you need to keep your
readers’ needs, responses, and interests in mind in order to place them in your writing.
Framing is an easier concept to understand and implement in your writing. When you
frame your research, you identify the topics, sources, and methods that you will include in
your research. You can also do this by explaining why you will not answer certain
questions, study certain topics, or use a particular set of sources. Often, scholars identify
broad issues that motivated their study, and then set limits on their present study. It is far
better to set a narrow study and to thoroughly explore it than it is to delineate a broad scope
and to conduct a shallow or haphazard investigation.
When you situate your research and frame your reader, you need to be aware that you are
writing interdisciplinary theses. Your readers may not be as familiar with the conventions of
interdisciplinary research as they are with conventions in their own discipline, so you may
need to use your introduction to describe the research design and benefits of
interdisciplinary research. Look for models of interdisciplinary introductions for ideas about
how to frame an interdisciplinary study.
3. Include a literature review: Literature reviews serve several important purposes. First,
they show your readers that you have good working knowledge of the major sources in your
fields, and they help to ensure that you are not simply reproducing another scholar’s work.
Second, they help you to frame your research with reference to other works in your field.
You may be able to establish the significance of your research by demonstrating that you’re
addressing an open (or debated) question in the field of sociology, for example. Since the
Capstone is an interdisciplinary thesis, you may need to discuss works from several different
fields that help to inform your approach.
4. Sources and methodology: You need to give your readers a clear overview of the
sources that you will use to conduct your research. Different disciplines require different
kinds of information. For example, in history you would need to discuss the dates,
provenance, and intended audience of your primary sources. In anthropology or folklore,
you would need an ethnography that describes your informant’s position in a community
and the community itself.
Methodology is a technical term for the methods that you use to identify and analyze
information from your sources. Some methods are qualitative, while others are quantitative.
For example, if I were contrasting the gender roles in two different pieces of travel literature
from the 19th century, I would be using a comparative methodology. People who are
conducting interviews with informants would need to describe their methods of selecting
informants, developing a questionnaire, and analyzing the information from the
questionnaire. If I were counting the number of legal cases that fit into certain categories, I
would be conducting quantitative research. If you’re using a certain, well-established theory
to analyze your evidence you should introduce it in your methodology section. The best
way to decide how to describe your methodology is to study the introductions of similar
studies, since different disciplines have different terminologies and conventions.
5. Establish the significance of your study, and gain the interest of your readers:
Throughout your introduction, you need to motivate your reader to read your thesis. You
can do this by discussing the significance of your study. What makes the issues you will be
discussing in your Capstone important? Are you taking a side in a current debate? Will you
develop a thesis that will help to answer an open research question in your fields? Study
how writers in your fields discuss the significance of their research if you need models.
Since you are writing interdisciplinary theses, you can also explain the significance of
combining two or more disciplines in your research. What do you gain from
interdisciplinary research that you would not have from research in one discipline? Why do
your disciplines fit well together?
You can also increase your reader’s interest in your research by developing an
interesting or creative hook into your first paragraph. Common techniques include telling an
anecdote, including a quote, describing some key debates in dramatic detail, etc.. You need
to identify the interests of your audience and the conventions of your discipline to devise an
appropriate strategy for hooking your reader. One common rule for creative introductions is
that you need to be sure that your creative hook has a clear link to your specific topic or
approach.
4. Submitting the Capstone Project
We attempt to mandate few requirements for the Capstone Project and to accommodate the
varied writing and presentation styles of our MLA students in their final projects. However, as
our student body increases and our alumni files swell, we must now ask that you comply with the
following standards prior to the submission of your approved Capstone Project to the MLA
program advisors. These formatting requirements will facilitate the proper cataloguing of your
research.
Your Final Capstone Project must:
• be submitted in a see-through binder -- one in which the pages cannot be removed -- preferably
with a black or navy spine
• have a cover sheet with the following information:
1. title of the project
2. an explanation of the title if not obvious
3. your full name
4. full date of submission, e.g. December 5, 2007
5. the words: MLA Capstone Project;
University of Pennsylvania
6. 1st reader: his/her name, department
7. 2nd reader: his/her name, department
• include a description of how your coursework contributed to your Capstone thesis. How have
your interests developed and changed as a result of your coursework? If you prefer, you can
place this information in a preface that comes before your “Introduction,” or in the
“Introduction” itself.
After these preliminaries, your project may then follow the format agreed upon by you
and your readers/advisors.
5. Capstone Project Timetable
The following provides a suggested timeline for completing your Capstone Project over the
course of a single semester. Students writing their Capstones as part of an independent study
might find this to be particularly helpful for planning their time. Students taking the Capstone
Seminar will more or less follow this timeline as it is drawn from the Seminar syllabus. Please
note that this schedule presumes that you have already completed your Capstone Proposal. Feel
free to talk with one of the MLA advisors if you have any questions about anything contained
within this timetable.
Week 1 Write your preface
Write a short description of how your coursework and reading in different disciplines
has led to your current formulation of your Capstone topic. This description frames
your research (identifies the sources of your ideas as well as your own
motivation/rationale for pursuing the topics you have chosen) and will form the basis
for the Preface to your Capstone. The Preface should also describe the possible
contributions your Capstone will make (to a field, to several disciplines, to a scholarly
debate, etc).
Week 2 Write your thesis statement
Your thesis statement is a multi-part statement in which you assert the central
argument, position, or stance that you will advance in your work.
Also, during this week, you should create a preliminary map of your argument’s line
of development for your Capstone. Think of this as a “big picture” road map for the
Project. Identify the places where you feel uncomfortable with your projected
organization.
Week 3 Create a working bibliography: Planning your research
Type a Working Bibliography using the proper documentation format for you field
(consult with your Primary Reader here) - identify your key scholarly sources (at least
3), scholars whose names come up repeatedly in your research, who are influencing
your work on your Capstone in some way.
You might find it useful to arrange a time in VanPelt Library for Bibliographic Instruction. A
reference librarian will provide conceptual strategies and subject-based tips on searching for
scholarly sources across the disciplines.
Week 4 Meet with your readers
Arrange a meeting with both of your readers sometime during the week (or with
just your Primary Reader if the Secondary Reader is not available) to discuss the
preface, bibliography, and thesis statement. Make whatever revisions are
necessary in light of the feedback from your readers during this week as well.
Weeks 5-7 Create your first complete draft
Continue writing.
Weeks 8-9 Meet with faculty readers
Provide your readers with a copy of your draft and arrange to meet with them for
their feedback.
Weeks 10-11 Write penultimate draft
Revise your draft in light of the feedback from your readers.
During this time, be sure to double check that you have submitted the proper
forms for graduation, certificate, notice on transcript, etc. with the MLA advisors.
Week 12 Discuss penultimate draft with faculty readers
Get final feedback from your readers
Week 13 Make final revisions
You are in the home stretch at this point. Complete final draft during this week.
Week 14 Final Draft Due
Submit the final draft to your readers for their approval.
Week 15 Submission (last day of classes)
Submit the final copy to the Program Director with the signed Form 500
6. Capstone and Graduation Deadlines
Generally speaking, during the semester in which you are enrolled in your sixth MLA course (for
full-time students, this is typically your second semester in the program), you should select your
faculty readers and submit a completed faculty reader agreement (Form 400) to the MLA office.
If you intend to enroll in the Capstone seminar, you should have an approved Capstone proposal
with you at the first class meeting of the seminar. In addition, you will need to meet with one of
the MLA advisors before you are permitted to enroll in the Capstone seminar.
During the semester in which you intend to graduate, you should complete and submit a
graduation application. When your Capstone is complete, your faculty readers need to complete
the final Capstone approval form (Form 500).
All Capstone and graduation forms are available online at
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/downloads/ and in the CGS office.
Graduation Term Spring Summer Fall
(May (August grad) (December grad)
graduation)
Copy of approved November of April of previous July of previous
proposal due in MLA previous Fall Spring term Summer term
office term
Capstone project End of Spring End of Summer End of Fall term
completed and term classes term classes classes
approved
Online Graduation February 1 August 8 December 1
application or
February 1
For those who intend
to participate in May
Commencement
Faculty Reader First day of First day of First day of Fall
Agreement (Form Spring classes Summer classes classes
400)
Bound Capstone Last day of Last day of classes Last day of classes
Project and Reader classes
Approval Form (Form
500)
7. Incomplete Capstone Projects and Master’s Thesis Registration
Students who fail to complete Capstone projects before the final deadline for the term in which
they register for the Capstone Seminar or a Capstone Independent study must remain active
students in all subsequent terms in order to complete their MLA program and graduate. In brief,
Capstone Projects are projects which you complete by enrolling in a 1 c.u./1 term course, and the
Capstone is due approximately two weeks prior to the end of term to permit us to process the
grades and audit students for graduation. Previously, if a student failed to complete the Capstone,
an Incomplete grade was registered and the student was permitted to remain active without
enrolling in coursework in future terms. We will continue to allow students to receive
Incomplete grades for Capstone projects; however, any student that has an Incomplete Capstone
must register for Master’s Thesis in the subsequent term and for each and every term thereafter
until the completed and approved Capstone is submitted to the MLA Program.
Master’s Thesis Registration will cost $611.00 for each term in the 2007-08 Academic
year and will offer you access to all University facilities and permit you the use of all available
student services. Furthermore, you will remain an active full-time student while enrolled for
Master’s Thesis. This policy brings CGS in alignment with the policy of other graduate degree
programs in the School of Arts and Sciences, and ensures you of having uninterrupted access to
university resources, including the library, as you complete your Capstone Project.
In addition to the requirements for enrollment in each term during which students
continue to work on the Capstone, the new policy will affect graduation posting. Students must
reapply for graduation in the term during which they plan to complete the Capstone and their
graduation will be posted for that term. Previously, students were rolled over and their
graduations were post-dated. This practice was unique to the MLA program and we are making
every effort to streamline procedures and bring our practices in line with the other programs at
Penn.
