February LIB-495 Capstone

[Supermind]

Does anyone have any advice on how to organize/keep track of your research materials and notes?

From skimming through the sample papers, it seems that there are very few in text quotations and people are mainly citing sources to back up their statements. This is much different than what I did for my SDC papers, and my the mentor made it clear that these citations need to be perfect, so I want to be sure I'm understanding the process. When you're going through a resource, is it best to copy off quotes with their respective pages or general ideas and the pages? Or perhaps write a paraphrase of key ideas and what pages they're from? I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of things so I can cite them properly. I am currently planning on sifting through a lot of sources from a place that doesn't loan out material, so I need to make sure I get it right so I don't have to go through the trouble of going back just to check a page number or figure out what source exactly I pulled it from!

Secondly, because there seems to be a lot of overlap between papers, would you recommend working on any of them as you come across the material or just work on one at a time?

As a general rule of thumb, paraphrasing sources is always preferred over direct quotation. This is because paraphrasing demonstrates your grasp of the idea being presented. I also think the more you paraphrase, the more your paper would come through as ‘original’ when you do the online plagiarism checks. I guess when your SDC mentor wanted citations to be perfect, they wanted it to be perfect in meaning and essence. That is one of the biggest challenges I’m paraphrasing. My mentor once offered a comment of appreciation that I paraphrase quite well.

[zzzz24]

First assignment submitted 

[TexasTink]

Does anyone have advice on writing chapter/module 2? I've been trying to figure it out in relation to chapter 4 so I don't write the same things for both, and I feel stuck. To me, chapter 4 is pretty clear. I've done almost all my research and I could write that chapter today with little trouble. I just can't figure out how to include the information they seem to be requesting for #2 without it turning into a copy of #4. Any helpful tips here or through PM would be greatly appreciated!

[vetvso]

There is a lot of overlap in those two chapters. I tried to include some additional info in four but did not achieve as much as I would have liked. So just follow along in the guide and expect some overlap.

[zzzz24]

When I am referring to an article off the pro-quest database for example, what is the best way to refer to it in the assignment?
I don't really know what to call it when I am writing about it.

In his peer-reviewed journal, xxxx states that?

[Supermind]

I suppose you should only follow the usual APA convention. ‘According to XYZ (2015),....’ or, ‘.........(XYZ, 2015).’ All other details about the journal, where you retrieved it etc. would only feature in the references section. If you are following the APA style, an in-text citation only mentions the author(s) & year. All other details only appear in the references section.

[vetvso]

Does anyone have any advice on how to organize/keep track of your research materials and notes?

From skimming through the sample papers, it seems that there are very few in text quotations and people are mainly citing sources to back up their statements.  This is much different than what I did for my SDC papers, and my the mentor made it clear that these citations need to be perfect, so I want to be sure I'm understanding the process.  When you're going through a resource, is it best to copy off quotes with their respective pages or general ideas and the pages?  Or perhaps write a paraphrase of key ideas and what pages they're from?  I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of things so I can cite them properly.  I am currently planning on sifting through a lot of sources from a place that doesn't loan out material, so I need to make sure I get it right so I don't have to go through the trouble of going back just to check a page number or figure out what source exactly I pulled it from!


Secondly, because there seems to be a lot of overlap between papers, would you recommend working on any of them as you come across the material or just work on one at a time?

You should be keeping page locations with your notes as to where you found the material. This will be needed for your references and citations if required. I did each chapter one at a time and added in all recommended corrections from the mentor as I went. Mistakes will happen and your mentor will give you feedback. These chapters are rough drafts to help you to be able to submit the final capstone at the very end. All of the feedback really helped me get to a final paper.

[TexasTink]

I thought I would post some updates and thoughts as I progress through the course.

First of all, as others have suggested, it's really helpful to have an idea for your Capstone before you begin. I had all my sub-questions ready to go and was just trying to nail down my main question. (I know that sounds backwards but my two main ideas for the topic used almost the same set of sub-questions.) I nailed that down within the first couple days and had my first paper done by the end of the first week. My first paper ended up being 7 pages, including a title and reference page. I didn't write a whole lot of quote a lot of sources and it turned out fine. I turned it in a week early, and the mentor didn't grade them until a week after the due date, so I've waited 2 weeks for my grade. It has been driving me crazy - so that's a word of caution for people who turn things in early!

I'm now almost done with paper 2, which isn't due until next week. (I'm working ahead due to a work trip) It's taken me a full two weeks to do this one as it's a ton of work. The vast majority of my sources are from books, so I feel like that may have made it more intense as I've had to scan through multiple 500 page books to find relevant material. I also didn't organize my notes well and that's added a lot of time and effort that isn't necessary.

So far, I've found the forum posts to be pretty easy. Those haven't been graded yet though so I don't feel I can comment much on specifics.

[zzzz24]

I suppose you should only follow the usual APA convention. ‘According to XYZ (2015),....’ or, ‘.........(XYZ, 2015).’ All other details about the journal, where you retrieved it etc. would only feature in the references section. If you are following the APA style, an in-text citation only mentions the author(s) & year. All other details only appear in the references section.

I wasn't asking how to complete in-text citations, I am aware of how to complete those already. Chapter 2 is a literature review...

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I would recommend people to decide on a topic and already have scholarly research completed before the course starts as well. My topic has a wide variety of research information, so I have to really narrow down what I write about based on my questions.

Dissecting the information to be able to determine if it is worthwhile to include in your paper is probably the most time consuming for me.
TESU provides access to various research databases in the education section of myedison, so my suggestion would be to search for peer-reviewed articles in there and make notes before the course starts. This way you can just focus more on writing.

[zzzz24]

I guess I should have updated this thread more along the way, oh well.
Submitted assignment 5 this past weekend, and now just submitted the final project.

It was quite the journey starting and finishing this degree in about 9 months.
I will post an update once I get the final grade.

Hopefully my degree audit can be finished now, June can't come quickly enough