Yet another thread with questions about the Capstone...

[mysonx3]

I have a few questions about how to approach various requirements of the first written assignment for the Liberal Arts Capstone. Most of these questions stem from the requirement of things that I don't think I've seen in a research paper before, so maybe I'm just not looking at it the right way, and hoping y'all can help. But first, I just want to check - this assignment does eventually become part of my capstone, right? I'm not supposed to write my introduction as well as a separate written assignment that checks all these boxes (while keeping my actual paper free from the "weird" elements that seem out of place in a research paper), right?

Anyway, on to my specific questions:

First, the requirement to describe your personal interest in the topic. This is juxtaposed against the requirement to not use first or second person language. How can I describe my personal interest in a topic without using words like "I" or "my"? Does anyone have any examples of this?

Second, the requirement to "Explore its relevance to professional life and of such a research project". This one isn't even a coherent sentence, and I have no idea what it requires. I'm guessing I am just supposed to explain how my topic is relevant to the world?

Next, the requirement to "list the key words used to refine your topic or problem statement". I don't understand how this section is supposed to sound. I've seen keywords below the abstract, but I don't think I've seen them in the body of the paper before and I just don't know what that is supposed to look like.

"Identify intended audience" - I don't know that I've seen a research paper that does this. I've seen this as part of the writing process, but never seen it make its way into the paper. How would this sound?

"Indicate your voice as the writer (informer or advocate)" - This seems like it could be accomplished with just the tone that I strike. Do I need to explicitly state whether I will be informing or advocating, or is the mere act of doing so sufficient?

Provide a summary. Is this supposed to be a summary of the topic? A summary of the introduction that wraps it up and allows you to transition to the next section?

Another question: how long have people's first written assignments been? I wrote an introduction to my topic that is close to two pages, and leaves several boxes still to be checked from the written assignment checklist. Will I end up writing too much once I go and check all those boxes in the rest of my first assignment, do you think? I'm guessing not (I've got 40 pages to work with here), but I'm not too sure.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out - I'm very confused by the capstone right now, as I expected it to be much more of a traditional research paper, which would lack many of these elements that seem to be required, and which I'm struggling to find a way to integrate.