Capstone Writing: Tips & Tricks

[nykorn]

Just a small warning about this. When I was doing my Bachelor's thesis preparation class, I looked all over for info on how to write it - because the school gave us, literally, zero information. We did not even get a rubric. We had to get our thesis idea cleared by our supervisor before we could even begin anything, I gave my supervisor 20 final thesis ideas, he rejected all of them with no feedback and then banned me from contacting him until the last week of the semester - meaning, he had preemptively decided I would fail. This was the PREPARATION class, not even the class where you actually did the final thesis. I did write my "thesis preparation", following all the information I could find online about Bachelor's theses that had been published by OTHER schools - the response was "we don't do it that way here", and I got an F with no further explanation. I sent what I had written to two professionals whose JOBS it was to correct student theses, and they said they could find no explanation for why I failed.

In the end I had to take an associate's thesis writing class at that same school, apply the layout etc. they taught there to my bachelor's thesis (just extending the word count really), and also had to take extra classes in order to qualify for a different supervisor the second time around for my bachelor's thesis. Guess what? That second time around I got an A - from the 2nd supervisor - and the 1st supervisor had completely forgotten he had failed me with no explanation the year before.

Hopefully none of you will have that kind of problem, but I just want to say, don't automatically assume the info you find outside of the school itself will get you a good grade.