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How to Do a Capstone Project

Undergraduate students in many educational institutions learn a lot of things. These are meant to prepare them for more intense work as seen in capstone projects. Capstone projects to undergraduate students are like water emptying into a large tank. These projects present students with different scenarios, narrow enough that they can handle them, but the end opens up a larger scene. At the end of a capstone project, students are likely to graduate and begin a project that will produce much more credit as far as academics are concerned. However, there are few steps that students need to know about how to do a capstone project.

Most institutions require students to sign up for capstone classes, where they are guided through the process. At such a point, it is good to identify with an adviser from the related department and seek to know what is expected from a capstone project. It is important to narrow it down to a single project. Often, institutions require a research paper of about ten to thirty pages, which has to follow the requirements of the related department. Research is probably the most difficult part of the capstone project, thus one must choose a topic within a field that is of interest to you. Continue reading How to Do a Capstone Project

How to Prepare a Grant Proposal

There are people with ideas that can transform the way people live, but they do not have the wherewithal to establish themselves, and make their ideas a reality. However, once in a while, federal agencies give grants that can help such people to realize their dreams. These grants have to be won, since there is always competition. In addition, to win a grant, an applicant should write an outstanding grant proposal. There are many individuals without prior experience in writing grant proposals. These are the kinds of people targeted by grant workshops and how to prepare a grant proposal publications; both online and published.

A grant proposal should be well prepared and thoughtfully planned. It is most necessary to familiarize yourself with all the pertinent program procedures in regards to the program from which the aid is sought. The first step is to develop ideas. It is of importance to determine whether your particular idea has been considered in that locality, or not. Once a summarized proposal has been developed, you need to look for community support. In this, you will be able to find professional assistance in writing. Letters of endorsement are always requested, and applicants are advised not to rely on local government, but the community. Once the community is in harmony with the project, identification of a funding source has to be established. Continue reading How to Prepare a Grant Proposal

How to Prepare a PowerPoint Presentation

Complementing your written assignment with visualizing means (in Microsoft PowerPoint) will certainly add more scores to the overall evaluation of your work. Most commonly, a presentation is created on the basis of a written assignment – research paper, an article, essay, or statement. The presentation will not only help the audience understand and perceive the material you are going to demonstrate, but attract particular attention to the special aspects you would like to highlight. Remember that it is you who is responsible for the selection of information to be “PowerPointed”, so approach the task bindingly and bear the following rules in mind.

When creating the PowerPoint presentation on your PC you need to stick to a certain number of slides; the presentation should be neither too short, nor too long. The number of slides depends on the type of paper and the peculiarity of the investigation that you have made. The optimal number of slides varies between 10 and 15, which is best if the audience is to stay involved and not get bored. Each slide needs to carry a definite thought, open a concept, or point of view. Be logical in connecting the slides and arranging them in the correct order; do not leap from one structural part of your paper to another. Be laconic and precise; the presentation is not the type of assignment in which to waffle. As far as you have the limited opportunity to present your paper, use it for the purpose intended to the maximum extent. The sentences should be short and simple, and wide use should be made of numbering and bullets in presenting the information. This helps the audience to catch the main idea quickly and focus on the most important facts. Continue reading How to Prepare a PowerPoint Presentation

How to Write a Laboratory Report

Writing lab reports requires presenting relevant practical and technical information clearly and concisely. This information details results and conclusions that are drawn from experiments and the methods used. The lab report should also include relevant discussions about the findings. These reports should be thorough, complete, and well-organized and consist of at least five sections as follows: 1) Cover Page, 2) Introduction, 3) Methods and Materials, 4) Results and Findings, and also 4) Discussions and Conclusions.

The Cover Page
The cover page of the lab report should contain a title given for the experiment. It should also include your full name, the instructor’s name (or whatever person or entity to which the report will be presented), and either the experiment date or the date the report is written. Continue reading How to Write a Laboratory Report

How to Write a Personal Statement Paper

Your university of choice can get a better idea of who you are, what you are about, and how well you will fit into the university culture with a well-prepared and well-written personal statement. This is why it is important that your personal statement is an accurate reflection of your personality traits as well as your intelligence. Also, your personal statement should be persuasive and interesting.

Do Not Be a Carbon Copy
It is important that you set yourself apart from the norm and from the crowd. Do not submit a cookie cutter, generic personal statement paper. The admission committee is attracted to insightful submissions that are interesting and revealing. As well, they focus on strong personal traits that show you are not afraid to open yourself up.

What to Include

It is important not to include unnecessary information but it is good to be detailed, just concise. You should include elements such as: Continue reading How to Write a Personal Statement Paper

How to Make a Good Annotated Bibliography

The list of sources used for conducting a research is, as a rule, entitled as “References” or “Works Cited” and includes general information about the author, title, date of publication, the state, and the publisher, as well as the number of pages in the books, articles, manuals, used for composing this or that piece or other types of writing.

An annotated bibliography is quite a different kind of written assignment. It presupposes not only gathering and organizing existing publications, but also precisely summarizing them.

Thus, you will need to identify general information about the sources (author, title, etc.), and you can also add your own input from reading them. If you are to compose the annotated bibliography on a certain topic, you will need to critically evaluate every entry and present your own reflection in the paper. Also, you should present the bibliographical list in every entry individually. This means that if you want to analyze several sources at one time, you are free to do this. Continue reading How to Make a Good Annotated Bibliography

How to Write a Speech

Every once in a while, we will be required to make a speech. This could be in class, during certain events in our normal course of life, or even at work. Therefore, it is important that we are all equipped with the basic skills of how to write a good speech and how to present it as well.

When writing a speech, there are key things of which one must take note. Firstly, there is the topic of the speech, and its intended message. Secondly, is the type of audience. The target audience has a great influence on the tone of the speech, words used, and even the length of the speech. For instance, one cannot use the same tone when speaking to a board of directors as would be used when speaking to a class of students. Further, it would not make sense to speak to seven year old about a development project in the community. Continue reading How to Write a Speech

How to Write a Book Review

You will be called on to write many reports and papers in college or at a university. One of these is a book review, which you shouldn’t confuse with a book report. In a book report, you describe the book, its characters, and plot; however, in a book review you must also provide a critique of the book as well. A book review will be used, not to show an instructor that you have read and understand a book, but instead it will be used to determine whether a book is a good choice for inclusion in a report, as a source for some research you are conducting, or in a library or collection.

Just like a book report, before writing a book review, you should first read the book! Make notes along the way about positive and negative aspects of the book. If you are reviewing the book for inclusion as a source for a study or report, your notes should focus on aspects that have to do with your research. You may also want to read some outside commentaries or reviews to see if there are points that others bring out that you might have missed. Be sure to cite these sources if you use them in your review. Continue reading How to Write a Book Review

How to Write a Case Study

It is certain that every college student will have to write many different kinds of papers as a part of their studies. Depending on the course of study, one of these kinds of papers might be a case study. In a case study, you will be called on to describe a person in terms of their environment, life experiences, and how that has affected them and the way they live their life. These specialty papers require specific information, a certain format, and of course good grammar and knowledge of writing.

Before you start to write a case study, the first thing you will need to do is to start several days before the paper is due. Begin to gather information about the person you are going to write about. For the purpose of study, you may have the opportunity to practice with a fictional character from a movie, a book, or a profile created just for student study purposes. If your biographical information is written, you should read it carefully and take note of the things that are relevant for your case study. If you are writing up a real person, you may need to do a series of interviews to gather the information you need. Continue reading How to Write a Case Study

How to Write a Book Report

There will be many opportunities to write book reports throughout your school career. It might be for a Literature class, or it might be a class in your area of study. Just as there are different kinds of literature, there are several ways to write a book report. This informational article will cover two different kinds of books: fiction and non-fiction. Which ever style of book you are doing a report on, the first step is to read the book! This may sound silly to say, but sometimes in an effort to save time, students will try to report on a book they have never read. It is a good idea to make some notes as you read about important characters or information you may want to include in your report.

After you have finished reading the book, you may also want to read a character analysis, summary, or what others have had to say about the relevance of the information in the book. Be sure if you are going to refer to these outside references or quote from them, they will need to be properly cited and credited. Now you are ready to write a book report. Your report will be better if you make some kind of a plan. This could be an outline or just the notes that you took as you read. Arrange the information you want to include into an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. What kind of information you include will depend on the type of book that you are reporting on. Continue reading How to Write a Book Report