Final Project

Over the last six modules, you built toward this culminating moment: the submission of your final project. This week you will be drafting a research paper of 6-7 pages (approximately 1500-1750 words) that builds on your previous Milestone work. Use the Final Project Template for an example of how to create and format your final paper.

Begin by reading pages 7.8-7.13 in the webtext before beginning this assignment.

Step 1: Reflect on Previous Milestone Feedback and Make Adjustments

Each week after you submitted a Milestone assignment, your instructor provided you with feedback, often including suggestions for improvement. Take stock of that feedback and incorporate it. This might mean adjusting the wording of your thesis statement, replacing a source, fixing errors in your APA formatting, rewriting your introduction, or rethinking your organization of paragraphs. In addition to your instructor’s feedback, make sure to use your peer’s feedback on Milestone 5 as well – what suggestions did they have to improve your introduction and outline? Did they understand your argument and if not, how can you communicate it more clearly?

Step 2: Use Your Outline to Draft Your Paper

Using your Milestone 5 outline, begin to flesh out each of your body paragraphs by adding evidence from your sources that support your thesis (along with proper in-text citations for ideas or quotes from your sources). Make sure to include transitions between paragraphs and wrap up your paper with a conclusion paragraph that reiterates your thesis argument and offers some concluding thoughts.

Step 3: Review and Edit Your Work

Once you have a full draft written, make sure to re-read it carefully with an eye on the details like spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence clarity, and word choice. Go back to the Writing Refresher section of the course for help with any weak areas of your writing. Try reading it aloud to catch errors you might otherwise miss in print.

Step 4: Submit to the Canvas and Review Your Turnitin Report. Make Changes If Needed and Resubmit.

As you learned in Module 4, Excelsior uses Turnitin in the Canvas dropbox as a learning tool for students. Plan to submit to the dropbox a few days early if you can so you have time to review your Turnitin report and similarity score. If your score comes back high, revise your content to make sure you are using original writing, citing ideas from others, and properly putting the exact words of others in quotation marks.

Note: you can resubmit to the dropbox up until the due date for this assignment, which is Sunday night at 11:59 pm ET of Module 7. After that due date has passed, your most recent submission is considered final.

Resources

• Final Project Template Download Final Project Template(Word document)
• Writing Refresher

Submission Instructions:  

Submit a completed 6-7 page (approx. 1500-1750 words) research paper on your topic choice made in Module 1 that incorporates your work from Milestones 1-6. Use the Final Project Template Download Final Project Templatefor an example of how to create and format your final paper.

It should include:

• At least 5 references
• A title page and reference page in APA style
• In-text citations in APA format
• An introductory paragraph with your clear, one-sentence thesis statement (this should NOT be underlined at this point)
• Body paragraphs that use information from the sources as evidence to prove the thesis statement
• A conclusion paragraph that offers final thoughts and reiterates the thesis statement
• Proper spelling, syntax, and grammar
• Improvements based on your instructor’s feedback on your previous milestone work (i.e. to the thesis statement, introduction, organization, use of sources, APA style, etc.)