Capstone Report
Over the course of this semester you have explored your interests, identified your strengths, reflected on your goals and how to achieve them. Your Capstone Report will comprise of a summary of what you have learned.
This paper is about mapping out your strategy to meet your goals so it is okay to draw from your personal experience but the conclusions you reach have to consist of more than your self-reflections. Think, for example, about what have you read and discussed over the semester and how that is informing your strategy. You are required to cite at least five sources from the course’s assigned readings. In addition, you can also cite material from outside the course’s reading list. Note that you will only get points for citing sources if they appear in the text of your paper and in your bibliography. If you struggle with citing material properly, I encourage you to visit the Center for Excellence in Writing for help.
You are welcome to use whatever citation style you are most comfortable with such as MLA, APA etc. FIU has a number of online resources dedicated to avoiding plagiarism (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and making proper citations. With regard to citing from social media, UCF has outlined some guidelines for MLA style citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. If your paper consists of a bibliography without corresponding in text citations, you will lose points.
As we have learned while reading, “Everybody Writes” it helps to have an audience in mind to guide your writing. Your audience for this report is your personal board of directors (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. These are the people you turn to for career advice, the sounding boards for your ideas, the ones you go to when you need to be nudged to get something done. What information would you need to give them to convince them of your strategy? What concerns might they raise and how will you address them?
Your paper must specifically address the following:
- What are your goals? What skills, experiences, insights do you possess that make you unique and how do they connect with what you want to achieve? What concrete steps have you already taken and what additional measures do you plan to take to make your goals a reality? I encourage you to revisit the readings and exercises from modules 1 to 5 for inspiration. Think of what you write in this section as your answer to the ubiquitous interview question, “Tell me about yourself”. Chapter 10 & 11 of “You Majored in What?” have some great tips to help you construct your answer.
- Next, outline your plan to create a network that will help you achieve your objectives. You can begin by presenting an assessment of your current network (use the Uzzi and Dunlop HBR article as a guide) before discussing how you plan to broaden your circle of contacts.
- You also need to discuss how you will be managing your online presence. Be as detailed as possible. For example, at this point you have a LinkedIn profile and perhaps a couple of connections. How are you going to expand your network to help achieve your goals? By asking people for introductions? By joining groups that share your interests? If you have come to the conclusion that you don’t need to maintain a prominent presence online, elaborate on your reasoning behind this decision.
- Finally, what is your plan to sustain your network, and online presence?
This report should be 1500- 2500 words in length. You will be graded on the following:
- Content: Does it fulfill the stated objective of the assignment? Has the writer made clear and well supported arguments? Are citations appropriately used? Has the author adhered to the word limits?
- Organization: Is it easy to understand the point the author is making? Does the paper flow in a way that makes it readable?
This assignment must be submitted as a Word document. This assignment will be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin. Review Important Information About Turnitin.
