What: The capstone paper is the culmination of your entire undergraduate career. It will be the Most Important Document you have ever produced in your life – at least yet. In it, you will examine a topic in aviation, and then you will write about it.
Topic: The topic should be a topic in aviation. The topic should be at the level of a fourth-year undergraduate aviation major. The topic should be something that you have not studied before – it should not be a rehash of one or more of your classes. The topic should be something that can be sufficiently covered in a term paper. You must clear your topic with me before beginning to do your research.
Paper: The paper needs to be approximately 10 – 20 pages, minimum is 10 pages. At least 10 pages should be text; not pictures, diagrams, or charts. Papers can certainly be longer, but if you are approaching the 20 page mark, then you may need to narrow the scope of your paper. The paper must be typed, full-adjusted and double spaced in 12-point font.
Presentation: In addition to the written capstone paper, you will also give a ~20 minute report on the paper. Reports will be given in class. Attendance on the days of presentation is mandatory, and skipping will adversely affect your grade. If you cannot make some of the presentations, then you need to clear it with me before class, and you need a darn good excuse.
General Thoughts: There are some basic writing conventions and structures that all papers should follow. The paper needs a title, an introduction, a body (split into appropriate sections), a conclusion, and a list of references that have been properly cited in the paper. The 10-page mark does not include the title page or list of references.
Plagiarism: Simple – it will not be accepted. If you quote anyone, or even paraphrase someone’s idea, you must cite the source. I will be running the papers through a plagiarism checking program.