Overview

For this assignment, you will shift back to professional writing (that is, writing for a nonscholarly audience) and practice applying the research to your ideas. One mistake learners make is coming up with an idea (for example, gender differences in leadership experiences) without truly incorporating the research. You likely have some ideas about your topic, and that is what guides your literature search. Once you start reading the research, however, you must start considering those findings. They may contradict your assumptions. As a scholar, you cannot just ignore data! You have to adjust your thinking based on the findings. This is a challenging intellectual task but essential for doctoral work.

While you're doing some significant intellectual work, the writing for this assessment should focus on being clear and concise. Use language that a nonscholar could understand. In your professional career, if you work outside of an academic setting, you cannot expect your audience to have your specialized knowledge; it is your responsibility to convey your thoughts in an accessible manner for them.

Instructions

In this assignment, you will practice your critical thinking skills to apply research to a potential capstone project. Please keep in mind, you are not required to do what you propose in this assignment for your capstone project! The idea is to demonstrate how you use peer-reviewed articles to inform your thinking even in applied research. Find five additional relevant articles to add to the ones you used in the previous assignment. These articles can be no older than five years.

However, you will not write this up in a scholarly manner as you did for the article synthesis in the previous assessment. Instead, you will write this for a professional, nonacademic audience. If you want to conduct your capstone project at an organization, they may want a written description of your proposed project. They will not likely be impressed by a scholarly paper written in a detailed narrative format; they will want something they can understand!

While this is not meant to be written with a scholarly tone and extensive detail, it should be written in narrative format, not an outline. The paper should include the following components:

• Executive summary.
• Topic and problem.
• Supporting research.
• Project proposal.

For this assessment:

• Explain the topic and related problem with support from relevant research.
  • Clearly identify the topic and the problem that is related to the topic.
  • Explain how current research demonstrates the existence of the problem.
  • Consider any identified best practices to address the problem.
• Explain the proposed project.
  • Be sure to explain why the project addresses the identified topic, problem, and existing research.
• Apply appropriate professional writing style throughout proposal.
  • Format the executive summary appropriately.
  • Write the narrative in clear, concise language with minimal academic jargon.
• Develop flow with organizational tactics which recognize relationship between the main topic and subtopics.
  • Organize the narrative clearly with headings and subheadings, as appropriate, and be sure it is easy to follow.
  • Avoid grammatical errors in the narrative.
• Adhere to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.
• Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references.
  • While the assignment is not designed for an academic audience, you must still follow APA style for in-text citations and the reference list.

Submission Requirements

• Length:  3–5 pages. Executive summary can be no longer than one page.
• References: 10 peer-reviewed sources.
• Format: Use current APA style and format for references and in-text citations. Visit Evidence and APALinks to an external site. for help with APA as needed. Include headings for sections of the paper, aligned with APA standards for headings.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 points.