Ready to throw in the towel on the Capstone...

[LaterBloomer]

Wow! That sounds like a fascinating topic.

Rebel100 makes a good point. Get it done. You might be the type who lets something like this freeze you. Just get started.

Are you planning on going to graduate school? One of the things I've heard from time to time on this forum is how helpful the capstones were in preparing students for graduate-level work.

[jsd]

For anyone who has gone through this process -- is the grading pretty intense?

[Prloko]

I'm doing guided study because I didn't want to be bothered with having to go back and forth with responses, but now I'm having regrets. Feedback from others would probably help me!

The mentor is Dr. Michele Herrera.

I *just* took advantage of the Smarthinking tutoring that TESC offers, and it was helpful to me. I need to do more research on my topic before continuing on, I think. My topic is how historical events and cultural taboos affect the view of mental illness in a specific community.

If you are still finding too much research, you may want to drill down more specifically on your topic. It's difficult to write about a house (too much to deal with), but you can write pages and pages about the front door.

[sammeecat]

That sounds super interesting. I took a cultural anthropology class last summer and really fell in love with the subject. As a result, I have my own theories about cultural taboos and mental illness on a certain community as well. Are you comfortable disclosing which community you are examining? I'm not comfortable disclosing mine so I understand if you aren't.

I'll just say that after watching the Nina Simone w/Zoe Saldana trailer, I'm hyped up to read a whole lot more tonight.

[tesu-acct-student]

I'll just say that after watching the Nina Simone w/Zoe Saldana trailer, I'm hyped up to read a whole lot more tonight.

I'm sure you can do this! I wish I could help. Keep us updated, OK?

[TrailRunr]

I can only say don't seek perfection but rather completion. In other words, pick a topic and just get it done.

Maybe you want to write a really cool Ph.D dissertation quality paper. If so, good luck and hang in there. If not, I would follow rebel's advice.

As a student that wants to do the least possible amount of work possible and still get an "A", I would throw this topic out unless the community is specific to only one I'm thinking of. And it's the most obvious community for stigma.

[davewill]

Hang tough. Once you get your sub questions framed, you'll feel much better. Remember that the chapters you're turning in are drafts. The mentor isn't expecting perfection. I've gotten 100s on mine and the mentor made a ton of helpful comments. The sample chapters have been a godsend.

This has been the most challenging time during the whole degree process. Work is now requiring a almost constant travel and an impossible deadline is looming. Luckily the mentor has been willing to allow me to turn in things late with no penalty so long as I ask before the deadlines and keep him posted.

One last chapter draft, then I just stitch it together and make all the corrections he's pointed out.

[socsci]

My topic is how historical events and cultural taboos affect the view of mental illness in a specific community.

Amazing, I was just reading how the Indonesian Psychiatric Association have reclassified LGBT as mental illnesses. It stems from a push by the LGBT community for wider acceptance being met with harsh criticism and a fear of foreign influence not fitting traditional values.

[kb4ns1]

Maybe you want to write a really cool Ph.D dissertation quality paper. If so, good luck and hang in there. If not, I would follow rebel's advice.

As a student that wants to do the least possible amount of work possible and still get an "A", I would throw this topic out unless the community is specific to only one I'm thinking of. And it's the most obvious community for stigma.

I have to agree with this. I, too, began the TESU Capstone a couple of weeks ago (different mentor, though - I have Arlene Sinding). I had three great history related topics and sub questions drawn up for my first discussion forum. They were topics I was very interested in and kinda looked forward to researching. But then when I started to research, I realized that it was going to present much more of a challenge then I expected. As a result, I completely changed direction and went with a criminology related topic that was not as interesting to me, but was far less demanding to compile research on. Hang in there, you can do it!

[SweetSecret]

I'll just say that after watching the Nina Simone w/Zoe Saldana trailer, I'm hyped up to read a whole lot more tonight.

OMG - LOVE Her! I'm still not sure specifically what your topic is about but if you are looking for similar people in history do some research on Josephine Baker. Both women grew up poor and used the arts to launch their careers. Both realized it was easier to live outside of the United States due to racism. While Simone seems to have had an actual bi-polar diagnosis, many people suspect Baker was also bi-polar. Both were activists though, and Baker actually worked as a spy and would transfer messages across country borders written in invisible ink on the back of her music sheets which were pinned under her skirts when traveling. Maybe both really were bi-polar and maybe neither of them were. Diagnosis of both depression and bi-polar is very common among artists, but the frustration of trying to succeed when you feel like people are constantly holding you back for your skin color could be maddening! Its very possible that both were sane but simply acting out due to constant frustration.

So back to the capstone issue. Just keep going with it! I got the top grade in my class and the whole time I was really worried that I was doing it all wrong. Its scary when you don't know what to base it off of. About half of the class I was in dropped out before the end, but a number of us perservered. My overall grade for the class was an A but it still wasn't 100%. I used both SmartThinking (not very helpful) and a proofreader who specializes in research and dissertation papers. I would say its very worth it to find someone to help you with this. My proofreader charged $0.40/pg and not only helped with grammatical errors but also gave ideas of how to expand my paper, and was worth every penny! I didn't know this person before, but just found her through a google search of the linkedin website. I googled like this:

[INDENT][INDENT]primary-topic second-topic research editing site:LinkedIn.com[/INDENT][/INDENT]

It gave me a list of profiles and I just looked through them until I found someone I thought looked like a match. Then I made sure I was in at least 1 group that was the same, and sent her a connection request asking if she had time for some freelance work.

Finish it now so you can get your degree and not have to take it. The best advice I saw was to pick a topic that you are both passionate and furious about, because you'll always have plenty to write about if you do that.