CAP

Comprehensive Assessment Project (CAP)
MA in English, Technical & Professional Communication Concentration
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

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You should begin planning for your CAP the semester before you will take it.

Those completing their CAP and graduating in a fall semester should have their paper topic and director chosen by the end of spring semester or no later than during the summer.
Those graduating in a spring or summer session should have their paper topic and director chosen by the end of fall semester.

Whether or not you work with your director in the summer (for those graduating during the fall) or over the break between semesters depends upon your director and his or her schedule. Don't expect your director to work with you during summer or breaks.

For an abbreviated overview (BUT be sure to read through to the end of this page), click here. For a check sheet, click here.

1. General.

You will be able to take comprehensive exams only during fall and spring semesters. We do not "do" these exams during the summer.

If you live at a distance from the campus of East Carolina University (more than 5 to 8 hours) or due to work circumstances, you have the option of a conference-call CAP, a method that we use regularly We've completed CAP's in this way with students living in places such as California, Idaho, and outside London, England. It works fine. You are not expected to travel to campus. Instead you call your committee. You arrange the time with your committee (being sure to account for any time zone differences). You will be given the phone number.

Your oral CAP lasts at least 60 minutes, but normally no more than 90 minutes. You and your director schedule a time that is convenient for you, your director, and the committee members. You MUST have this exam completed by the last day of classes, not the last day of the exam period.

The CAP consists of your "paper" based on a project completed in one of your classes, a reading list, and portfolio (which can be an e-portfolio).

At least two weeks before the exam (or a period of time agreeable with committee members), you submit to members of your comprehensive exam committee your paper, bibliography for the works on your reading list, and portfolio.

You should complete the computer abilities form for your committee members to review at the end of the exam, thus completing the research skills requirement. For additional information about this requirement, click here [link] .

2. Choosing Paper (approximately 10-pages double-spaced) and director. First, decide the project that you want to use for your CAP and then ask the faculty member who taught the class in which you prepared the paper or project(s) to be your director. Thus, your choice of project indirectly chooses the faculty to direct your CAP.

Please do not ask faculty to supervise your creating an entirely new paper or project that was not prepared for a class. That approach is not time-effective for either you or the faculty member. It is true, though, that with the critical analysis approach, you’ll have completed only the project(s); the critical analysis will be a new document.

Paper for CAP

Your 10-page paper can be a traditional academic paper, such as a literature review (bibliographic essay), which may or may not incorporate application examples.

OR it can be critical analysis of an application project.In the critical analysis, you should analyze rhetorically and reflect on the project(s). Consider as appropriate such aspects as background, purpose, audience, content, organization, style, visuals, and format/layout, as well as cultural dynamics. Projects can be print documents or online ones such as websites. Projects can be ones completed collaboratively.

Note that some papers will need to be expanded to be appropriate for the CAP (10-page double-spaced document). For example, you may have prepared a 5-page, double-spaced literature review. For the CAP, you might expand it to a 10-page paper by adding application and/or updated references at appropriate places in the paper.

For the critical analysis approach, you will have created the project or projects, but not the critical analysis itself (approximately 10-pages double-spaced). Note that seemingly disparate projects can be tied together by a topic such as targeting difference audiences or writing instructions or using electronic media.

For a bit more information, go to http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/tekkom/project.htm

Whichever approach you take, your “paper” must be approved first by your comprehensive exam director, then distributed to committee members two weeks before comp’s.

You and your director select two other faculty members to be on your comprehensive exam committee. At least one of those two should be TPC faculty. Do NOT ask faculty to be on your committee before you and your director discuss possible committee members.

For additional information about the paper component of the comprehensive exam (either non-thesis or thesis option), click here [link] .

3. Reading list. Create a 25-work reading list to use in discussing your portfolio (a book equals 3 works, although you might consider using 2-3 chapters or essays from the book instead of the entire book). Read and review contents of the works on the reading list. Although you might have several works about a subject area (e.g., editing), choose works covering a wide range of subject areas in TPC, but subject areas especially suitable for your portfolio items.

Distribute your reading list to your director and committee members. Your director may want to approve the bibliography before you distribute it to your committee members. Distribute the final version of the list to your director and committee members at least TWO weeks before your CAP.

For additional information about the reading list, click here [link] .

4. Portfolio. Your portfolio contains your work prepared as class assignments, internship(s), and other experiences outside of academics.

The portfolio should contain at least 10 items; these items can be both practical applications (e.g., brochures, multi-media presentations, hypertext documents and web sites, and business plans) and academic papers (e.g., literature reviews and critical analysis papers). The portfolio should also contain a resume and consider preparing cover pages or annotations for each item included, indicating information such as title, date, audience/client, purpose, hardware and software used, and challenges involved.

At least two weeks before the exam (or a period of time agreeable with committee members), you submit to members of your CAP your portfolio.

If you live at a distance from East Carolina University and complete your CAP during a conference phone call, you should complete an e-portfolio, so you do not have to mail your print portfolio to your committee. However, you can complete a print portfolio and mail it to the director of your CAP.

For additional information about your portfolio, click here [link]

5. Structure of CAP in broad strokes. For information about what occurs during the CAP, click here [link] .

6. Some tasks that are part of the CAP and/or your graduating.

When you have decided your paper topic, director, and committee members, send those details to the Lead Faculty for Technical and Professional Communication concentration.
Arrange the "place" and time for the CAP. You must complete your CAP by the last day of classes. Note that the deadline is the last day of classes, not the last day of final exam.s We suggest that you schedule your CAP for at least a week before the last day of classes in case you encounter come difficulties.

If you live farther than 5 to 8 hours from Greenville, NC, or had difficulty coming to campus because of work-related issues, you have the option of a conference call CAP. Be sure to exchange necessary phone numbers.
IMPORTANT: submit the internal form to the graduate administrative assistant.

You must remove incompletes before you can schedule and complete your CAP.
Complete the computer form to fulfill your research skills requirement. You can submit that form to your CAP director before or at the CAP.
Submit your graduation application form the semester before you will graduate or as soon as you know the semester when you will graduate. The cost of the diploma is paid through tuition you have been paying. The graduate administrative assistant can provide information about this matter.
Those of you who plan to attend the English Department graduation where you will be hooded should respond to emails sent by staff in the Department, probably using your ECU email address. If you do not hear about that graduation ceremony by a month before graduation, contact the TPC Lead Faculty. You will obtain your cap, gown, and hood through the ECU book store. You must pay for the hood.
IMPORTANT: If you are unable to complete your CAP on schedule, you will need to enroll in a degree-completion course for the semester when you do complete the CAP and graduate, paying tuition for a 3-credit course. You must be enrolled the semester/summer session that you graduate.

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