Research Paper
This assignment has two goals:
1) have students increase their understanding of the concept of Protecting Personally Identifiable Information and other ethical issues related to the use of information technology through research, and
2) learn to correctly use the tools and techniques within MS Word to format a research paper including using MS Word’s citation tools.
These skills will be valuable throughout students’ academic career. The paper will require a title page, 2-3 pages of content with incorporation of a minimumof 3 external resources from credible sources, and a Works Cited/Reference page. A list of topics from which students can choose is provided below.
Topics for Research Paper
- Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
- Social Engineering
- Employee Monitoring
- Content Filtering
- Information Privacy
- Electronic Medical Records
- Biometrics (in terms of ethical and privacy issues)
- Identity Theft
- Use of Cookies
- Privacy Laws related to Information Technology use
- Intellectual Property Rights; Copyright
Good resources include the chapters on Microsoft Word in your hands-on textbook, the UMUC Library website plus under Course Content in your WebTycho classroom, Writing Resources, the Online Guide to Writing and Research, Chapter 5, and the APA Tutorial. The Tutorial is also posted under Course Content.
| Requirement |
Points Allocated |
Comments |
| Open and save an MS Word document with the following name:
“Student’s Last Name Research”
Example: Smith Research
Paper should be double-spaced, 1″ margins, 12 point type. |
0.5 |
This is the font in normal paragraphs. Heading and title fonts may be a larger size. |
| Deliverable does not exceed 3 typed, double-spaced. |
0.3 |
Charts and other graphical information are not included in the page count. Title and reference pages are not included in page count. |
| Title Page which shows title, your first and last name, course and due date. Center each line. Double space between each line. |
0.5 |
Title must be appropriate for content. Use a Page Break at the end of the Title Page. |
| Use a footer to create page numbers for all pages except the Title Page. |
0.2 |
Center-align the numbers. |
| At least three (3) APA formatted in-text citations.
You are required to use the References feature in Word for your citations and Reference List. It is important to review the final format for APA style even if generated by MS Word. |
0.5 |
These can be anywhere in the document, but the citations must be relevant to what is being referenced and use the APA format. |
| At least two (2) informational footnotes. This type of footnote is used to provide more information about a concept or topic.
(Note: APA Style does not use footnotes for citations; however, does allow for the incorporation of informational footnotes.) |
0.5 |
These can be anywhere in the document, but the informational footnotes must be relevant to the associated text. The purpose of this requirement is to effectively incorporate the information and demonstrate that you can use the MS Word footnoting functionality. |
| Reference Page using APA format for references. (Also known as Bibliography or Works Cited.) Minimum of 3 references.
You are required to use the References feature in Word for your citations and Reference List.It is important to review the final format for APA-style correctness even if generated by MS Word. |
0.5 |
All works listed must be incorporated within the writing of your paper as specified in APA style.
Use a Page Break between the end of the document text and the reference page. References should be on a separate page from the document text. |
| Describe the topic and ethical issue as it relates to the use of Information Technology. |
3.0 |
|
| Discuss the trends, ways individuals and/or organizations are impacted by the issue or working to prevent the impact. |
3.0 |
Specific content should be relevant for topic and focus of the paper. |
| Paper must be well-organized, clearly written in a style appropriate for college level work. |
1.0 |
|
| Paper should be grammatically correct and contain no spelling errors. |
2.0 |
Although you should use the SpellCheck and Grammar Check functions in MS Word, this will not catch all errors – you are ultimately responsible for proofreading. |
| TOTAL: |
12 |
|
