| CMSC 122 | |
Term Paper
Due at 11:00PM, Sunday 04/08
You may choose any topic that is related to "Ethical use of the World Wide Web". How you approach this assignment is largely up to you. You may choose to discuss issues facing any combination of the following groups of people: those posting information on the web, those who control access to web content, those who run search engines, as well as those merely using information found on the web. You may discuss whichever facets of ethics you choose; you may choose to discuss issues related to privacy, censorship, freedom of speech, search engine biases, intellectual property, etc.
This is a research paper -- your exposition should rely on facts, not your opinions. However, we are expecting your critical analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of the information you find in your sources. You are expected to find a wide variety of sources (not just obvious ones), and your sources should span numerous perspectives and points of view. For example: legal experts, social scientists, psychologists, and scientific researchers might all discuss your topic with different goals, assumptions, and perhaps biases. Your analysis should evaluate the credibility of your sources, and discuss common assumptions, complexities of the issues, and any ambiguities that surround these issues.
In the early part of your paper, you should use your resources to define your chosen topic. Motivate the topic: Why is this interesting? Be sure to clearly state your "thesis" -- What is the point of this paper?
The bulk of your paper should elaborate on your topic by discussing evidence for and against your paper's thesis. You should discuss whatever factors you think are relevant for a complete and unbiased discussion.
Finally, in the concluding section of the paper, you should recapitulate the important elements of the paper, and wrap things up with some recommendations or other kinds of concluding statements. What have we learned from your paper? What should change? What can we do to improve this situation? Etc.
Your paper must be 4 to 8 full pages in length. The length requirement only counts actual lines of text -- headings, spacing between sections, images, diagrams, or pictures do not count toward the length requirement, so you should really be submitting more than 4 pages. The length requirement also does not include your list of "Works Cited", nor does it include your cover page -- just the actual textual content of the paper, itself.
You must format the paper as follows:
As with any research paper, you are expected to fully cite sources you are using. This means that any fact, quote, or idea that is presented in your paper but was taken from someone else's work must be cited. The "In-Text Citation" must immediately follow the passage in question, and will refer to one of the works that you have listed in the "Works Cited" section at the end of your paper.
There are many acceptible styles for citing sources, including MLA, APA, etc. We don't care which style you use, but be sure to cite EVERYTHING that you have taken from another source. Please see this webpage for a detailed description of the MLA citation style, which we recommend. (The menu at the left offers various categories of useful information.)
We expect to see numerous citations throughout your paper taken from a list of several works. You will be penalized if your paper does not include enough citations, and you will be penalized if you have not used a sufficient number of resources, and if your resources do not span a variety of different perspectives on this topic. Note that you may not include entries in your "Works Cited" list unless they are specifically mentioned by one or more in-text citations found in the body of the paper.
Since we are expecting you to do much of your research online, many of your references will be web pages. Suppose you found some information on a webpage titled "A Brief History of Piracy" located on the website RoyalNavalMuseum.org. Here is how an "Intext Citation" might appear in your paper:
Piracy began in Ancient Greece more than 2000 years ago. (RoyalNavalMuseum.org)
At the end of the paper, the "Works Cited" list would include more information about this source:
"A Brief History of Piracy." RoyalNavalMuseum.org, 2002. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
In the above reference, the date 2002 is the date listed on the webpage. The date March 27, 2012 was the date when you viewed the page. (This is important since webpages are updated frequently.) There are many variations on this theme. If in doubt, you can also include the full URL. Please see the official MLA style guide for further information. This webpage may be of use.
Your grade on the assignment will depend on all of the following:
You must submit your paper in pdf format. Go to the submit server to upload the pdf file. (Look for the entry that says "Term Paper" and click the link that says "submit".) Note that you do not have to put it into a zip file -- just upload the pdf file by itself. We will not accept email submissions of this assignment under any circumstances; you must upload a pdf file directly to the submit server. Late papers will be accepted up to 24 hours after the due date, but they will be assessed a 20 point penalty (out of 100 points total). No papers will be accepted under any circumstances more than 24 hours beyond the due date.
You may submit the paper as many times as you like. We will only grade the last submission that you send.
Please make sure you read the academic integrity section of the syllabus so you understand what is permissible in our assignments. We want to remind you that we check your assignment against other students' assignments, and we also do automated searches of the web to detect plagiarism. Any case of suspected academic dishonesty will be referred to the University's Office of Student Conduct.