This assignment has two goals:

1) have students increase their understanding of the concept of Protecting Personal Information (PPI) and other ethical issues related to the use of information technology through research, and

2) learn to correctly use the tools and techniques within Word to format a research paper including using Word 2010/2013's citation tools. These skills will be valuable throughout students' academic career. The paper will require a title page, NO abstract, three to four full pages of content with incorporation of a minimum of 3 external resources from credible sources, and a Works Cited/Reference page. Three pages of content means 3 full pages, to the bottom of the third page with text on page 4. Two pages plus several lines on the third page will not suffice. Note that submitting a paper that is less than three pages may affect your grade on several rubric items, including page length and several content items. Given a short, underdeveloped paper's impact on several items in the rubric, a student submitting a paper less than three full pages is unlikely to score higher than a ‘C' on this assignment.

A list of topics from which students can choose is provided below. Wikipedia and similar websites are NOT creditable sources. Blogs and discussion groups are not creditable sources. The course textbook cannot be used as a source for the research paper. No more than 10% of the paper may be in the form of a direct citation from an external source.

Topics for Research Paper

1. Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
2. Social Engineering
3. Employee Monitoring
4. Information Privacy
5. Electronic Medical Records
6. Biometrics (in terms of ethical and privacy issues)
7. Identity Theft
8. Use of Cookies
9. Privacy Laws related to Information Technology use
10. Intellectual Property Rights; Copyright

Writing Quality for the Research Paper

* All Grammar, Verb Tenses, Pronouns, Spelling, Punctuation, and Writing Competency should be without error.

*Remember: spell-check, then proofread. Better yet, have a friend or colleague read it before submitting it. Read it out loud to yourself.

* Remember: there is not their, your is not you're, its is not it's, too is not to or two, site is not cite, and who should be used after an individual, not that. For example, "the person WHO made the speech" not "the person THAT made the speech."

* In a professional paper one does not use contractions (doesn't, don't, etc.) and one does not use the personal you or your. Use the impersonal as in the previous sentence. It is more business-like than saying, "Also in a professional paper you don't use contractions."

This is not a speech, it is a research paper. First and second person should NOT be used.