CMSC 304 Final Paper Guidelines

Prof. Marie desJardins
February 28, 2013


GENERAL NOTE: You are welcome to email me at any time to let me know about your possible topic, send a more detailed explanation of what you're thinking, give me an outline to look at, or bring me draft material to read and comment on during my office hours. (Note that I will not "pregrade" full drafts or extended material sent by email.)


Paper Options

The final paper can take one of two forms: it can either be a deeper ethical analysis of a broad issue, or it can be a "book report" on a (serious, significant) book related to a topic in the course.

Extended Ethical Analysis. For the ethical analysis choice, you would select a topic (e.g., one from the list we went through on the second day of class), identify the issues or ethical questions in this area, and analyze the ethical, social, economic, and/or legal aspects of these issues. You should identify at least one ethical question to which you will apply the 11 steps of our ethical analysis framework, analyzing possible policies, identifying stakeholders and consequences, and drawing and supporting a conclusion. Since this is an extended analysis, you should go beyond that simple framework in two ways.

First, you should look at the issues from multiple angles (for example, if you were to write an extended analysis of vulnerability selling, you might analyze the policies and issues from three perspectives: those of the vulnerability researchers/sellers, the technology companies, and policymakers).

Second, you should also include at least two specific cases or incidents. For example, if you chose copyright and freedom of information, you might consider the cases of Aaron Swartz, the Viacom v. YouTube case, and the Napster case, discussing the ethical issues and how they have been interpreted in different contexts.

Book Report. For this option, you would (with approval) choose an important/notable book about a topic/issue that is relevant to the course (e.g., Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg" about computer espionage, or Eric Raymond's "The Cathedral & The Bazaar" about the open-source movement). Your book report should summarize and discuss the key themes and issues of the book, focusing on the social and ethical issues that are raised. While you do not need to use the ethical analysis step-by-step methodology, you may find it useful in identifying and discussing the relevant issues and ethical questions.


Length

The target length for the final paper is approximately 8-10 pages in single-space 11- or 12-point font (approximately 4000-5000 words). (Please do not use 10-point or smaller font; I'm not looking for eyestrain opportunities!) Some of you may be able to explore an interesting topic broadly and meaningfully in fewer pages; others will go into more depth or add more examples/details, and will write longer papers. However, if you submit a paper that is shorter than 6 pages or longer than 12 pages, you can expect that I will be looking with a very critical eye to see whether you have skimped on your topic, or conversely, have written a bloated paper with extraneous material.


Topic Statement

The topic statement (due by the beginning of class on Tuesday 4/9) is a short summary of your intended topic area (the topic, the main issues, and specific cases/incidents if you have identified some) or book (title, author, topic, some general explanation of why you chose it and how it is relevant for the class). The topic paragraph is just meant to be a single short paragraph, but of course, you are free to write more if the muse inspires you.

Topic paragraphs should be submitted by email, in plain text (NOT as an attachment, gooogle doc link, or anything else that I can't simply read in the body of the email).


Project Presentations

In the last three class periods (Thursday 5/2, Tuesday 5/7, and Thursday 5/9), students will give short (8-minute) presentations on their research paper More details about the expectations for these presentations will be distributed separately.


Academic Integrity

This should go without saying, but the paper itself, the draft, the topic statement, and anything else you turn in along the way must adhere to the class academic honesty policy. All writing that you submit should be your own, other than clearly delineated quotes with proper references. (Heavy use of quotes very often reflects a lack of independent thinking, so you should use quotes judiciously and only when you need to capture exactly what another author said.)


Paper Organization and Draft Paper

Since this is a fairly long paper, it should be organized into sections the way that a scientific paper or longer magazine article would be, with section titles (and subsections if appropriate) that help the reader to follow the flow of the paper and identify the main sections.

Because you are each choosing your own book or topic, and your own emphasis of issues and perspective, it isn't possible or desirable for me to give general guidance about organizing the paper. I strongly encourage you to use good "prewriting" habits, including identifying the main themes and ideas before you start writing, writing an outline before you write prose, and knowing what you want each paragraph to be about before you start writing it. Another good habit is to reread and edit your own material critically, multiple times, over a period of time. Finally, you really should take me up on my offer to review outlines, thoughts, and (in person) draft material. I won't force you to follow a particular writing process or turn in milestones along the way, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing those things.

You must submit a complete draft of your paper on Wednesday 5/2. To emphasize: this submission should be a complete draft of your paper. It should be polished enough -- and you should feel confident enough about the contents, organization, and grammar -- that you feel that it could be a final draft. That means that you should have finished a rough draft at least a week before this time, so that you have time to revisit and revise it, polishing it into a solid paper. You should not just write something and then turn it in; the draft should be the result of your own writing and rewriting process.

This first submitted draft should be turned in as a hardcopy, and you must bring three copies to class: one for me, and two that will be distributed to other students for peer review. Please include your email address in the header of your paper, since peer reviews will be sent by email. I strongly prefer 1.5- or double-spaced drafts so that I have room to write comments. (My handwriting isn't that good even when I have plenty of space, so believe me, you don't want to try to read my comments written between single-spaced lines!) If you want to save paper, feel free to print double-sided and/or provide single-spaced versions for the peer reviews.


Peer Reviews

You will be given two other students' papers to review and comment on, using a review form that I will provide. The peer review is counted as part of your paper grade, so you should take this step seriously. (Besides, you'd probably like to get constructive, thorough, and useful reviews from your peers, and it's always good to do unto others as you would have them do unto you!) You should email your review to the other students by the deadline (Thursday 5/9, one week after the drafts are submitted), and cc me on the messages. I will also hand back your graded drafts, with general comments, by Wednesday 5/9.

Final research paper: The final paper is due at the beginning of the exam slot (Tuesday 5/21 at 10:30). The final paper should incorporate the feedback that you receive from the peer reviews and from me. I prefer that the final paper be single-spaced to save paper. Please turn in the graded draft when you submit the final paper.


References

Research papers should include a set of references (material that you used as you were researching the topic and that has influenced what you wrote, whether or not you are citing it specifically as a source). (Book reports do not require references, but you may end up doing some outside research on claims or issues discussed in the book, and in this case you should include the references you used.)

We discussed the idea of a "solid" or "establishment" source. These include books, peer-reviewed technical articles in an academic journal, newspaper or magazine articles in an "establishment" publication (i.e., a professional print publication, not an online blog or open-source website), or professional organization website (such as the American Medical Association or the American Meteorological Society). (It's fine to access these sources online, in the library electronic collections, Google Books, or wherever you are able to find them.) Most of your sources should be these kinds of references, but you may also include what I would call "informal" sources in your references if you have used them for background or to help you research the topic. Examples of "informal" sources include Wikipedia, company websites, informational sites like AAAI Topics, or respectable blogs like Blown to Bits. (Do not include any "junk" sources like answers.yahoo.com, clearly unfiltered/stream-of-consciousness blogs, or obviously promotional/commercial websites.)

Just ask me if you have any questions about whether a source would be considered legitimate.

Your bibliography should be neatly and consistently formatted, single-spaced (with blank lines between sources) using MLA style or another neat, compact formatting. (A page describing MLA style can be found at http://www.aresearchguide.com/12biblio.html.) Annotations should be italicized, indented paragraphs immediately following the citations. (To be honest, I really don't care a lot about specifics of formatting -- such as whether you underline or italicize names of books and articles -- but I've noticed that a lot of high school teachers seem to teach students to create very ugly, hard-to-read, double-spaced bibliographies with a lot of extraneous material. So keep it professional and keep it simple.)