Papers

We will have five online papers for this class, on the topics listed below. Each paper is worth 175 total points (see the Classroom tab above for more details about the grading system).  

Before writing your paper, choose a topic and submit it to me via this online form – this is not only to help you decide on a topic, but so that I can give you some pointers on where to look for your information and what your paper should include.

The paper will be completed online by filling out an online form with the general information, and emailing the substance of the paper (your findings...which should be presented as a research paper on your topic about 3-4 double-spaced pages). Use MLA or APA as a style guide and be sure to cite your references -- otherwise it's plagiarism! Each paper should be a 750 to 1000 words (approx. 3-4 pages, 12 point type, double-spaced). Use MLA or APA as a style guide and be sure to cite your references. Remember that this is worth 75 points towards your overall grade. This is where you will write your findings on your subject in comprehensive detail. Also keep in mind that this is a course about doing research on the internet. For each topic, you should exhaust every available internet lead you can find, to really research a subject so thoroughly that you can describe the subject in detail in the paper based on the information you found either informative and/or repetitious. 

If you're not an expert on the topic when you finish, you should at least be an expert about the types of places to look for information about a topic, and which places you found to be the most useful. 

The paper submittal form will ask you to provide:

  1. your topic name
  2. initial search engine used
  3. initial search string used
  4. number of hits
  5. a comparison of search engines for general search on the topic (20 points)
  6. rating of specialized resources available and whether any sites used animation or audio (10 points)
  7. a list of the five best URLs (results) for your topic (50 points)
  8. community building exploration finding (20 points)

These answers can be worked out ahead of time and copied and pasted from your word processing package into the form fields.

 

Topics and links with details for the five papers

1 - Medical topic Due: 9/20/02
2 - Government issue Due: 10/18/02
3 - In depth company search Due: 11/8/02
4 - Regional or historical search Due: 11/29/02
5 - Job search, electronic text, or software search Due: 12/13/02

 


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Last updated: 16 Apr 2003