This course requires a written termpaper on some topic related to computer science professional responsibilities.  The paper will be a minimum of 20 pages long double spaced.  You must give a 5 - 10 sentence abstract of the contents as part of the cover page.  In addition, it must have a bibliography attached with several citations given as sources for material used in the paper, web citations are not sufficient.  The topic must be preapproved by the instructor.  The topic will be the same as for the formal 10 minute presentation.

The topic for the termpaper (and formal 10 minute presentation) must be preapproved by the instructor. A formal topic proposal must be submitted before the topic is approved.  The proposal is to include a (1) proposed title, (2) proposed abstract (a two or three paragraph explanation of the topic and your point about it), (3) the main Issue you plan to address, (4) a list of the major alternative arguments you expect to address, optionally an outline of the approach you will use to analyze the topic (survey, experiment, pure analysis, proof by contradiction, ...) and (5) a short bibliography (2 or 3 sources minimum, books, papers, or other sources, limit web resources to less than half the total).

Note that you should follow a format consisting of the following sections for the paper: 

Introduction section: you will give a rough overview of what issue you are writing about and your own resolution.

Facts section: This section should have NO opinion or slant, just give the basic facts that give rise to the issue of interest.  After the facts are given, the reader should naturally wonder about the issue you'll explicitly raise.

Statement of Issue: This is the central "question" that you will answer by your analysis.  It should be narrowly focused, simply stated and answerable in your paper.  Your analysis must answer this question rationally.

Importance of the Issue:  This should be a paragraph or two stating why it is worth your time to work on this issue.  Why should anyone care about it?  It need not be earth-shattering, but should impact someone in a recognizable way. 

Arguments about the issue: This will probably be two (maybe more) sections detailing arguments about the issue. If your issue is mainly two sided, you may have one section advocating something, then another section giving the opposite arguments. This section should not hold your arguments or judgments, it is for listing and explaining others arguments just as though you agree with them (even when you do not agree with them.)

Analysis: This is YOUR time to analyze, synthesize, argue, support or attack others' arguments about the issue. This is the main part of the paper where the A's can be earned. Show me what you think, reason out a resolution and show why it works. I do not have to agree with you, just make a good argument.  This section will account for a majority of the final paper grade.

Bibliography and Citations: It is imperative that whenever you make reference to a FACT of some sort, you cite an authoritative source for that fact. (Ex: "the internet now makes up 4% of the Gross National Product of the USA" [cited source goes here and in your bibliography.]) This is very very important. Whenever you use ideas of others, you must give me the reference. It is GOOD to use ideas of others in YOUR analysis. Just give me the reference.  DO NOT GIVE unsupported opinions in this paper, you will lose substantial credit.  Making use of arguments or quotes without proper citation may be interpreted as plagiarism.  Note that historically, the main weaknesses of the papers in CSC 300 has been lack of quality writing (spell check, grammar check, nonsense check :-) and lack of citation to sources of information used.  Citation must be made for any facts, claims and quotes given in your paper.  This is a major ethical point we should handle properly!

As announced in class, I have examples of papers in my office you may review. You may also check the papers from CSC 300 that have been published to see how they look.   A fine example of a CSC 300 termpaper that got a very high grade has been written by Aaron Stearrett for your review (used with his permission). Don't worry about writing exactly like this, but do look at the format and content, note the "flow" and how the "story" is told for the reader.

Here is a "tips" sheet  for your reference.  I grade using these criteria, so keep the sheet next to you when you write and proofread your paper (that is what I do!)