CJ 341A: Cyberlaw & Cybercrime

Term-Paper Guidelines

M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP,
Program Director, MSIA | School of Graduate Studies
FALL 2008

The Research Report counts for 25% of the final grade. The following guidelines will help students succeed in this project.

• You will prepare a research report (4,000±500 words / 8 single-spaced pages) dealing with any legal aspect of cybercrime.
• Pick a topic that interests you. There is no point in writing a paper on something you find boring. The research is an opportunity to learn more about something that matters to you; the writing is an opportunity to crystallize your thoughts and your knowledge and to articulate your understanding. You should work with your instructor to select and refine a suitable topic.
• You must submit topic proposals, drafts and final reports in electronic format no later than the start of class on the stated deadline. You may submit Word DOC, Word DOCX, or RTF formats. No printed (paper) versions will be accepted. Send all files by e-mail to mkabay@norwich.edu .
• The instructor must approve all topics by the date stipulated in the course syllabus. Every day late in submission of the topic proposal will result in a 1-percentage-point penalty on the essay score (counting the score as 100%).
• Once the topic has been approved by the instructor, you must submit a detailed outline of the proposed report, including major headings and a preliminary source list. The deadline is published in the class syllabus. Every day late in submission of the outline will result in a 5-point penalty on essay score for the research report.
• You must submit a draft for instructor review and feedback by the deadline stipulated in the course syllabus. The draft should be a complete work showing the entire structure, content and citations for the report. Every day late in submission of the draft will result in a 5-point penalty on the research-report grade. Consider the draft equivalent to what you would normally submit as your final report in any other class.
• The final report will be graded on originality, content/research, and presentation, including proper grammar, spelling, and citation. Every day late in submission of the final report will result in a 10-point penalty on the research-report grade.
• Final word count will be calculated after superfluous text (padding) is removed by the instructor. Not counting the footnotes and references, the final report must not exceed 4,500 words and must not be less than 3,500 words.
• You will present a 10-minute talk about your research at the end of the course. No more than 10 slides are permitted. Dark letters (minimum 24 point) on a light background are acceptable. Use bullet-form points only on the slides, not extended text.

Research

· Use the Kreitzberg Library online databases available through CLiC or via the off-campus link
< http://library.norwich.edu/login?url=http://www.norwich.edu/academics/library/onlineoffcamp.html >

· Pay particular attention to current journals and professional journals or magazines available online and at the Library

· Wikipedia may be used to locate resources but may not be used as a reference. See the article “Using the Library Databases” by Meredith Farkas on the MSIA Graduate Portal
< http://grad.norwich.edu/msia/directorscorner/07_17_06/index.html >

· Read Prof Kabay’s paper on Computer-Aided Thematic Analysis™ (CATA) as an aid to organizing your research notes:
< http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/CATA.pdf > or
< http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/cata.htm >

· Listen to a brief lecture explaining CATA < http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/cata.pps >

Writing and Citations

· Failure to cite sources for quoted text or specific ideas is plagiarism and will be prosecuted under the academic integrity regulations of Norwich University.

· Failure to quote text exactly or to show changes in quoted text is a serious breach of professionalism and will result in serious point-score penalties.

· You may use any of the three following styles for writing, citations and references:

o Modern Language Association (MLA) < http://www.mla.org/style >

o American Psychological Association (APA) < http://apastyle.apa.org >

o Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) < http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/bib1.html >

· You must be consistent in using the style you have selected for any one essay. Do not mix styles in an essay.

· Use footnotes for citations

o Use the automatic footnote feature of your word processing package. Do not number footnotes by hand.

o Provide only the identifier of the document and a location, not the entire bibliographic data, in a footnote; e.g., Francis, R. (2004a) p 54.

· Provide a List of Works Cited at the end of your document

o Alphabetically sorted by author and by date within author if there are multiple works by the same author

o Full bibliographic details as represented using your chosen style (MLA, APA, CMS)

· Word counts are significant; writing within limits is a valuable skill.

· Read Prof Kabay’s essay “On Writing”

o < http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/writing.htm >

o < http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/writing.pdf >

Grading

· Drafts will be returned with significant markup using TRACK CHANGES and COMMENTS.

· Students are expected to respond to the corrections and suggestions in completing their final version.

· The rubric below shows how the instructor will grade your term paper. Refer to the rubric frequently when planning and writing your work

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