Paper

CS 102

60 pts., due Apr. 11

Your paper will be graded using the following criteria. They are arranged in descending order of importance.

1. Subject matter. You may write your paper on any topic relevant to the course. However, some topics are more interesting to me than others and will be graded accordingly. For instance, I'm not very interested in a comparison between the Dell XYZ and the Gateway UVW PCs. I would be more interested in new and innovative ways computers are being used in your discipline. I would also be interested in a discussion of the Government's Total Information Awareness initiative and its effect upon our security and privacy.

   I suggest you run your proposed paper topic by me for my approval.

   I subscribe to two mailing lists which e-mail me, several time a week, summaries of technology-related articles from various media. I will forward these mailings to a mailing list I've set up and to which you can subscribe. This may help you find an interesting paper topic. To subscribe to this mailing list send a piece of e-mail to

   cs102-request@lists.goucher.edu
   

   with the word

   subscribe
   

   in the body of the e-mail. You will then be mailed instructions for confirming your subscription.

2. Writing style. The harder you work on making your paper easy to read and enjoyable to read, the higher your grade.

3. Substantiation of position. I don't particularly care what position you take on an issue, but it must be substantiated through a valid supporting argument. As noted above, I prefer to see papers in which a position is taken rather than papers which merely report facts.

4. References. You should cite at least five online references. The proper format for an online reference is:

   Author/editor. Title of Print Version of Work. Edition statement (if given). Publication information (Place of publication: publisher, date) (if given). Title of Electronic Work. Medium. Information supplier. Available protocol (if applicable): Site/Path/File. Access date.

   Example reference:

   Pritzker, Thomas J. An Early Fragment from Central Nepal. N.D. Online. Ingress Communications. Available:
   http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzker.html. June 8, 1995.

5. Spelling and grammar.

6. Formatting:
   1. 1 inch margins, all around. Doublespaced. The paper should be 4--5 pages in length. Indent the first line of each paragraph by 1/2 inch. The body of the text should be left- and right-justified.

   2. Centered title and author name. These should be in a font different from the body font and should be a larger point size. Don't use a separate title page. The body text should be in an 11 point font.

   3. Page numbers in the footer and the paper title in the header (except on the first page)