Social Networking Project Overview

Rationale: This assignment fulfills important requirements for both the Information Literacy and Quantitative Reasoning Learning Goal.

• You will demonstrate the ability to find articles on a topic, form a thesis and relate the articles you find to that thesis.
• By choosing 2 articles from inside a database, you demonstrate the ability to navigate a database to find information.
• By choosing article that is scholarly, you evaluate a source as scholarly and show you can draw information you need from the article.
• By locating numbers that support your thesis and creating a graph, you show that you can present numerical data in a meaningful format, and that you can use Excel to create a well formed graph.
• Your one page discussion on your numerical data proves you can draw inferences from numerical data and properly use inline citations.
• Your annotation of sources proves that you can properly cite, evaluate sources and draw inferences from your research.

Overview: You will research one narrow issue of a social networking or technology ethical topic and then produce the following documents on that topic:

• A thesis statement with a bibliography of five sources, 2 of which must come from a database, 1 which must be scholarly, plus 2 other sources. Your thesis statement will be a hypothesis about what research suggests on a particular topic.
• An annotated bibliography of your sources, using a special 4 part format designed for this project.
• A one page numerical data presentation: Numerical data Excel graph and discussion using inline citations. You will find one set of numerical data supporting an argument for your thesis, and then graph that data using Excel and write a discussion explaining how the data was collected, what it represents and how it supports your argument.
• Note: You will never write the complete the full research paper. In this class, you are only doing preparation steps for writing a final paper.

This will be broken into separate assignments:

Possible topics: Please choose a topic relating to a ethical dilemma that has arisen due to technology changes. Click here for a list of possible topics.

Deliverable #1: Write the thesis statement and bibliography of five sources:

• Research databases to find five sources related to your topic. Click here for database suggestions.
  • Find at least 2 sources from a database, 1 scholarly (peer reviewed or law review) article, and 2 other sources.
• Write a thesis in the form of: research suggests that (hypothesis) because (list 1, 2, 3 supporting points).
  • Example: While there were active discontents in each North African nation involved in the Arab Spring, the availability of Social Networking was a requirement for turning that discontent into a rapid spread of revolution throughout North Africa. Research suggests social networking played a vital role because it was available under the governments radar, it provided a means for political organizers to gain support for their message, and because political organizers would not have been able to coordinate events quickly without it.
  • The hypothesis should form a position on an issue, not describe an issue:
    
  • For example, the hypothesis that  "cyberbullying is bad" is a description while the hypothesis "stopping cyberbullying is the responsibility of schools" is a position.
  • Include at least 2 supporting points.
    
• Write a bibliography. It can be in MLA or APA format (or ask me if you want to use a different format) but all citations must use the same style
  • Use the Purdue Owl MLA Guide or Purdue Owl APA Guide
  • Please include the database name in the citation
  • Format with a hanging indent so the beginning sticks out to the left
  • Alphabetize the bibliography by the first word in the citation.
  • Many databases have citation tools attached or have the citation at the end. Be sure to choose the correct format (APA or MLA).
  • You may find this powerpoint helfpul.
  • For web sites that are not found in databases: place the root web site name after the citation. For example, put www.adelphi.edu/~pe16132 at the end of a citation on my site.
  • Citation Makers: Don't get caught by relying too heavily on a citation maker. A common issue with citation makers is not including both the title and journal for a journal article. It also commonly does not include the article title, site and publisher of a web site citation. For database articles, you will often have to add the database name yourself.

Deliverable #2: Update your Bibliography to add annotations of your 5 sources: (broken into 2 assignments (first and finish) so that you can get feedback on one annotation before doing all 5)

• Your goal is to communicate to the reader how to find the source, the credibility of the source, and what you would plan to use from the source if you were writing a paper to support your thesis.
• Start the Annotated Bibliography with your thesis statement.
• Each annotation will include these 4 parts:
• Citation: citation of the source
  • choose one format for the entire annotated bibliography (either APA or MLA preferred but you can choose another and tell me which you are using.)
• Summary: Write a brief summary of the material covered by the article.
  • Include the main point of the article and a high level view of the topics covered.
• Credentials Analysis: Write about the credibility of the source, including all the items below:
  • Credentials of author or source
    • Qualifications as authority - Find this by researching the author or organization on the internet. Find out who they work for and what their field of study or expertise is. ( Be sure to search using the full name of the author and their affiliation to get the right person.)
    • Quality of other articles published
  • Publisher - who is the publisher and also who owns the publisher
  • Bias - interest of publisher or author. Mention these signs of bias:
    • Is it in a publication or site meant to sell or convince of a certain viewpoint?
    • Does it use persuasive language?
    • Are both sides of a viewpoint included?
    • Is it missing significant facts or viewpoints from other articles you found.
  • Validity of numerical statistics in article
    • Are any numerical facts included?
    • Do numerical facts include a citation of the study they came from so you can verify the facts?
    • Are the statistics based upon a study with a large sample size?
    • Are there conflicting stats on the internet or in other articles? If so, indicate which stats seem to you to be more correct and why.
  • Verifiable
    • can you follow the citations?
    • are the sources of the citations biased?
    • Is it peer reviewed, referreed or a legal review? (Find out whether the journal is peer reviewed. Ulrich's Web lists whether a journal is peer reviewed or refereed. Also, some databases have a peer-reviewed filter that can prove the journal is peer reviewed. )
  • Category
    • State the type of source: scholarly, popular, trade, government
    • See this description of scholarly vs popular vs trade
  • You may find this powerpoint helpful.
• What I might use: Explain how the source will fit into your essay and how it relates to your thesis. Include facts.
• Mention facts or discussions you would plan to use from the source if you were going to write your paper.
• Describe which section of your paper this source would support or refute.
  • For example: This article provides a counter-argument to facebook being only slightly useful to the Arab Spring.
• This section must relate directly to the thesis. It should not include any information that is not directly related to your thesis.
• You do not need to include in-text citations because the source is clear, but if you copy text use quotes.

Deliverable #3: Write the numerical data presentation:

• Find numerical data in your research that supports or refutes your argument.
• Create one or two graphs in Excel to convey the numerical data in a clear manner.
  • Even if your data was in a graph in your research, you need to recreate the graph in Excel on your own.
  • The graph also needs to be clearly marked so that the information is visually accurate and easy to understand on its own, with a clear title, and clear axis labels.
  • The graph cannot be misleading, so a pie chart would need to be parts of a whole, and a bar chart would need to start at 0 and have parallel values and trend lines would need to have reasonable outer bound lines, and all data points must accurately reflect the numbers.
• Write a discussion paper as a word document with these parts:
  • Insert a picture of your Excel graph
  • Write a one page discussion explaining how the graphed numbers support your thesis.
    • Use at least one inline (parenthetical citation) citation for each paragraph that has any facts that rely upon the source. If you copy text, be sure to use quotes.
    • Describe the scope of the numbers including a description of the sample set they came from. Mention the sample size as well.
    • Discuss the graph itself and significant information it is presenting.
    • Explain the inferences that support or refute your argument. Mention at least one of your thesis arguments that is being supported.
    • You do not need to write about any of your research that is not found in the graph or to prove your entire thesis - this is all about analyzing the numbers.
    • Write this in third person (no "I" or "you") and avoid "I believe".
    • You do not need to explain how you found the numbers, but instead, just cite the source.