Technology Ethical Issue Project
- Thesis and Bibliography of Five Sources
This is the start of researching your topic, formulating a
thesis and writing citations. This week you will write a Thesis
and Bibliography with no annotations, and you can use all the
steps listed below to guide your work. Click
here to see how this week's assignment fits into your larger
social networking project.
STEP 1: Choose a topic:
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.
but please range further for a topic that interests you about
the ethics involving social networking or technology.
You can change your topic later if you find you need to.
STEP 2: Research using databases and other sources:
- Goal: Research to find at least 5 sources related to your
topic.
- Find at least 2 sources from a database: Click
here for database suggestions.
- Find at least 1 scholarly source (peer reviewed or legal
review), usually also from a database
- Find 2 more sources - from anywhere
How to do this?
Skim the abstracts of 5 - 10 articles to get some more sense
of the research available on your topic.
Then write a research question such as:
- Should hate speech be censored? If so, who should censor
it?
- Who should be responsible for reducing cyberbullying among
high school students?
- What role should a prospective employee's facebook play in
hiring decisions?
- What would a reasonable workplace policy look like to
guide healthcare workers commenting on national health care
policy?
Then return to read fully the articles that would help you
answer that question.
Trouble finding an article?
STEP 3: Write your Thesis:
- 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.
- You might want to think of the hypothesis as an
argument you are making.
- Include at least 2 supporting points that support the
hypothesis.
- Make sure you have a pointed position that you can call
your hypothesis and state very clearly in your
thesis.Consider promoting a supporting point to your
hypothesis.
- For example, if you wrote: research suggests an
employer using social networking is bad because it can
allow discrimination, can keep a company from hiring the
best employee or can provide incorrect information.
- You could change your hypothesis to: research
suggests that an employer using social networking
will often lead to illegal discrimination because
(and now come up with 2 reasons).
STEP 4: Write a Bibliography containing 5 of your sources :
(No annotations at this time. That comes later.)
- The bibliography 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). Also be consistent with either MLA version 7
or 8. (MLA version 7 uses "Web" and MLA version 8 does not.)
- 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.