INT 1010 Research Project (165 points)

Career Research Paper

See the Summary at the end of this document for due dates of each phase and possible points for each. All phases must be submitted on time to earn points for the final phase.

Overview: This project will involve a comparison of three careers. One career should be in your major. The other two should be IT careers. Of course if IT is your major then all 3 will be in IT. One of the IT careers should be related to cyber security. If your major is undecided, choose a career that interests you for the career in your major. In addition to comparing the careers, you will discuss at least one ethical issue that may arise for those who work in each of the careers, and at least one emerging or “cutting edge” technology used in each of the careers.

Phase 1 Pick Careers and Plagiarism:

Step 1: Decide on the 3 careers you will investigate. No two students in the class may have identical sets of 3 careers, though overlap is allowed. When you decide on the three careers, post a thread to the Blackboard discussion board established for this purpose. Before posting, look at the threads already there to make sure your set of 3 is unique. You don’t have to explain anything, just list the 3 careers in the subject line. This way we don’t have to open the thread to see which careers you chose. A good place to locate career information is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov.

Step 2: Do some research on plagiarism. Learn how you need to credit your sources. Start with this link to a tutorial on the University of Maryland University College web page: https://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/plagiarism/ . Completing this tutorial will take about 30 minutes. Take a screen-shot of your certificate when you “pass,” the quiz at the end and attach it to your discussion board post in Blackboard.

Phase 2 Annotated Bibliography:

Step 1: Go to your favorite search engine and for each career, do the following:

• Find at least one site that describes each career (using a job title works well).
• Find at least one site that identifies an ethical principle(s) in emerging technologies (in the last 3 years) for each career
• Keep all (6 or more) URL’s in a Word document.

Step 2: Evaluate the worth of each source you found above. Go to

http://www.umuc.edu/library/guides/web.shtml

Read the information on this site about using various resources for research and how to evaluate what you find on the web. Look at your sources from Step 1 and ask the four questions. Replace those sources that might not be high quality.

Step 3:

Create a bibliography (References) using the Word references feature (MS Word 2010 or higher). Include each of your sources. Managing your references will be much easier if you use the same computer. Here is a link that explains how to move bibliography sources: http://blogs.office.com/2010/09/29/move-bibliography-sources/

Step 4:

Create an annotated bibliography. Include some notes about information that is contained in each of your sources that might be useful in your paper. See a sample annotated bibliography in Blackboard. Submit these two documents (regular bibliography and annotated bibliography) into the Blackboard assignment for this phase.

Phase 3 Evaluation Matrix and Chart:

Step 1:

The class will collaborate and develop a set of criteria to evaluate the 3 careers. Once the list of criteria is developed, it will be posted to Blackboard. Everyone in the class will use the same criteria for their evaluation matrix.

Step 2:

Create an evaluation matrix in Excel that will let you compare the 3 careers side by side on each criterion. Refer to the tutorial about creating an evaluation matrix if needed. What should be in the matrix is the 3 careers, the criteria to be used, how you personally weigh each criterion. See the presentation in Blackboard about creating an evaluation matrix. Create your own matrix and name this file EM_Lname.

Step 3:

Based on your research, rate each career on each criterion (on a scale of 1 to 100). Again refer to the presentation about creating an evaluation matrix if needed. After you have rated all 3 careers, create Excel formulas to calculate weighted scores using a mixed cell reference. This will enable you to see which career scored best with the raw scores and then which career scored best with the weighted scores.

Step 4:

Create an Excel chart worksheet. The chart may be the style of your choice. It must give good information about the data in your worksheet. Name each worksheet in the workbook appropriately. Submit your file with both worksheets into the Blackboard assignment for this phase.

Phase 4 Write the Paper:

In this phase you will complete your paper and submit it for a plagiarism check. Be sure to give credit to your sources throughout your paper using the Word reference features.

The body of your paper should include:

1. A brief explanation of your choice of careers. The body should tell why you weighted the criteria as you did for each career. The paper should explain any high or low scores you gave any of the careers and discuss how the careers compared to each other with respect to the criteria. Support the ratings (scores) you assigned each career with details from your research. It is not necessary to explain each score in great detail, but you should help your reader understand how you arrived at your scores by presenting specific details about the career. Did you get the results you were expecting? Why or why not?
2. Include the evaluation matrix chart and table into your Word document in an appropriate place (APA requires each figure be at the top of the page).
3. Identify emerging technologies in each career. Explain the benefits and limitations of emerging technology on decision making and problem solving for each career. Details about these emerging technologies should be supported by your research.
4. Evaluate ethical principle(s) for each career related to the identified emerging technologies (B. above). In your evaluation discuss how an individual in that career should deal with the ethical issues. Support your opinion on how one should deal with the issues by citing facts learned in your research.

Submit a copy of your rough draft to the SafeAssign assignment in Blackboard. SafeAssign will check your paper for plagiarism. You may want to read through this web page about how SafeAssign works: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Student/060_Tests_and_Assignments/About_SafeAssign . Read through the originality report you receive and make the appropriate edits to your paper.

Phase 5 Format Final Paper:

After you make any necessary changes based on the originality report and your evaluation matrix, format your paper according to APA formatting style (see example paper in Blackboard for illustration of this format). It should include:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Body of paper with sources credited parenthetically
• The evaluation matrix and chart pasted into the body of the paper at an appropriate place
• References page (not the annotated bibliography)
• Bonus Appendix (see below)

Submit this final draft document (one Word file) and the evaluation matrix (one Excel file) into the Blackboard assignment for this phase.

Possible bonus points (worth a possible 15 bonus points):

Informally interview someone who is currently in one of the careers you chose. Take notes during the interview. Add an appendix to your paper with a few paragraphs detailing the most important information you learned from them. Also, type up your notes and add them after the paragraphs. This section should include who you interviewed, your interview questions and the interviewee responses.

Summary:

Career Research Paper Points and Due Dates