1. Getting Started

1. Think about Your Assignment and Pick a Topic

First Things First - Assignment Requirements

Before you begin work on any research paper, examine the assignment closely for any requirements.

Q. How long is the paper?

1000-1250 words

Q. How many sources?

A minimum of five (5) sources.

Q. What kind of sources?

Your sources must be of academic quality and may include websites. At least three must be from traditionally published sources (i.e. books and periodical articles, most likely to be found in the library’s print and database collections). At least one source must be published within the last 4 years to help ensure you are writing about a current issue.

Q. How do you cite sources?

You will use MLA format for your in-text citations and Works Cited page. You may want to remind yourself what information you need to create the MLA Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Q. What is due?

For this assignment, you will turn in a rough draft and a final draft of your assignment and an annotated bibliography.

Q. When is it due?

Check D2L for due dates and make sure that you identify the due date for your rough draft. Plan out your time, so you don't get stuck doing all the work at the last minute. Plan extra time in case you have problems or get stuck.

Selecting a Human Rights Abuse or Digital Rights Issue

The first thing you need to do before you begin a research paper is to select an issue that you're going to write about. For the human rights abuse, you will focus on a particular country that is NOT the United States. This means if an abuse takes place in multiple countries (such as human trafficking), you'll need to focus your research to just one country (Tip - select a country where there are plenty of sources available).

For the digital rights issue, you will need to select a topic in the U.S. or in another country, and focus on how digital technology is being misused to suppress rights or harm individuals, and the background of how the issue emerged. You will want to focus on a single aspect of technology, such as digital surveillance, the digital divide, online censorship, etc.

In selecting your topic, consider the following:

Q. Do you have an interest?

If you have a choice on what issues you can write about, consider which one you find the most interesting. Which issue do you think would be the easiest to write about? Which issue would you have the most to say about? Use the next page to see which topics might appeal to you.

Q. Are there sources?

Before you totally commit to a topic, you'll want to make sure that there are enough outside sources on the topic for your assignment. Not every issue in every country is going to have information written about it. Don't just find one news article or report on something and go with it. Do some searching in the library's databases to make sure there are sources, and Ask-A-Librarian to double-check if you're not sure there are enough sources for a topic you're really interested in.