TWC 551 Intellectual Property and Copyright
Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication
Fall 2007

Graduate Assignment

As graduate students in this course you will complete all of the work for the undergraduate TWC451 section of the course. I also expect that as graduate students, your level of participation will be higher than that of the undergraduate students and that you will take on a leadership role in discussion board posts and group work.

In addition to work required as part of TWC451, you will also complete an additional research assignment. The majority of our reading and discussion this semester will focus on understanding intellectual property and copyright law. Within the last few years, different models have emerged related to publishing and distributing intellectual property in reaction to the changes to the law. Although these models may come up during our readings and discussion, this research assignment will give you the opportunity to research and analyze one of them in depth. You may choose one of the following to investigate:

• open access publishing
• Creative Commons
• open source software licensing
• other?

Outcomes met by successful completion of this assignment: R1, CRW1, CRW2, CRW4, KC1, KC2, KC3

Research Proposal (due September 23rd, 10 pts)

Your research proposal must include the following:

• your research question, thesis, or hypothesis. You should have completed enough background research so that you are able to formulate a specific and focused question, thesis, or hypothesis within the context of this course.
• your research plan. As graduate students, I expect that your research and analysis will be comprehensive. That means, I expect you to go beyond reviewing and synthesizing sources. Your research proposal should reflect a well thought-out strategy that will help you investigate your question, thesis, or hypothesis. Stating that you will use online sources (or even throwing in that you will use library databases) is not a research strategy and is unacceptable. Think through how you will find the information you need, how you will go about finding it (whether that be primary or secondary research or both), what problems and limitations you may have for conducting the research. Your research plan should include details on your methods and how those methods will help you find the information you need.
• a timeline for completing the project. Your timeline should be based on deadlines for the assignment and include details.

Submit your research proposal as an informal report.

Grading will be based on:

• comprehensive and focused question, thesis, or hypothesis
• comprehensiveness of your research plan and detail of your timeline
• formatting and mechanics

Progress Report (due October 14, 10 pts)

Your progress report must include:

• a narrative of the work you have completed to date. Your report should include details rather than be a brief overview.
• an evaluation of your research strategy and process. In this evaluation you should assess your original proposal to analyze how well it has worked and not worked, changes you have had to make (or will make), problems and limitations you have encountered, and work that remains to be done. No research strategy is perfect or without problems; I expect to see an honest and comprehensive assessment of your strategy and work.
• an annotated bibliography of sources you have found to date. Your annotations should include a summary (in your own words) of the source and an analysis of how it is appropriate for your topic
• an updated timeline showing work completed, work still to be done, and changes made due

Submit your progress report as an informal report.

Grading will be based on:

• comprehensive and clear report on your progress
• self-assessment of yoru work to date and your strategy, including problems and limitations
• comprehensive and clear bibliography that consists of a reasonable number of sources reflecting the scope of your research (in other words, not just sources from websites)
• formatting and mechanics

Report Draft (due November 18, 10 pts)

Submit a draft of your final report.

Final Report (due December 4, 25 pts)

Submit your final report. Your report should be accompanied by a submittal memo addressed to me. Your submittal memo should include a metacognitive statement in which you self-assess your work: your research and writing process to complete this project as well as what you have learned.

Grading criteria to come

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Page last modified: 13 August 2007