TWC 551 Intellectual Property and Copyright
Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication
Fall 2008

As graduate students in this course you will complete all of the work for the undergraduate TWC451 section of the course. Discussion Board As graduate students, your level of participation should be higher than that of the undergraduate students. You should take on a leadership role in discussion board posts by engaging with others and contributing more in-depth discussion of topics. The number of points will be the same as undergraduates; however, I will grade your posts based on expectations that your contributions are more in-depth.

Graduate Assignment

In addition to work required as part of TWC451, you will also complete an additional research assignment. As you will see this semester, intellectual property law and practice is not static. Technology, business practices, and social and cultural norms and attitudes change over time and impact how laws are interpreted and enforced. Technology, in particular, has caused monumental shifts in attitudes and views about intellectual property--both from the perspective of the IP owner and from the perspective of the IP user. It could be argued that more legislation related to IP has been introduced and passed into law in the last 10-15 years than at any other time in history. Your task for this assignment is to find, review, and analyze a pending piece of legislation related to IP that has been introduced during the current Congressional session and is making its way through the legislative process. A good place to start is the Copyright Office's current legislation page (http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/) or search THOMAS (http://thomas.loc.gov/). For this assignment, you may also choose to investigate new or pending legislation in another country. You will submit a report to me and you will present to the rest of the class your findings at the end of the semester.

Research Proposal (due September 21st, 10 pts)

Outcomes met by successful completion: R1, CRW1Your research proposal must include the following:

• The title of the bill you plan to investigate, when it was introduced, and where it currently is in the legislative process. You should have checked in with me before you submit your proposal to be sure that you have not selected a bill that someone else has already chosen. The bill that you select should in some way change, extend, or in alter current IP law or practice. A summary of your background research. Your summary should include:
  • What you currently know: at a minimum, you should summarize the bill, including the type of IP it impacts, who introduced it, why it was introduced and what it intends to accomplish
  • What do you want or need to know: reviewing and summarizing the bill should raise questions for you. These questions will guide your research--what and how you will find information. Your research plan. Stating that you will use online sources (or even throwing in that you will use library databases) is not a research strategy or plan 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 show some thought about the types of information you need based on your questions for "what you want or need to know" and how you believe (at this point) that you can find it. Obviously your plan and strategy may change as you find more information and alter both the "what" and "how" but at this point, you should be formulating ideas about which methods will help you locate what you need to know.
  • A timeline for completing the project. Use assignment due dates to help you work out a plan for completing your report and presentation. Your timeline should go beyond listing the assignment due dates, however, and should demonstrate that you have thought through a research plan and strategy.

Submit your research proposal as an informal report. Grading will be based on:

• comprehensiveness of your background summary, research plan and detail of your timeline
• formatting and mechanics

Progress Report (due October 26th, 10 pts)

Outcomes met by successful completion: R1, CRW2, CRW3, KC2 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. Use the research plan and timeline from your proposal to help you identify what you have completed and what remains to be done. Include any alterations you have made in your research plan. To do this, you must summarize what you have found so far and HOW that has impacted your search strategy. No research strategy is perfect or without problems; I expect to see an honest and comprehensive assessment of your strategy and work. In fact, if you have done your research well and analyzed the information you have found (rather than merely collecting it), you should have new questions that have emerged as you have read and analyzed your sources. 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 progressassessment of your work to date and your strategy, including problems and limitationscomprehensive 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 16th, 10 pts)Submit a draft of your final report.

Final Report and class presentation (report due December 7, 15 pts; presentation to class due Dec. 1st, 10 pts)

Outcomes met by successful completion of these assignments: R1, CRW1, CRW2, CRW3, CRW4, KC1, KC2, KC3 Submit your final report. In addition to your report, present your findings to the class. Your presentation is meant to bring the class up-to-date on the latest legislative initiatives on IP. As a result, your presentation should connect your findings and analysis to what we have already learned this semester. Your presentation may be in the form of a narrated powerpoint, video, or other means.

Grading criteria to come

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Page last modified: 19 August 2008