You will research and write a Web-based hypertext report on an Internet topic. The topics will vary so that each student will address a different aspect of the Internet.  We will divide them up in such a way as to cover a broad overview of Internet issues. For example,  one student might investigate secure online shopping, another copyright issues related to the Internet; another student might report on protecting your privacy online, and so on.  Please review the Honor Code guidelines before proceeding.

The goals of this assignment are to help you

• become familiar with a major aspect of the Internet culture, such as e-commerce, music online, education, privacy, legal issues, Internet crime, emerging technologies, copyright.
• enhance your research and documentation skills
• differentiate between credible Internet information (possible resources for serious research) and questionable or biased sources in researching your subject.
• develop your critical thinking skills and back up your conclusions with evidence.
• develop writing and Web publishing skills to share your findings in a user-friendly, well organized hypertext Web presentation, with appropriate design and graphical elements, and a clear sense of audience and purpose..

enhance various NCC competencies, such as communication, information technology, critical thinking and analysis, problem solving, aesthetic response.

• Your report should not look like a text-based research paper.
• It will be in a hypertext format, with appropriate design and graphics and links to the different components of your report, plus external links related to your topic.
• Include the equivalent of 4-5 comprehensive pages of original text, supported by authoritative sources, to illuminate your readers about your findings on the subject.
• Your report should be content rich, showing you did appropriate research.
• Your report should have different "pages/links" related to the different sub topics in your report.
• Your report Web site should have an appropriate title, graphics, and links to the appropriate sub-sections and links to relevant material.on the Web.
• Your report should have a reference page.
• Your report should include a discussion of what NCC competencies you enhanced or acquired by doing this assignment.

• You must do research, both text and Web-based for your report. 
• Evaluate the credibility of your sources: Web: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm; Text: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/eval-sources.htm
• All information from sources should have adequate in-text citations (in the style/s chosen by your professor) and an accompanying reference page. Cite the source of all graphics as well as content.
• Observe copyright rules (http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm)
•  All graphics not original or free must have permissions from the creator, so stated on your Web page, with a link to the original site. 

• Narrow your focus - Your topic must be sufficiently narrowed down.  For example, if you picked the broad topic of copyright and the Internet, you might want to narrow your topic down to the subject of music online and copyright issues. 
• Audience - Think about what segment of the population your report would appeal to. Should your audience be people who want to download music and want to know how to do this, what programs are available, and what is legal and not legal?  Knowing your audience can help you know how to design your Web site and what elements to include. If you are doing a report on education and the Internet, will you gear your report to informing students about the advantages and disadvantages of online classes and point them to various types of online opportunities?
• Content - Your report will only be as good as your information.

• the currency and relevance of your information, appropriate documentation, including the bibliography
• the thoroughness of your report
• your knowledge about the subject gained through your research and articulated in your report
• the organization of your material
• the adherence to correct english and research skills
• your ability to present the material to the class on a user-friendly Web presentation (hypertext style, clear organization, navigation, approriate graphics, sufficient detail.)
• your ability to make clear how doing this assignment helped you enhance or acquire specific NCC competencies. 

How to use Search Engines
How to Evaluate Web Sources
How to Evaluate non Web-based sources
Guide to using the GMU Library