LAW 723 Issues in Information Technology Law

You are to write an essay which discusses at least one of the legal issues studied in this course. You are free to choose any topic you wish as long as:  
 
1.    It relates to one or more of our course topics and you apply principles and concepts from our course; and  
2.    You make reference to various outside academic and non-academic sources (ex.: textbooks, articles, journals, newspapers, magazines or internet articles).  
 
•    Length of Essay - The essay must be between 1500 – 3000 words in length (not including footnotes / references / bibliography) 
•    Footnotes required - You are to provide references for all materials in proper footnote format. Footnote format is required and you may use any generally accepted reference format (ex. MLA, APA or McGill Guide). I must be able to easily look up your source by merely reading the reference.  
•    Title page- The title page of the essay must include the title of your essay, your name, course name, instructor’s name and date. It must also include the word count for the essay. 
•    Bibliography required - Your essay must also include a bibliography. The bibliography does not count towards the minimum or maximum word count for the essay.  
 
1.    You must submit an electronic version of your essay through the designated D2L link by no later than Wednesday November 20, 2019 at 6:00pm.  
2.    You must also submit a hard copy of your essay must be submitted to the instructor in class on by no later than Wednesday November 20, 2019 at 6:00pm.  
3.    Essays received late will be subject to a 10 mark penalty for every 24 hour period thereafter.  
 
Essays will be evaluated on the following criteria:  
•    Thesis – your essay must have a clearly defined thesis and some discussion on how you intend to support that thesis. A mere statement that you will discuss or explore a topic is not a thesis.  
 
•    Analysis of legal issues – entails identifying legal issues and applying your knowledge to draw a conclusion or a reasoned and supported opinion. Papers that mainly restate facts and statements from other sources are not essays but rather they are actually summaries.   
•    Quality of research - this includes the relevance and credibility of your sources.  
•    Relevancy – involves relating your topic to the matters discussed in lecture (ex. legal issues, principles and concepts, the law including statutes and court cases where applicable). Choosing your own topic is part of this essay assignment and demonstrates your ability to relate your acquired knowledge to actual fact situations.  
•    Organization and clarity of presentation – this includes whether your arguments logically flow. You are encouraged to use subheadings to help organize your essay.  
 
In this assignment, I am trying to evaluate how well the student is able to apply our class materials, discussion and concepts to a real life situations (examples from newspapers, magazines and scholarly articles) and support her/his view with some research.  
 
1.    Choose a topic from the course. You could choose any issues we cover in the course and focus on one sub-issue / real life case study. Or you can choose one or more of the readings I post on D2L that interests you and expand your research on the issue discussed in those readings. This is only a suggestion. You may wish to have a broader or narrower topic.  
2.    You must choose a legal issue that relates to the Internet. 
3.    Where possible, you should try to discuss your topic’s implications or relevancy for Canadians or Canadian businesses.  
4.    Review additional references (from your own research, including internet research) and incorporate them into your discussion. Ensure that you include references in your essay.  
5.    In your essay discussion, be mindful of the following issues: 
a.    Do I have a clearly defined thesis to my essay? Have I set out to prove a point and justified my position clearly? - This is the entire purpose of an essay.  
b.    What are the larger social, policy or political issues involved? – Being mindful of larger issues displays that you are engaged with the material and makes your essay interesting to read. 
c.    Am I just repeating my sources or have I provided some useful analysis and insight in my essay? Have I justified my analysis and discussion with concrete law, principles and examples? - Papers that merely restate what others have said are merely summaries. They are not essays.  
6.    You should narrow your topic to something fairly precise. Since you only have approximately 6-8 pages to discuss, this is important. Also, by narrowing your topic, you have a better chance of stating a well-defined thesis.