Theme: Digital Technology in Our Lives Research Essay 2 Guided Research Writing / Fall 2016 Introduction to Assignment: We have been exploring the theme of digital technology in our lives, which is related to our earlier theme of academic integrity and our own experiences in this class. During our written and spoken discussions, many ideas have arisen, including how much new technology has changed human’s lives and possibly our brains, opinions and research on multitasking, the benefits and drawbacks of using new technology, the typical panicked response throughout history when a new kind of technology is created, and ways to reduce the negative effects of technology in everyday life. Assignment Requirements: For this assignment, you will write a 3 to 4 page essay (typed and double-spaced) that answers one of the following questions: 1. How can new technologies such as the Internet be used most effectively? In other words, how can we minimize their negative effects and enhance their positive effects? 2. When the written language began to be widely used in Greece in the fourth century B.C., Socrates, a philosopher of the time, opposed it, saying that writing was a lot less flexible than oral language and also that it would have a negative effect on our mind, destroying our ability to memorize. What are some similar objections to the development of new technology? 3. How have new technologies such as the Internet affected education? To successfully complete this assignment, you group must support your thesis with a variety of evidence from at least three of our sources. • An Assignment that Prevents Plagiarism (Weimer) • Digital Nation (Dretzin) • Does the Internet Make You Dumber (Carr) • Generation Plagiarism? (Gabriel) • Mind over Mass Media (Pinker) • Harvard to Adopt Student Honesty Pledge (Coughlan) • Survey: Many Students Say Cheating’s OK (Slobogin) • Top Ten Reasons Students Plagiarize & What You Can Do about It (Cleary) Due Dates: Below is a sketch of the required steps in the writing process. Final paper grades may be reduced 5 points for every late or missing assignment. More detailed instructions for each will be given in “Weekly Assignments” on D2L or in class. Assignment Due Date and Time Submission Method Rough Outline Monday, Nov. 21, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox Detailed Outline or notes on possible evidence for each point Wednesday, Nov. 23, beginning of class Bring paper to class First Draft Friday, Nov. 25, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox Peer review Do during class Wed, Nov. 30 Bring paper to class Final draft Monday, Dec. 5, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox This research essay will be graded on the following: How well have you developed your thesis? • Does your paper answer the research question in a focused and interesting way? • Are your main supporting points / claims general enough to be supported by evidence from different sou ...

1. Theme: Digital Technology in Our Lives
Research Essay 2
Guided Research Writing / Fall 2016
Introduction to Assignment:
We have been exploring the theme of digital
technology in our lives, which is related
to our earlier
theme of academic integrity and our own experiences
in this class. During our written and spoken
discussions, many ideashave arisen, including how
much new technology has changed human’s
lives
and possibly our brains, opinions and research on
multitasking, the benefits and drawbacks of
using new
technology, the typical panicked response throughout
history when a new kind of technology is
created,
and ways to reduce the negative effects of
technology in everyday life.
Assignment Requirements:
For this assignment, you will writea 3 to 4
page essay (typed and double-spaced) that
answers one of
the following questions:

2. 1. How can new technologies such as the Internet be
used most effectively? In otherwords, how
can we minimize their negative effects and enhance
their positive effects?
2. When the written language began to be widely
used in Greece in the fourth century B.C.,
Socrates, a philosopher of the time,opposed it,
saying that writing was a lot less flexible
than
oral language and also that it would have a
negative effect on our mind, destroying
our ability to
memorize. What are somesimilar objectionsto
the development of new technology?
3. How have new technologies such as the Internet
affected education?
To successfully complete this assignment, you group
must support your thesis with a variety of
evidence
from at least threeof our sources.
• An Assignment that Prevents Plagiarism
(Weimer)
• Digital Nation (Dretzin)
• Does the Internet Make You Dumber (Carr)
• Generation Plagiarism? (Gabriel)

3. • Mind over MassMedia (Pinker)
• Harvard to Adopt Student Honesty Pledge
(Coughlan)
• Survey: Many Students Say Cheating’s OK
(Slobogin)
• Top Ten Reasons Students Plagiarize & What
You Can Do about It (Cleary)
Due Dates:
Below is a sketch of the required stepsin
the writing process. Finalpaper grades may be
reduced 5
points for every late or missing assignment.
More detailed instructions for each will be
given in “Weekly
Assignments” on D2L or in class.
Assignment Due Date and Time Submission Method
Rough Outline Monday, Nov. 21, 8AM Submit to
D2L dropbox
Detailed Outline or notes on
possible evidence for each point
Wednesday, Nov. 23, beginning
of class
Bring paper to class
First Draft Friday, Nov. 25, 8AM Submit to D2L
dropbox
Peer review Do during class Wed, Nov. 30 Bring
paper to class
Finaldraft Monday, Dec. 5, 8AM Submit to D2L

4. dropbox
This research essay will be graded on the
following:
How well have you developed your thesis?
• Does your paper answer the research question in
a focused and interesting way?
• Are your main supporting points / claims
general enough to be supported by evidence
from different
sources?
How well have you organized your paper?
• Is therea clear logicto the structure of the paper?
• Do you clearly explain the logical connections
between the ideasand between the paragraphs?
• Does your paper have a strong introduction?
• Does your paper have a strong conclusion?
How well have you developed and organized your body
paragraphs?
• Do your body paragraphs stay focused on the main
supporting point/ claim you are trying to

5. make?
• Do you clearly guide your reader to understand
when an idea is a main supporting point
and when it
is a subpoint?
• Do you develop your body paragraphs by giving
examples, explaining why things matter,
showing
different views, explaining causes and effects,
and explaining what things mean?
• Do you develop your paragraphs rather than repeat
ideasagain and again?
• Do you use evidence from the required sources to
support your claims?
How well have you chosen evidence from the sources?
• Is each piece of evidence directly related to
the point/ claim it is supposed to
support?
• Do you use a variety of evidence?
• Do your choices of evidence showthat you read the
sources carefully and understood them?
• Do you use evidence from enough of the required
sources?
• Is most of your evidence documented?
How well have you integrated the evidence?
• Do you clearly explain the connections between
the evidence and the points / claims you
are making?

6. • Do you accuratelyparaphrase most of the evidence?
• When you quote (which should be rare), do
you accuratelyquote the original sentence(s)
and use
quotation marks?
• Do you use a variety of ways to to clearly
introduce and cite evidence?
• Do you cite all documented evidence in your essay?
How clear and accurate is your grammar, vocabulary,
spelling, and punctuation?
• Can your reader easily understand what you
mean?
• Do you showthe complex relationships between ideas?
• Do you explain ideaswithout using more words
than are necessary to make them clear?
• Do you use a variety of vocabulary and
phrases?
How well does your paper to fit the context,
audience, and purpose of the assignment?
• Do you express ideasin a way that is appropriate
for this kind of academic paper?
• Do you correctly cite all the documented evidence
using APA citation style in the text and in a
reference page?
• Do you have a title page and reference page?
• Do all the pages of your paper meet the APA

7. requirements for spacing, margins, etc?
• Do you provide enough explanation and background
information about the topicinstead of
assuming
that the reader has been in the class or read those
sources?
INFS 3250 - ProjectComputer Warehouse Application30 Points
Possible
Download the ComputerWarehouseProject.accdb file from the
web board and review the tables and relationships contained
within.
Computer Warehouse is a retailer specializing in technology
products. You have been asked by the Director of Operations
and Finance to perform a complete analysis of the company’s
products, sales personnel, customers, service level (timeliness
of shipping) and profitability and then report your findings in a
concise, graphical and easily understood format.
The organization maintains a database to store its sales
information.
The database contains 5 tables:
Customers – Current and past customers of Computer
Warehouse.
Products – All products available for sale.
Salesman – A list of company sales personnel.

8. OrderTbl – A list of all Orders placed since 1/1/2013 up to the
current date that identifies the Customer, the order date, the
promised ship date and actual ship date.
OrderLine – the products ordered, the qty ordered, the unit price
and the amount invoiced.
All primary keys and table relationships have been set.
The Director also mentioned that he read something recently
about a Digital Dashboard on which all important corporate key
indicators are presented that allows top management to see how
the company is doing at a single glance. He is interested in
knowing more about it – but for now he has asked you to create
a mock up of a digital dashboard from your analysis and then
write a report to introduce it to the company’s key executives.
Part 1: Analysis
Use the tools you have learned this semester to aid you in your
analysis and presentation. Begin your analysis by asking some
basic questions:
Which products sell the best?
Who are our best customers (those that order most frequently
and who spend the most)?
What are our most profitable products?
Are there any products being held in inventory that are not

9. selling?
How much working capital do we have tied up in inventory?
Who are our best sales men/women?
Are there any customers who have not made any purchases this
year?
Are company sales growing or shrinking (graph sales along a
trend line???)
Create any queries and/or reports that will help you answer the
questions above. Export data as needed to Excel to perform
additional operations to complete your analysis. You may
decide to do all the work in Excel –with pivot tables – or a
combination of Access Queries and Excel charting/graphing and
tables.
Part 2: Reporting
Create your digital dashboard using Excel that will allow you to
place all pertinent information on a single document. Use
Charts, graphs, tables, and/or lists to illustrate, as appropriate.
Be sure to clearly identify your information with titles, legends
and headings.
Perform some research on the concept of a digital dashboard to
better understand it.
There are many, many sites where you can learn about
dashboards, but a good place to begin would be to go to
Youtube and search for “Excel Campus” and “Dashboard”.
There is a series of videos that explain the concept.
For instructions on how to link an Excel Dashboard to Access

10. Data, please follow the lecture closely. Video if the lecture is
available.
Components that you may want to include in your digital
dashboard are:
Top 5 Products in Sales
Top 5 Customers in Sales / Frequency
Top 5 Products in profitability
Top 5 Salesmen
Total Sales by Month
Value of Inventory
Consider which components should be presented based upon
current month sales and which components would be better
represented using YTD values.
Part 3: Recommendations & Conclusions
Prepare a report (using Word) that introduces your dashboard
elements and summarizes your analysis. Pull out the graphical
components from your dashboard to discuss one by one in your
report. Also present any concerns or problems uncovered by
your review (for example – inventory levels for products not
selling – or customers not buying). Identify the issues and
make recommendation for solutions.
Write a clear, concise report that uses graphical illustrations to
introduce, discuss, and address business operations. Organize
the report logically and categorically. Use a Memo format to
create a professional looking document and pay attention to
sentence structure, grammar and spelling.

11. To Be Submitted:
1) Repost your database back to the Blackboard showing any
queries or reports generated. (Be sure to use descriptive names
to your objects to help me understand the methods of your
analysis).
2) Post your Excel document to the Blackboard. Your digital
dashboard and all other worksheets created in your analysis
should be included. Clearly identify your worksheets and
operations – by placing comments and titles where appropriate.
The first worksheet in the workbook should be named
“Dashboard” and be a printable version of your completed
dashboard (meaning – if I hit “Print Preview” your dashboard
should fit and be visible all on one page).
3) Post your Word document to the Blackboard.
Each section of this project is worth 10 points for a total
possible of 30.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you that this assignment
must reflect your own work – and thus, no two digital
dashboards should be the same!