Term Paper Topic Areas

Below are ten topic areas for the term paper with suggested subtopics identified for each. You should develop a thesis statement that fits into one of these major topic areas. The subtopics are just suggestions; you may have other subtopics in mind. I am going to limit the number of students for each topic area to four. That means once I have received and approved thesis statements for four term papers in a given topic area, that area will be closed.

1. The Internet and Access to Information

a. Spam

b. Scams

c. Pornography and other potentially harmful material

d. Internet addiction

e. Effect on politics

2. Intellectual Property Rights

a. Copyrights and the fair use doctrine

b. Software patents

c. Open-source software

d. Piracy

3. Information Availability and Privacy

a. Data mining

b. Identity theft

4. Computer and Network Security

a. Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses

b. Unauthorized access to computers

c. Vulnerability with respect to acts of terror

d. Online banking

5. Unreliable Computing

a. Software engineering

b. Software safety

c. Certification of software developers

d. Moral responsibility of software providers

6. Computers in the Workplace

a. Automation and unemployment

b. Effect on productivity

c. Globalization and outsourcing

d. Telework (working from home)

e. Employee monitoring

f. Dependency on computers

7. Computers in Education

a. Plagiarism

b. Virtual education (online classes)

c. Computer aided instruction

d. Aids for disabled students

8. Computer Games and Entertainment

a. Effect on learning

b. Relationship to antisocial behavior

9. Computers and the Government

a. Control of the Internet (censorship)

b. Surveillance

c. Electronic voting

10. Women and Minorities in Computing

a. The “digital divide”

b. Effect on the software industry of small numbers of women and minorities