This project gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your critical thinking skills and your business communication skills by writing a research paper that applies ethical theories to an ethical issue in business.
Begin doing some preliminary reading for your paper early in the quarter. You will select an ethical issue to research that is more common in one particular field or industry, such as misrepresentation in sales or marketing, fiduciary responsibility in accounting, etc.
Your topic must be approved by your instructor, who will also provide a selection of alternative projects for you to consider.
Be sure that the issue you select is something about which reasonable people might disagree. If you simply describe a terrible breach of ethics in detail (like the Madoff scandal) and say that it is terrible, you will not have a successful paper.
Your research paper should:
Define the ethical issue you have selected and its relevance to an industry;
Provide an explanation of how the issue has developed or changed over time;
Give examples of cases involving this ethical issue;
Give a brief explanation about what, if any, personal experience you have had with this issue, and your thoughts and feelings at the time of the experience;
Give an explanation about what your opinion is, and what you think should be done;
Back up your opinion/solution with ethical concepts you've learned in the course;
Provide an explanation of at least one additional perspective on the issue;
Provide a reference list in APA format.
As you prepare your research paper, follow these guidelines:
Your topic must be related to this course of study and must be approved by your instructor before submitting a final project.
You must use the APA format to cite the sources of all ideas, facts, and information used that are not your own, even if you have put the information into your own words. Failure to do so is plagiarism, even if the oversight is unintentional.
Supporting your thesis is central to the task of writing a research paper. In scholarly writing, you are not merely copying information from another author, but using evidence to support the contentions drawn from your findings and critical analysis of related literature.
All research papers must be word-processed, double-spaced, with 12-point font and one-inch margins. Papers should be approximately 8 to 10pages in length (not including title, bibliography, or contents pages). You should include at least four professional or scholarly sources (in addition to your text) from which you draw your references.
We recommend that you retain your research notes and draft pap0ers so that if a question arises as to an actual source and its location, you will be able to address that question in a timely manner.