Jennifer Fellguth
Sample Research Proposal
Internet Literacy Class
Broad topic: I
will research online identity theft. Identity theft means stealing someone
else’s name and credit card or social security numbers, then using that stolen
identity to commit some form of crime.
General questions: (1)
How prevalent is identity theft? (2) What are some examples of identity theft?
(3) How can an individual protect herself from online identity theft?
Focused research
topic:
- I will
focus on online identity theft.
- The
aspect I will examine is whether the rate of online identity theft is
growing or decreasing.
- The
geographic region I will focus on is primarily the U.S. and specifically California.
- The
time period I will concentrate on is the last five years.
- The
statistical data I will examine is the rate of online identity theft.
- My
specific research topic is: Has online identity theft increased in the
past five years?
Major ideas:
- Rate
of identity theft
- Examples
of identity theft
- Avoiding
identity theft
|
Identity theft rate
|
Identity theft examples
|
Online fraud protection
|
|
Online crime statistics
|
Phishing schemes
|
Online payer authentication
|
|
Phishing statistics
|
Online fraud
|
Anti-fishing products
|
Aims and Objectives
of Research:
- My
goal is to determine whether online protections are helping to reduce
online identity theft. This is important to me as an online consumer.
- My
target audience is online buyers like myself.
- Other
online consumers may be interested in ways to protect themselves from
online identity theft. My research will help list some of these
protections.
- My
assumptions are that both identity theft and ways to combat it are both
increasing as more individuals use the Internet as a shopping source.
- I hope
to find statistics that will reveal whether online protections are helping
to reduce the rate of online identity theft.
- I
narrowed my topic based on some of the articles I located on this subject.
(For the table below, substitute due dates from your current syllabus)
|
2/18/06
|
2/17-2/23/06
|
2/17-2/23/06
|
2/22/06
|
2/25/06
|
3/4/06
|
|
Research proposal due
|
Research for Annotated Bibliography
|
Update ERD source list
|
Annotate Sources
|
ERD and Annotated bibliography due
|
Essay due
|