Project: Find Top Trends in Your Profession (industry is Cybersecurity)

Step 1: Conduct Research to Identify Top Trends (Cyber Security)

Step 2: Choose an Issue to Research Further

Step 3: Writing your Research Paper

In the previous two steps, you performed searches, first to identify industry trends, and then for information about an issue in one of those trends that you consider to be important to your industry. Now, you should be ready to draft your paper. This would be a good time to review organization in writing and paragraphs. You might also review the Effective Writing Center’s Online Guide to Writing, a valuable reference to students who seek to improve their writing.

Review your tasks. You are to provide a research paper that provides a summary of the three top trends in your industry (with associated NAICS codes). Provide sufficient background for your reader that the trend is clear and supported by resources you have found. Review resources in References and Citations to ensure that you are using “in text” citations to give credit for the ideas of other authors and to build your credibility as a researcher, neither ignoring sources nor quoting excessively.

You will develop a paper that accomplishes two objectives:

• It will      identify the three top trends in your industry and your rationale for your      choices based on the resources you found;
• It will      discuss an issue within one of the trends that you deem important, based      on the current state of the industry, and will be supported by your      analysis of facts and a well-reasoned conclusion of what it means to the      industry.

Start with an outline and flesh out the main themes with supporting statements. This will become your road map to an organized paper. Draft, sleep on it, and edit. Repeat.

Your paper will be 5-7 pages, not including your cover page and References page(s), double-spaced, and set up in APA standards. It does not require an abstract.

Your citations, both “in text” and in References, will be in accordance with the APA Style Manual Sixth Edition. You may also find this sample APA paper helpful.

Your headings will follow this general pattern:

• Paper      Title (First level position, not bold)
• Findings (First      level heading, centered, bold)

Top Trends of the _____ Industry (Second level heading, bold, flush left)

An important emerging issue in a trend (and what it means in context to the industry) (Second level heading, bold, flush left)

• Conclusions (First      level heading, centered, bold)
• References      (New page, first level position, not bold)

a.  cover sheet in good APA format;

b. “template” for your paper that includes the headings;

your opening paragraph that will introduce the industry, the top trends, the issue that you have chosen, and the question that you pose to answer; and,

your draft References page.

Use the APA style guide or APA examples to draft your complete citations.

Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.

• 1.1:      Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes      understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.
• 1.2:      Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified      and so that each functions as part of the whole document or presentation.
• 1.3:      Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the      writer’s ideas.
• 1.4:      Tailor communications to the audience.
• 1.5: Use      sentence structure appropriate to the task, message and audience.
• 2.1:      Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under      critical consideration.
• 2.2:      Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or      problem.
• 2.3:      Evaluate the information in a logical and organized manner to determine      its value and relevance to the problem.
• 2.4:      Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem.