I have reviewed all the papers that satisfied the assignment criteria and added my own analysis to that of the reviewers. Some students were fortunate to have chosen reviewers who addressed both editing (sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, word choice, style) and paper content (structure, argument, audience, completeness). Several others got less help.

I am sure that this is not the first term paper that you have been required to write, but I suspect that for some it may be the longest and it may be the first in an IFSC course. Everyone seemed to have difficulty complying with the paper specifications and few paid any attention to the models of issue-oriented technical papers that we have reviewed in the course. Fortunately, it is just a first draft, so there is opportunity to make the final paper more focused, more lucid, and more appropriate. However, I estimate that the improvements will take at least as much time as has already been devoted so far.

We have dealt so far with two "scenarios" where a situation is described and you are asked to analyze it. Johnson has presented you with over a dozen more. Analysis involves determining who are parties to the situation, and what each's roles and responsibilities are. It involves determining what if any harm is threatened and to whom. It involves identifying sources of guidance, established principles or laws, and determining which if any might apply. I found very little analysis in any paper that I read.

Usually the paper began by defining an area of computer use and illustrating some kind of application that had both good and bad consequences (usually the application existed because of the good but it was now seen that their was potential for bad). So far, no ethical issue, almost every repeated action has potential for bad outcomes, fortunately, they seldom materialize.

Most papers then begin to stress the seriousness of the potential bad outcomes and even to cite some actual or hypothetical scenarios to illustrate the danger. None then analyzed the scenarios in the manner in which everyone was trained.

Some eventually suggest some possible response that could be made in the situation, often suggesting that new laws be passed. It is evident that the issue is too big or too dispersed to actually solve with some specific action, and it is not clear who is responsible for the solution (even if the law is passed it will probably be difficult to enforce).

The result of virtually all the papers is that the writer seems now to be more acutely aware of some abstract danger of computer applications that someone else has the potential to misuse and that someone else has the responsibility to prevent. The specifications for your paper was to address an issue that you would possibly have the responsibility of addressing in the near term in your career as a computer professional. The purpose of the course is not to make you aware of other people's responsibilities but to equip you to assume your own professional responsibilities. I have taken every opportunity to guide you to treat an issue from your role as a computer professional, not as your role as a citizen or a consumer.

In these first drafts I see little emphasis on personal professional responsibility. I hope to see much more in the final drafts.

In these first drafts I find far too much time discussing abstract situations and I hope to see much more focus on the role of computer professionals in whatever the issue is.

In these first drafts I find lots of opinion and very little analysis, but I hope that in the final drafts the papers will be organized with sections that give an introduction to the topic and how it will be treated, that present the facts needed to identify what the ethical issue is that must be decided and who the players are, and that discuss the various positions that can be defended with the goal of determining what the strongest arguments for policy are. At least by the final section the issue will be translated from the societal stage to how it impacts the novice IT professional, and how you will approach the duty to deal with the piece of the issue you might have to face. To see an example of a long research paper (in addition to your text) see my paper at http://www.ualr.edu/~wmmitchell/NASARECON.htm