D6, HW6, Evaluating Sources

Using Chapter 19, Evaluating and Using Sources, in Everything’s an Argument, I will begin to asses the creditability and relevancy of sources I will be using in WP#3. I will be using the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) as one of my sources because of their valued statistics. This provides extremely useful information because not only does it give stats from years ago, but it even has to present. This is an organization that works with the government (their top-level domain is a .gov) so it is a good creditable source as well. Since it is a government source, it is almost always a creditable source. With its up-to-date information as well, the source passes almost all of this chapter’s evaluation run-through.

D6, HW5, Evidence

A primary source of evidence I will be using for my WP#3 is secondhand evidence. I will be pulling sources, like the FBI and getting many statistics on identity theft. I will get this information using the internet, with different sources finding them Mesa Community College’s Ebrary and different search engines. Interviews and personal experience, a firsthand source of evidence is another one I will be using. I plan on interviewing some relatives who have been victims of identity theft, also sharing my personal tie in with identity theft. Another option I might do is conducting some surveys at work, seeing how many people have also been victims of identity theft in one way or another.

D6, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Chapter 16 on page 469 it gives examples of different types of evidence, like surveys and observations and even interviews. On page 472 it explains how eye witnesses can sometimes even have contradicting stories, and that observation is very important. On 476 the book stresses the importance of having clear and easy to understand questions, and also limiting the answers to be very simple as well. In Chapter 19, on page 536 it explains how to truly evaluate your sources, such as the creditability of the company or organization that is supporting the document, and even the currency of the document.

D5, HW4, Annotated Bibliography

Wall, David. Crime and the Internet. Routledge, 2001. Crime and the Internet. 27 Sept. 2007 <http://site.ebrary.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/lib/mesa/Top?channelName=mesa&cpage=1&f00=text&frm=smp.x&hitsPerPage=10&id=5004260&layout=document&p00=internet+crime&sch=%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0Search%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0&sortBy=score&sortOrder=desc>.

This book seems like a great source because it goes into detail about the internet and the crime that is going on, on the internet. It is from a creditable source, it is the ebrary which is a source Mesa Community College connects you to.

Wang, Wallace. Steal This Computer Book 4.0 : What They Won'T Tell You About the Internet. No Starch P, Incorporated, 2006. 4.0 : What They Won'T Tell You About the Internet. 27 Sept. 2007 <http://site.ebrary.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/lib/mesa/Top?channelName=mesa&cpage=1&docID=10124798&f00=text&frm=smp.x&hitsPerPage=10&layout=document&p00=internet+crime&sch=%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0Search%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0&sortBy=score&sortOrder=desc>. This book is great because it goes into detail about different hacking techniques and how to do it. This is good because to understand how to fight internet crime you need to know how it is done first.

Collins, Judith M. Preventing Identity Theft in Your Business : How to Protect Your Business, Customers, and Employees. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2005. 27 Sept. 2007 <http://site.ebrary.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/lib/mesa/Top?channelName=mesa&cpage=1&docID=10114184&f00=text&frm=smp.x&hitsPerPage=10&layout=document&p00=identity+theft&sch=%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0Search%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0&sortBy=score&sortOrder=desc>. This book is about preventing identity theft in your business. This will be a great resource when writing my final paper because I can see what is being done just by business's to help prevent this. It will give me fresh ideas when brainstorming about different ways the government will be able to contribute in the fight against identity theft.

D5, HW3, Peer Review Reflection

I reviewed Kathy and Heather Morris.

I learned from reading other's drafts that I need to make sure I work on sentence clarity. It is important to make sure I don't assume my readers know anything, and that I explain it all. I also might have used a few too many 'he/shes' and not enough off pronouns..I will need to work on that.

Kathy and Stephann reviewed my draft. I am not really surprised by any comments, I had some misspellings of words that were corrected, and also a sentence that was really confusing! Some of my diction was corrected with adjectives that might fit a little better which is always helpful, so my material does not sound so redundant or boring to read.

D5, HW6, Deadline Reflection

http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com/ - Stephann - D5HW5 field research plan, "D5HW3 Peer review Reflection"

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com/ - Kathy - D#5,HW#3 Peer Review Reflection, D#5, HW#5 Field Research

http://camlunamcc.blogspot.com/ - Cam Luna - "Deadline #5, HW #4"

By peer editing some of the research proposals, it helped me understand the whole process a little more and also gave me some ideas for my own writing. I like being peer reviewed because getting different ideas on my writing is a good thing and is something that I can learn from. I will take some of the recommendations made by class mates on my research proposal when editing my final draft.

D5, HW2, Peer Review

Peer reviewed WP#1: Kathy and Heather Morris.

D5, HW5, Field Research

For some field research, I will probably interview both of my parents and my brother-in-law. All of them were victims of some sort of identity theft.

Some sample questions I would ask:

How were you a victim of identity theft?
How did this affect your life?
How long did it take to clear everything up?
What was the outcome?
Is there anything you do differently now to protect yourself from future identity theft?

I will be looking for how they were victims and what they plan to do differently in the future, maybe to help bring awareness to the government on ways we can prevent this from happening in the first place.

D5, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Chapter 6 it was talking about different ways to get information through printed resources, like at the school library. On page 87 it went over how to use the periodical room at the library, similar to what was gone over during our library orientation, so this is always helpful. In Chapter 7 on page 96 it talks about how to conduct and an interview and whom to conduct it with. This is really helpful because in one of our assignments for this week we need to plan some type of extra research, like an interview.

DL4, HW5, Annotated Bibliography

“Annual Reports.” Internet Crime Complaint Center. 2007. IC3. 20 Sept. 2007
<http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreports.aspx>

This website has statistics about internet crime right from the FBI, one of the best sources you can get it from. Not only does it give you stats from years ago, but also current statistics which is sometimes hard to find. This will be a great asset when writing my paper because I will have some major statistics as part of my research.

Salkever, Alex. "A Key Weapon to Thwart Cybercrime." Business Week Online (2003). Military & Government. EBSCOhost. Mesa Community College, Mesa. 20 Sept. 2007.
<http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?vid=2&hid=8&sid=5871f74c-b203-4b87-b638-cf3905895a91%40SRCSM2>

Keyword: internet crime. This is a great website because it has brief stories about the FBI tracking down and fighting internet crime. This helps because I can see what the government already does to protect against internet crime, to think of better ideas on how to fight against it.

Desai, Jenny. "Tricksters Populate Our Internet Landscape." Science & Spirit 18.1 (2007): 65. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Mesa Community College, Mesa. 20 Sept. 2007.
<http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=16&sid=a6313dfb-42f4-4399-b55f-952fd316fe13%40sessionmgr8>

Keyword: internet crime. This is a short article that talks about different scammers and people who were victims of identity fraud. This will help with my research paper because it offers different views and will maybe serve as a testimonial.

Davis, Todd, Jim Greener, and Chini Krishnan. "Identity Theft Protection." Lifelock. 2006. National Crime Prevention Council. 20 Sept. 2007 .
<http://www.lifelock.com>

This is the website of a company who specializes in protecting your identity. They even have a commercial of Todd Davis, a CEO giving everybody his Social Security number, not worried of identity theft because his company works. It is good to get a point of view from this side and find a company who is trying to help prevent it besides the government.

D4, HW7, Deadline Reflection

I liked the grammar assignment this week, just because the Purdue website was really easy to use and had some great grammar help. Sometimes when you start doing a lot more advanced writing or research, some of the basic grammar rules will slip your mind. It was a good refresher. I completed my WP#1 draft, which I was able to really share my research question and my topic. I ended up changing my research question a little bit, because as I started to write I realized it wasn’t as specific as it should have been.

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com/ - Kathy - "D#4,HW#3 Draft WP#1"

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com/ - Kathy - "D#4, HW#2 Grammar Assignment #1"

http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com/ - Stephann - "D3HW8 Deadline Reflection"

http://pauletteestrada.blogspot.com/ - Paulette - Deadline #4 HW #1

http://pauletteestrada.blogspot.com/ - Paulette - Deadline #3 HW #6

Change research question

I changed my research question because I realized it was not as specific as it should have been. It is now:

What can the U.S. Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of identity theft?

D4, HW2, Grammar Assignment

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/592/01/

This is the article on how to properly use capital letters. Everyone pretty much as the big idea on when to and went to not use a capital letter. However, there were a few points in this article I found interesting, such as “Titles preceding names, but not titles that follow names” (Purdue). I was glancing through some of the tutorials and this is a really good grammar site. It is very easy to navigate through and very easy to understand their grammar point. It is nice and simple.

D4, HW6, Checklist for Evaluating Sources

Identity Theft by Peter Katel on June 10^th, 2005.

http://library.cqpress.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2005061001&PHPSESSID=l0navilatj8sr6rhn780klnd95

This source is definitely relevant because it has to do with identity theft. The article has many great statistics about identity theft which will help in my research. The author seems very knowledgeable and has many years experience. He was a reporter for 11 years and worked for magazines such as Times and Newsweek. He also has a Bachelors Degree from University of New Mexico. The publisher is CQ Researcher which is one of MCC’s Online Library research source. The article is only two years old so a lot of the statistics and stories are still relatively fresh.

D4, HW3, Draft WP#1

Jared Zucker
9/20/2007
WP#1

Identity Theft

Identity theft is an uprising crime, perhaps some of you have been victims of it. In the early 90’s it wasn’t too uncommon to get mugged walking down the street, having your driver’s license stolen, a couple of credit cards, or maybe even your Social Security Card if you were gutsy enough to carry that on you. In today’s society, this has gone even a step further; identity theft over the internet is vastly becoming one of our most common crimes. Family members of mine have been victims of identity theft, much like most of yours probably have been as well.

My research question: What can the U.S. Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of identity theft?

The only way to truly fight crime, is by putting in place some sort of restriction here and there. This is where the true controversy comes into place. Some people would rather things such as the internet be practically on lockdown than have to really worry about crimes like identity theft over the internet. Others would rather the U.S. Government leave the internet alone because it is all a form of freedom of speech and should not be regulated. So, what should the U.S. Government do? This is where the controversy gets twisted and complicated.

A school I was doing a work program through ended up getting burglarized in the middle of the night. Some of their computers were stolen and were some broken windows. The computers that were stolen had all the personal information of many students, I was one of them. My social security number was stolen, and now I have to have an ongoing fraud alert on my credit report. My brother-in-law was mugged in Los Angeles once, where his whole wallet was stolen. Ten years later, he has a maxed out credit card of $25,000 spent in a state he has never even been to, where the person even had a cell phone in his name. It took him over a year to get everything cleared out and to prove he had been a victim of identity theft. When my parents first moved out here, they also became victims. The investigation took almost three months, and during this time their checking account had to become frozen since that is where the theft was from. My father had direct deposit from his work, and with all his money in his checking account, he was left with nothing until his next pay day which could not be direct deposited because the account was frozen. You can see how this can create an instant hard ship and is never fun to go through. This also passed and was fixed.

Even though the controversy, I feel the government has to take action and step in. If we were to let the internet not be regulated, we would have even more crimes than we do, ones not even linked to identity theft. There is always a new story out about child molesters trying to meet new young girls online or something of that sort. If not for the government stepping in on situations like that, the number would be even greater. We need to have a happy median of the government getting involved but also staying back, however we are far from that point as of right now.

My audience will be the U.S. Government, in hopes that they will be able to see what changes need to be taken care of so we can get closer to stopping these criminal acts.

D4, HW1, Reading Reflection

In The Bedford Researcher in chapter 5, page 63 it talks about how to properly search for sources within your own online library. This information is helpful; however with the library meeting we had it was going over some of the same information. In chapter 8 on page 111 it goes into detail on how to develop a preliminary thesis statement. This was also very helpful because it gave about six different examples on preliminary thesis statements to help guide you. In chapter 9 on page 130 it tells you how to properly evaluate a website. Such as, by the top-level-domain (i.e.: .com, .net, .edu, etc) which is important. This information was also gone over with us during the library orientation which is all helpful when doing research.

D#3, HW#7, Annotated Bibliography

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Controlling the Internet." CQ Researcher 16.18 (2006): 409-432. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 13 Sept. 2007 <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2006051200>.

This article was found using the CQ Researcher, which is a resource from the MCC Online Library. This article is dedicated to whether we can control the internet, going into the political aspect of it. This is important since I will be writing about internet crime and what our government can do to help.

Katel, Peter. "Identity Theft." CQ Researcher 15.22 (2005): 517-540. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 13 Sept. 2007 <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2005061000>.

I found this article from CQ Researcher, which is an online resource provided by the MCC Library. This article goes over identity theft, including some statistics and also by providing commentary on what the government can do. This is vital to my research project because it is exactly what I am writing about. How the U.S. Government can help fight internet crime.

Tynan, Dan. “THE INTERNET IS Sick…BUT WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER.” Popular Science (2006): 82-88. EBSCOhost Research Databases. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 13 Sept. 2007 <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=8&sid=1729476a-d9bf-4773-bd7c-2f2c493bfed6%40sessionmgr3>

This article was found through the MCC Online Library, as one of our other online databases. This article contains MANY statistics on many different internet crimes, not all related to identity theft. It goes over how to help protect yourself and also why the criminals do what they do in the first place.

Clark, Charles S. "Regulating the Internet." CQ Researcher 5.24 (1995): 561-584. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 13 Sept. 2007 <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1995063000>.

This article was also found from the CQ Researcher within the MCC Online Library. This article talks about how if we as people can really regulate the internet. The really good thing about this article is it is a little old (1995) so I can compare what we thought then and we have done to solve those situations, to what issues we have now and what we are doing to solve them.

D#3, HW6, Compare WP#1 and WP#3

D#3,HW6	WP#1	WP#3
TOPIC	What can the U.S. Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of cyber-warfare, without guns to help battle the uprising of internet crime?	This will just go into much more detail than the WP#1 question.
CONTEXT	A sample or preview of what WP# will be about.	The facts about cyber-crime, good and bad, and how the government can help prevent it.
PURPOSE	A staring point of research for my WP#3 purpose.	To help bring together a better way to help fight internet crime.
AUDIENCE	The U.S. Government.	The U.S. Government.
AUTHOR	Jared Zucker and a few sources.	Jared Zucker and at least 8 different sources.

Help please

For Deadline 3, HW6 - was anyone else a little confused on what to really do? I thought that was sort of like identifying the research question which we already did.

Any help would be great..thanks.

DL3, HW8, Deadline Reflection

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com/ - Kathy, "D#3,HW#1, Reading Reflection"
http://laceyariz.blogspot.com/ - Kathy, "D#2,HW#7Deadline Reflection"
http://courtsblog22.blogspot.com/ - Courtney, "D#2 HW#5 Reflection about Narrow Topic"
http://jefffitz.blogspot.com/ - Jeff, "D2hw7"
http://ktmdude88.blogspot.com/ - Mike, "D#2, HW#4, Narrow Topic"

This week’s readings helped me get more involved and focused for my research paper. It helped me really narrow down my topic into a simple question, which will make the research much easier to follow through with.

Replying to my classmate’s blogs this week made me realize I am not the only one here that seems a little confused at times, or that even the workload can become a little intimidating. My theory is it will get easier as we go because we will soon have all of our research and then we will just have to put it all together, which is the easy part.

DL3, HW5, Focus Group

One group to focus on would be the average internet user. Every day it’s possible the average internet user will have identity theft, a computer virus, or maybe a conversation with a sexual predator. They will want to read on how to prevent this, what to look for, or just to read what is going on in today’s world. The average internet user could be a mother of two letting her teenage daughter finally onto the internet. However, is it safe? Does mom really know what’s out there? She might want to do some research, like reading my research question to see if she ready to have her daughter be on the internet. Or perhaps you have the family father of four buying his wife’s birthday present a day late online and is now a victim of identity theft. These are the people, the group, that I want to focus on.

DL3, HW4, Who is invested in this topic?

Some different groups affected by the answer to my research question are the instructor, classmates, friends who read my research question, and anyone with even a drop of internet for internet crime. The instructor will take the research question and answer into an analysis process and give feedback on the research. Classmates and friends will do this as well but most likely to not the extent the instructor will. Others might not have much response to it, or others might agree or disagree, perhaps even share their comments with me about their opinion.

DL3, HW3, Search Plan

I need to find articles that correlate to cyber-crime to help me with answering my research question. Specific stories about how the FBI actually caught some hackers will give me good insight for what is currently being to help prevent internet crime. Which means some of the government websites, such as the FBI’s internet crime website will be a good place to start. Also, in the CQ Researcher there are some good articles relating to internet crime which will also be a good place to help with my research.

DL3, HW2, Research Question

One of the ideas I used from The Bedford Researcher was to write ten different research questions that correlate to the topic I chose prior to this assignment. Another idea they had that I used was to simply write your research question, and then refine it by taking out vague words and replacing them with more specific words. I combined these ideas to come up with my research question. These activities helped because it really made me get closer to my goal of what research I will really need to conduct. My research question I decided on is:

What can the U.S. Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of cyber-warfare, without guns to help battle the uprising of internet crime?

DL 3, HW1, Reading Reflection

The Bedford Researcher is helping me to focus on just one area of research to get the most out of it. What I found really helpful was in Chapter 3 on page 36 and 37 where it helps you generate research questions. It gives you a generic question and then does a great analysis on it depending on the type of role (pg 33) you are trying to portray in your writing. On page 44 it also gives you a tutorial to really define your research question. Something that was really cool was in Chapter 5 on pages 69-76. It gives you a bunch of different URL’s for what you are looking for. Like URLs to different search engines, web directories, or even specific government searches. It’s very helpful to assist in finding exactly the resource you need.

Deadline2, HW6, Annotated Bibliography

NCL’s National Fraud Information Center/Internet Fraud Watch. National Consumers League. 2007. National Consumers League. 3 Sept. 2007 <http://www.fraud.org>

I found this using the Google Web Directory. You can tell this site is pretty much legit because for one they have a number you can call with questions and even powered by the National Consumers League. This is a great site because it contains a lot of statistics on internet fraud which helps a lot with research.

FBI – Cybercrime. FBI. 2007. U.S. Federal Government. 3 Sept. 2007 <http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm>

I found this using the regular Google search engine. This site is authoritative because it is on fbi.gov. This is a great website because it has different areas in which they help fight internet crime. It also contains stories of investigations they’ve done and people they have caught that have commit a cyber crime.

Deadline 2, HW3, Annotated Bibliography

Hansen, Brian. "Cyber-Crime." CQ Researcher 12.14 (2002): 305-328. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ. 2 Sept. 2007 . <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2002041200>.

I found this source at MCC’s CQ Researcher. This is an authoritative source because it comes from the college’s online database of articles. This article has a lot of useful information, like factual stories and some statistics on cyber-crime. I feel this would be an interesting topic because I work for an internet company, so I am surrounded in this environment forty hours a week, giving me a lot of time to spend out there on the internet and work with cyber-crime.

Mrozek, Thom. “‘PHISHER’ SENTENCED TO NEARLY SIX YEARS IN PRISON AFTER NATION’S FIRST CAN-SPAM ACT JURY TRIAL CONVICTION.” United States Department of Justice 14.6 (2007). United States Attorney’s Office, Central District, CA. 2 Sept. 2007. <http://www.cybercrime.gov/goodinSent.pdf>

This article is authoritative because it comes straight from a government source. This article has a great factual story about someone who was committing an internet crime and was caught and sentenced to prison.

Adams, Bob. "Gun Control Debate." CQ Researcher 14.40 (2004): 949-972. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ. 2 Sept. 2007 . <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004111200>.

I found this source at MCC’s CQ Researcher. This is an authoritative source because it comes from the college’s online database of articles. I liked this article because gun control is a heated debate and will be for a long time, and this article has a good Pro/Con on it. It lets you view both sides of the debate, whether you are against it or not.

Deadline 2, HW5, Why my topic

I am interested in my topic because it is a growing issue world-wide, and one I am involved with. I work for an internet company doing many tasks, even correlating with our fraud department because of internet crime. I can bring a lot of personal stories and get in depth on internet crime, which makes the best research. I am excited to write about this topic because of all the experience I have in this field, plus with just the fact that I find this field very interesting. I will be able to learn more about the topic with the research I conduct and also will be able to read about more stories in the field. More than half of the sales through my company are done over our website, which can accumulate a lot of fraud. We have to check where the computer is being routed from as compared to the billing address of the credit card. That is just one of the minor details we have to check through when processing fraud exams.

Deadline 2, HW4, Narrowing a Topic

I selected two topics, one being Cyber-Crime, and another being Gun Control. I selected the Cyber-Crime because I work with computers all day for a world-wide-recognized internet company. I work with our fraud department daily, while doing many other tasks for my position.

I selected Gun Control because it is such a heated debate that just keeps on going, I thought it would be both interesting and easy to find a lot of articles and such when I begin researching this topic.

I narrowed it down to the cyber crime, simply because I can relate many personal stories from work, along with all the research that there is out on the internet because this is a growing issue world-wide. I did do some brainstorming like it talks about in The Bedford Researcher and found that I would have the most information on this topic.

Deadline 2, HW 7, Deadline Reflection

http://courtsblog22.blogspot.com/ - Courtney Fieramosca - Deadline #1 HW8 Help
http://eeninja.blogspot.com/ - Jeanine Romero - deadline #1, HW8, Help
http://eeninja.blogspot.com/ - Jeanine Romero - Introduction
http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/ - Alex Williams - Assalam Alaikum
http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com/ - Stephann Parizek - html fun


The work this week helped me achieve my court outcomes by helping me start the research for our upcoming project. I found some really good websites to help me with my project. The readings in the Bedford Researcher had some great ideas on easing one into the research process, which helped me understand a lot better. Reading and replying to my classmates' work didn't really help me achieve my court outcome except by completeing a deadline, but that's because there was only a few posts so far.

Deadline #2, HW2, Post on someone's blog

Posted on Tara Bate's blog - link to comment

Deadline #2, HW1, Reading Reflection

In “Everything’s an Argument”, they briefly describe many different types of arguments, like Arguments of Definition on page 24, and Arguments to Make Decisions on page 13. Arguments to Make Decisions says how tough it can be for people to make decisions, and the only way for them to figure out which way to go is to argue all the alternatives. I know I can relate with that, especially when they talked about how tough a challenge it can be to decide your major. I have probably flopped through a half dozen possibilities of majors to study, but I think I have argued it to the end and have it down, for now.

“The Bedford Researcher” covers ways to help you get your research project going. On page 6 it has a timeline chart. Basically, it is to help you manage your time better on a research project, so you don’t spend too much time on one part of the project and too little on another. You have to fill out a start and end date so you know when to move on to the next area of your project. It also covers different ways to get ideas going about whatever your topic is. Looping (page 11) I found interesting, simply because it was the only one I hadn’t heard much about, as compared to brainstorming, freewriting, or even clustering.