NUMBER OF PAPER SOURCES: Students may use ANY resources at their disposal to complete this research paper. Students are required to incorporate AT LEAST THREE DIFFERENT SOURCES into their writing. Here is the rule regarding the citation of SOURCE MATERIAL in your paper: If you do not cite a source for a statement in your paper, YOU MADE IT UP and it does not count (or you are PLAGIARIZING, which is worse!)

CITING SOURCES IN YOUR WRITING: Any quotes or data or information that you have gathered from a source needs to be cited IN THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER in the following format:

PLAGIARISM: As we will discuss in class, plagiarism is:

Make sure that ALL of your work on this paper is ORIGINAL and that any QUOTES are properly cited (see below.)

USE OF AI: We discussed this extensively in class. You may use AI models to GUIDE your in your paper and help you find valid source material. You MAY NOT simply have AI write your paper for you. This is considered PLAGIARISM. Here is Mr. B.'s list of NIKE QUERIES that may help guide you in your use of AI for this paper.

PAPER REQUIREMENTS:

1. Select one of the PRODUCTS or BRANDS from your FAVORITE THINGS CHART.
2. Using the Internet (or any other appropriate resources), research the basic history of your THING. As a guideline, here is a list of THREE questions that you should be able to answer after you have completed your research:
   1. Describe how your THING developed, invented, created, discovered, etc. Who was responsible for the creation/discovery of your thing? (This could be a person, a company, etc.)
   2. Describe at least THREE major changes or innovations that have occurred with your THING since it was developed. (New products, brands, flavors, owners, companies, logos, etc.)
   3. What is the current state of your THING in 2024? What is it like now? (This should include information about how many flavors, models, countries it is sold in, prices, total sales, place in the market with regards to competitors, etc.)
3. As you collect information from the internet, please copy it to a Google Doc named RESEARCH that you create in your COMPTECH folder, MAKE SURE TO COPY THE LINK and WEBSITE INFORMATION, as well. This will be part of your GRADE for this project.
4. After completing your research, use GOOGLE DOCS to write a 2-3 page paper that follows this format:
• FILE created in your COMPTECH folder, called favorite_thing_paper.
• Paragraph ONE: Introduction- explain your topic and why it is important.
• Paragraph TWO: Creation of product/ company.
• Paragraphs THREE-FIVE (minimum): Explain at least three changes or innovations that have occured with your product/ company since the company started.
• Paragraph SIX: Explain your product/ company today.
• Paragraph SEVEN: Conclusion.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS- FONT, SPACING, PARAGRAPHS, ETC.

• You must include all of the following in your THING paper:
• A title page, complete with your paper's title (Times New Roman, 24 point font), name, class and date (Times New Roman, 12 point font.)
• Paper written double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font. DO NOT INDENT your paragraphs, include an extra space in between paragraphs!
• You must include a sources page at the end of your paper (see below).

SOURCES AND CITATIONS FORMATTING: Students are required to use at least one source for the information on each paragraph of the paper. These can be online or hardcopy resources. You MUST include a SOURCE page at the end of your paper, with all sources properly listed. I would like students to use APA style in their citations. Proper formatting for such sources will look like this:

IF YOU WISH TO BE MORE TECHNOLOGICAL, you can use the following handy citation generator found online: http://www.citefast.com/, but it is not required and citing sources is easier if you just follow the model above. You can also use an AI model, such as ChatGPT, to help you create your APA citations, but you will need to know how to properly format APA source citations for the Final Exam.

FORMATTING EXAMPLE: Here is an example of the proper formatting for this paper. Here are the thumbnails of the main three pages of the paper: