Business Law I:Individual Project Instructions

Assignment Focus: You will select a business law topic from the textbook and will prepare a PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to the class for review and comments.

Objective:The purpose of the individual project is to provide you an opportunity to select a topic of interest and to present a quality presentation to the class.You will research the topic and identify a court case related to your selected topic. Then, you will apply business legal theory to the case ad discuss social and ethical principles related to issues in the case.

Outcome: Through this assignment you will:

• Increase your knowledge and understanding of a select business law topic
• Use research skills to locate articles, information, and a recent legal case relevant to the business law topic
• Apply critical thinking and reasoning skills to organize information and materials into an informative presentation for delivery to the class
• Thoroughly discuss a legal case using a standard case brief outline
• Create a PowerPoint presentation, supported by references to credible sources

Assessment:This assignment consists of two parts:(1) PowerPoint Presentation, and (2) Peer Review and Comment discussion board. A grading rubric will be used.You must timely submit Part I to participate inPart II of this assignment.Youmust review and comment on at least ten (10)classmate presentations to receive points in Part II.Partial points will not be awarded.

Due Date:There are two parts to this assignment and two due dates.Part Iis due in Module 8 and PartII is due in Module 10.Projects submitted after the due date willreceive a grade of zero---no exceptions.

Part I: PowerPoint Presentation.The presentation must be in the form of a PowerPoint, which may incorporate charts, graphics, video clips, music, etc.A grading rubric may be used for Part I.

• Select a business lawtopic from the textbook.
• Your presentation mustdiscuss arecent case related to the business law topic selected. You may select a case from the caseslisted at the end of each textbook chapter.You may not use a case that was featured in the chapter reading material in the textbook.Use thecase brief outline method attached to these instructions to discuss your case.
• Useat least twodifferent resources outside the textbook.Internet resources must have credible newsworthy material (in other words, no underground Web articles, no Wikipedia, Askmehow.com, etc.)
• Cite your sources in a"References" page on the last PowerPoint slide. A sample Reference page and citing tipsis provided with these instructions.
• Submit Part I as instructed on or before thedue date
• Open the PowerPoint before submitting it to ensure you load thecorrect file.I I cannot open it, I cannot grade it and you will receive a grade of zero.
• Your slidesshould be of sufficient length to thoroughly discuss a business law topic and the relevant case. 10-15 slides is typical.
• Do not wait until the last minute to start work on this assignment.This assignment is an important part of your overall grade in this course.
• This must be your own work, using your own words. FollowMCC policies and procedures for material you use in yourPowerPoint presentation. Using another student's project or using someone else's work without properly citing the work is a violation of MCC and course policies. If you do not understand plagiarism, contact one of theMCC Learning Centers for assistance.

Part II:Peer Review and Comments.The discussion board guidelines are incorporated into the assessment of your comments.A grading rubric maybe used for Part II.Specifically, Part II will be graded as follows:

a.You must review and comment on at least ten (10) classmate projects.

b.Comments should add value to the discussion.Comments like "I liked your presentation" and "great presentation" do not add value without stating why.

c.Comments include constructive feedback about the topic selected, correctness of information, completeness, and overall discussion.

d.You should present additional questions to the author about the topic, to further develop discussion of the topic.

e.A substantive comments should be about50 words minimum per classmate project.

Instructions for Reference List

Cite all sources your used on thelast PowerPoint slide.Do not use the "footnote" or "endnote" feature in the PowerPoint.

TheOWL Online writing lab provides helpful assistance forciting references:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/.

A few basic rules from the OWL website:

• All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth author's name. After the ellipses, list the last author's name of the work.
• Reference entries should be alphabetized by last name of the first author of each work.
• If you have more than one article by the same author, single-author references or multiple-author references with thesame authors in thesame order,list in orderby the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
• When referring to books, chapters, articles, or Web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.

Example(how to cite an Internet resource):

Contributors' names (last edited date).Title of the resource.Retrieved from http://web address for the Internet resource. For example:

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.

CASE BRIEF OUTLINE

You may use a case from the end of any textbook chapter or you maylocate a case on the Internet.Do not use a case that is summarized in the assigned textbook chapter reading material.You may also use LexisNexis to locate a case.The link to LexisNexis is provided in the Course Syllabus and is also available in the "Optional Resources" tab in the Course Menu Bar.Select the MCC Library Databases link to access LexisNexis.

Identify the case caption.The case caption includes the party names (who sued who), the case reporter (where the case is found, the court, and the date of the decision.

For example:Smith v. Jones, 124 N.W.3d 323 (Neb. 2011).

Smith is suing Jones.The case is recorded in the 124th volume of the Northwest Reporter, 3rd Edition, on Page 323.The case was heard in the state of Nebraska in 2011).

Identify the plaintiff(s) and the defendant(s).For example: The Plaintiff is John Smith; the Defendant is Linda Jones.The case you select will also refer to one of the parties as the "Appellant", which is the person who filed the appeal, and the "Appellee", the person who answers the appeal.

Issue.This is the question the parties want the appeals court to answer.

For example:Did the employer violate the Family Medical Leave Act by hiring another person to replace the employee while the employee was on FMLA leave?

Rule:What law did the court apply to resolve the issue?For example, if your presentation is on FMLA, you will discuss FMLA law.

Analysis/Application:This part of your presentation will discuss the reasons the court gave to apply the law the courtused to resolve the issue.The court may discuss prior cases on the same or similar facts. You will provide a brief summary of the facts of the case.Then,explain the reasons why the court applied the rule (law) to those facts.

Conclusion:Tell us what happened in the case.What did the court decide?Did it reverse the decision of the trial court?Did it affirm the decision of the trial court (meaning, a decision that the trial court did not err in its decision of the case)?What was the vote?For example, if a U.S. Supreme Court decision, was it 5-4, 7-2, etc.Who wrote the opinion?Was there a concurring opinion (judges who agreed with the result but not the reasoning the majority relied on in reaching the result) or was there a dissenting opinion (judges who disagreed with the majority decision)?If so, why did these judges refuses to join the majority?Briefly discuss the judges' opinions.

Your opinion:What is your reaction to the opinion? Do you agree with the decision the court reached?Why or why not?Identify the political, economic and social impact of the decision, if any.Make sure to support your opinion with information you havelearned from the course and your research.