The academic community at the University works on the basis of a Code of Academic Integrity (cf. http://www.testudo.umd.edu/soc/dishonesty.html). Acts of academic dishonesty include cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism. Specifically, activities such as cheating on exams or labs, copying homework, knowingly permitting your homework to be copied, and submitting forged excuses for absences from exams are violations of this code. All cases of suspected academic dishonesty can be turned over to the Student Honor Council to investigate and resolve. The normal sanction for academic dishonesty is a course grade of `XF', denoting failure due to academic dishonesty. The Code of Academic Integrity is reprinted in full in the Undergraduate Catalog. We are serious about this. To set an example: the course structure is based on what Prof. Derek Richardson did in the last two years, with some modifications.
Recently the University Senate and Student Government Association approved an Honor Pledge.1 The University of Maryland Honor Pledge reads:
``I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination.''
Although not compulsory, you are encouraged to write and/or sign this pledge on the front cover of all papers, projects, or other academic assignments submitted for evaluation in this course.
There are some potential gray areas that naturally arise in this class. For homework, you are permitted to work with other students in the class. This includes discussion of the problem and solution in a cooperative, mutually contributing fashion. However, you should write out your answer in your own words. You should NOT, under any circumstances, simply copy someone else's homework and call that ``working together''. You should NOT seek out or use ``solution sets'' from previous students. You may seek help on homework problems from the TA or myself. For the night lab and lab sections, it is expected that you will work with your partner or partners, but the written work that you turn in should be in your own words and you should have worked through any equations, and plugged in the numbers yourself. Failure to abide by these rules could result in the case being brought before the Student Honor Council.
Note in particular: you should not simply copy material from any source, including the course textbook or a website. For example, even one full sentence that is identical to a source (even with one or two words substituted) is a problem. Your best bet is to not look at the source when writing your own description. If for some reason an exact phrase is necessary, attribute it and put it in quotes. For example, according to William Shakespeare in Richard III, ``Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York".
If you have questions regarding what is appropriate and what is not, please talk to me or to your TAs.