1. Do Your Own Work. NO Plagiarism!
It has come to my attention that there are some
students who practice plagiarism -- yes, cheating -- in their CS173 homework!
I am shocked that some students are doing it!
Some students even had the nerve to do their copying during
my lecture!!
You should NOT do it, you should NOT condone it.
If you witness it, you should, as a responsible adult,
report it to the professor and the TA.
Better yet, tell the students doing it,
that IT IS WRONG FOR THEM TO DO IT.
A short lecture on doing your own work:
You are NOT to copy solutions from ANY source
(including, but not limited to, books, people - esp. classmates,
old class notes or handouts).
Refer to the Campus Code
regarding academic integrity;
cheating will result in a reduced grade, or a grade of "E" for the course,
regardless of how well you perform in other things.
Cases of cheating can also be referred to the Dean and/or other higher
authorities in the university, with grave consequences!
You may discuss the problems with your fellow students,
but not with anybody outside of the class. If you solve
a problem with somebody, or even have a significant discussion
about the problem, then you must indicate that fact in writing
on your homework, listing the name(s) of the person(s) that you
worked with. It is the responsibility of all parties
to ensure that nobody is getting a ``free ride''.
(If you think you are guilty of copying,
then you probably are.)
A necessary, but not sufficient, method of honest collaboration
is for no party to leave the meeting with any notes .
Start on your homework early! If you have difficulties, see the TAs and
Professor during their office hours or set up an appointment. But, DON'T
RESORT TO CHEATING!
2. Turn in Respectable Homeworks.
CS173 is a large class, the TA and graders have a tough time grading all
your homeworks. What really makes things worst are irresponsible students
who have no pride in their work and turn in messy homework that makes
other people's lives miserable.
These manifest themselves in homeworks that are messy; that comes in
loose, unstapled pages; that has no names or illegible names,
scribbled mess instead of readable sentences, and so on.
For your future homeworks, we expect you to
- Staple your papers together.
Do not paper clip them. Do not glue them. Do not fold the corner
over 3 or 4 times and then tear the corner in hope that they
will stay together.
- Write legibly . Have some pride in your work.
Imagine that your homework is a report that your boss (Professor)
asked you to submit to a client (grader). Ask yourself what kind of
image your client might have of you based on the report (homework
solution) that you turn in and what grade you deserve from your
client.
- Use proper paper.
Do not use weird paper -- torn sheets of paper, half-sized paper, etc.
- Have proper flow
Try to do the problems given in the correct order.
Do not jump from one part of the paper to another part.
If you have made lots of mistake in a page, at least have the
decency to rewrite the page with a new sheet of paper!
This issue has gone on long
enough -- I am hereby, authorizing TAs and graders to take points
off for homeworks that are unstapled, messy, unreadable,...
3. Giving Responsible Answers Expected of Undergraduates
(cf: Prob 6(b), Exam 1)
CS173 is not a layman course -- it is a university course.
As you are undergraduates of a major university and future professionals,
we do expect that you give answers that are responsible, well-thought out,
and appropriate to your level of expertise.
Imagine that you are a programmer of a company, and your boss asks you to
look into Word and other similar packages for the company.
Do you think it is appropriate for you to go back to your boss a week
later and say, "Microsoft Word is produced by Microsoft and it works!"?
Your answer is correct, but is it something your boss expect from a
competent programmer?
I know that most students are indeed responsible students,
who act responsibly and have pride in their own work and
are really great joy to teach and talk to. And I do enjoy it
and I wish that more students could be like that.
However, there are some culprits that makes it necessary to issue
this reminder.
A lot of the things said here are things that,
I thought, should be second nature to
all of you as university students and (young) adults.
Yet, to see evidence of the contrary, and to have to write this notice
shames me quite a bit.
Finally, just today (Monday Oct-21), I attended a seminar in 314 Altgeld Hall,
by the famous Prof. Richard W. Hamming who talked about what
university educators should teach their students.
One of his main themes is that we, in the universities,
should prepare our students for the future.
I endorse his views and I hope that if nothing else, this notice
serve as my effort to prepare you to be responsible professionals
of the future, professionals who have pride in their profession,
and exercise professionalism in their work! Take these as
food for thought.
Have a nice day.
Prof. Leong, October-21, 1996.
