Expectations
Each student (or homework group) must write their own homework solutions, in their own words, and must properly credit all sources. These include but are not limited to:
- Books
- Papers
- Web pages
- Solutions from prior course material
- Fellow students
- Friends and/or family members.
Citing your sources will
not lower your homework grade.
Avoiding plagiarism is really very simple: Never present someone else's words or ideas as your own.
-
Repeating ideas from other people, papers, or web pages without giving proper credit is plagiarism.
-
Verbatim duplication of any source, even with proper citations, is plagiarism. In particular:
- Copying from a solution manual for the textbook is plagiarism.
- Copying a previous semester's official homework solutions is plagiarism.
-
Turning in a copy of someone else's work as your own is plagiarism, even if you have their permission.
-
Allowing someone else to copy your work verbatim, or to use your ideas
without giving you credit, is also a violation of academic integrity.
See
Article 1, Part 4 of the UIUC student code
(http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/article_1/a1_1-402.html)
for more examples and information. If you have any doubts contact
Chandra or the TAs.
Penalties
Violations of academic integrity will incurse serious penalties.
-
The default penalty for a first offense is a grade of zero on the
entire homework or exam. (A zero homework grade that results from a
cheating offense will not be dropped.)
-
The penalty for a second offense, or a particularly egregious first
offense, is an F in the course.
These penalties are consistent
with
the
CS department's recommendations. All academic integrity cases
will be reported to the student's department and college. Multiple
offenses can result in suspension or dismissal.
Except for Homework 0, groups of up to three people are allowed to
submit a single solution for each homework. Every member of the group
receives credit for the entire assignment. That means every member of
the group is responsible for the entire
assignment. If a submitted homework contains
plagiarized material, every member of the group will be given the same
penalty. (Again, this is the same standard that is applied
to coauthors of research papers.) If you cheat, you are not only
endangering your grade, and possibly your academic career, but your
colleagues' as well.
Regardless of whether it constitutes plagiarism, or whether you get
caught, getting too much help on your homework will hurt your final
grade. If you don't learn how to solve algorithmic problems on your
own, you will perform poorly on the (closed-book, closed-notes) exams,
which make up 75% of your final course average.
Advice
Seek help if you are struggling with the class. The instructor and
TAs will make extra time if you need extra assitance in understanding
the material better.