Presentation and Collaboration Guidelines

Presentation Guidelines

For written exercises:

• No more than one exercise per page. This rule will not be enforced until further notice.
• Put your name and a description of the exercise you're solving on every page.

For programming exercises:

• Each solution to a programming exercise should include a printed source listing, which includes an introductory comment that indicates your name, and the exercise being solved, e.g.

  	;;; John Doe
  	;;; SICP Exercise 1.1
  	

  together with a printed set of examples (except in the very rare case where providing an example isn't possible, in which case you should say why it's not).
• Later in the quarter, there may be a mechanism and a requirement for submitting machine-readable versions of certain programming assignments.

If multiple sheets of paper are required for a single exercise, they should be stapled together. (Note that this clause is almost automatically invoked for programming exercises.) Solutions for separate exercises should not be permanently fastened.

Please note that your gentle instructor is unduely annoyed by assignments that are turned in on sheets of paper ripped out of a spiral bound notebook. This may be his foible, but it is your problem if you persist in the madness of submitting assignments in this form. Odd paper sizes are an issue too. It's hard enough keeping all of this stuff together and neat.

Homework grading system

Each exercise can receive one of the following grades:

Exercises are graded and returned in sets.

Collaboration Guidelines

When you submit any assignment, test, or other material at this University with your name on it, you are claiming that the work it contains is solely your own, except as otherwise noted. I take this very seriously, and have sought and obtained disciplinary action against students who misrepresented other students work as if it were their own, or assisted other students in doing so.

The US Military Academy got it right: I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do. I expect no less of you.

So does this mean that any substantial discussion between students is prohibited?

The following answer is authoritative only for this class: no. I hope that students will discuss course material, as this can be an effective way to learn. And I give you permission to discuss homework assignments. But there are two caveats.

1. When the time comes to write code, you must do this yourself.
2. If you do have substantial discussions, they must be acknowledged.

       ;;; I discussed this exercise with Jane Doe, a MacLab tutor.
   

Does this mean that I can't help, or seek help, in debugging code?

This is a tough one. Not all boundaries have sharp edges. Yeah, you can help or be helped in debugging. Any such assistance (even from someone who is not in the class, such as your roommate, or a MacLab tutor, or even me) should be acknowledged. There's a difference between debugging and rewriting. Pointing out problems is fine, solving those problems isn't. As with discussions, substantial debugging aid should be acknowledged.

    ;;; Jeff Doe helped me debug this program.