General Assignment Guidelines

[Last updated January 21, 2008]

These are the general guidelines for homework assignments.

  1. Unless another format is specified for a particular assignment, all assignment submissions should be in either .pdf format or in some format that can be read by Microsoft Word. Please avoid using ".docx" (MS 2007) format.
  2. All homework submissions must be made to Web-CAT.
  3. While no assignments in this class are explicitly graded on use of English, all assignments are expected to be written with good English grammar, style, spelling, punctuation, etc. If the writing is bad enough, a penalty will be given.
  4. There is great variation among students regarding how many words and how much space they will use to get the same amount of information across. When a page length is given for an essay assignment or problem, this is meant to be an estimate for much I expect will be needed for a reasonable response. I define a "page" as 12-point Arial typeface, single spaced, with one inch margins (you do not need to use these setting for your submission, I only provide this to give a measureable length benchmark). I am not grading explicitly for how long the answer is, rather for how well the content addresses the assignment. If your answer is greatly different in length from the suggested length, especially if your answer is shorter, you should consider that your answer might not be sufficient or that you mis-undestand the assignment.
  5. Answers to problems should be as long as necessary and no longer. Certainly you will be marked down if an answer is incomplete. It is also possible to be marked down for being too wordy or providing irrelevent material, though I don't expect this to happen often.
  6. Unless explicitly indicated otherwise on the assignment, all assignments are to be done on your own. The University Honor Code applies to all assignments.
  7. A number of assignments will be explicitly designated as pairs assignments, either as required pairs or optional pairs. You are free to use different partners for different pairs assignments. For the optional pairs assignments, you are free to work with a partner on some of these assignments or on none assignments. When working as a pair, both students will normally receive the same grade. Groups of more than two people working together on an assignment are strictly forbidden and will be treated as an honor code violation. You may not switch partners in the middle of an assignment. In other words, you may not discuss solutions for any given pairs assignment with more than one person in the class.
  8. If your assignment is done with a partner then the following rules apply. The final submission should contain the name of both parnters. Only one of the partners should submit the assignment to Web-CAT. Every problem on the assignment should include a description that indicates how each partner contributed to the problem solution. Some assignments have more explicit instructions on how the partners are meant to work together.
  9. All assignments must include the following pledge:

    I have not received unauthorized aid on this assignment. I understand the answers that I have submitted. The answers submitted have not been directly copied from another source, but instead are written in my own words.

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