Example from Dr. Jan Genzer’s CHE 205 syllabus

Examples from Dr. Jan Genzer, CHE 205

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Here are a few examples of acceptable and non-acceptable work practices.

The following scenarios apply to an individual written homework.

Acceptable:

You work on the homework by yourself until you get stuck. Then you go read the book, try similar example problems in the book, view the CD tutorial in the text, and other resources available to you. If you are hopelessly stuck despite your best efforts, you consult the instructor or TA’s. You may consult classmates and ask questions related to approaches to solving the problem, difficult concepts in the problem, interpreting the problem statement (e.g. assumptions, etc.) After clarifying your problem, you then go back and finish working the problem yourself.
You’re working around a table or at a blackboard to set up the solution strategy with a group of others. You do not work out the problem details, but you sketch out the basic flowsheet, and make notes such as “do DOF around reactor”, “do benzene balance”, etc. You then go back and work the problem yourself. Your solution should not look like anyone else’s because everyone chooses different notation, formats solutions differently, etc.

Not acceptable

You’re working with others around a table or at a blackboard and you completely work through the problem in combination with others. You transcribe the results of your scratch work from the paper or blackboard, then go home and copy over the results of your collaborative work, perhaps changing a few significant figures or the sequence of short answer questions so it is not identical.

You have problems with a particular problem, and a friend shares his or her solution with you. You copy the solution and hand it in as your own work.

You obtain someone else’s solution, copy it over, and hand it in as your own work.

The following scenarios apply to an individual computer assignment (e.g., Excel).

Acceptable:

You work on the Excel assignment by yourself until you get stuck. Then you go read the on-line tutorials, try similar example problems on the web site or from problem session, etc. If you are hopelessly stuck despite your best efforts, you consult the instructor or TA’s. You may consult classmates and ask questions related to approaches to solving the problem, difficult concepts in the problem, interpreting the problem statement, how to work selected features in Excel, etc. After clarifying your problem, you then go back and finish working the problem yourself. You work on your own computer or in an EOS lab logged in as yourself.

You’re working around a computer to set up the solution strategy with a group of others. You do not work out the problem details, but you set up the solution approach or get help in demonstrating features of the program like plotting, Solver, etc. You make notes on how to set up the problem or how to use the plotting wizard, etc. You then go back and work the problem yourself. You work on your own computer or in an eos lab logged in as yourself. Note: This is potentially dangerous because if you look at someone else’s electronic file, even if you go back and do the problem yourself, it tends to look like what you have seen, even more so than seeing a written out solution.

Not acceptable

You’re working with others around a common computer and you partially or completely work through the problem in combination with others. The file creator emails you the file (or gives you a disk or CD with the file). You take the file home, open it, and make a few minor changes (labels, titles, units, etc.) so that it doesn’t look identical, and save it under your name. Copying and pasting the contents of someone else’s file into a new file and saving it under your own name is also unacceptable.

You obtain a copy of someone else’s file and save it as your own, or copy the contents and paste it into another file.