Working together

We learn when we are actively thinking. Asking questions of peers and explaining concepts to peers certainly qualifies as active thought.

Here are my suggestions for working together. Attempt each problem individually. If you get stuck, describe what you've done to someone. You'll be amazed at how often you find a solution when describing a problem. You can then point out mistakes to each other, give hints, even show someone else a solution or have someone show you a solution if needed.

As much as possible, write up your own work. You don't learn a thing if you are mindlessly copying.

If you have a complicated solution crafted with other students that will appear near verbatim on more than one paper, you can avoid any insinuation of academic dishonesty by putting a note on each paper saying who worked on the problem together. For example:

• This solution was written in collaboration with Jane Doe and John Smith.
• This solution is based on that of Jane Doe.
• I would like to thank Jane Doe for guiding me to the solution for this problem.
• I got this from the Help Session TA, John Smith.

(C) 2009 Jean Marie Linhart, all rights reserved.