CMSC 203 / 0201, Fall 2002 - Academic Honesty Policy and Grading Standards
as of 8/7/02

All students must read, understand, and follow the course policy on academic honesty and grading standards. Each student will be asked to sign a statement indicating that they have read and understood the policy.

By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBC's scholarly community, in which everyone's academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty.  Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong.  Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, suspension or dismissal.  To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult the UMBC Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, or the UMBC Policies section of the UMBC Directory. [Statement adopted by UMBC's Undergraduate Council and Provost's Office.]
 

Academic dishonesty, including copying another student's work, sharing your work with someone else, buying or selling solutions, and plagiarism of any source, is not acceptable.

Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. In particular, all assignments are to be your own work.  You may discuss the assignments with anyone. However, any help you receive must be documented as follows.

Written answers for homeworks must be your own work. You may discuss the concepts and assignments with anyone; in fact, students are encouraged to study and work together. However, the homework you turn in must be your own work. This means that you should be alone when you actually sit down to write the solutions, and you may not show your solutions to anyone else. Any help you receive must be documented. Plagiarism (copying) of any source, including another student's work, is not acceptable. If you wish to quote a source, you must do so explicitly, using quotation marks and proper citation at the point of the quote. http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/bib_journals.htm gives an excellent overview of how to correctly cite a source. http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html gives guidelines on acceptable paraphrasing.

Examinations must be your own work. You may bring only the materials specified by the instructor. Any use of unauthorized materials, copying of another student's assignment, or other illegitimate use of sources is grounds for failure on the exam or in the course. (See Penalties, below.)

Fabrication: Fabricating results, sources, or any other information, is academically dishonest and subject to the penalties outlined below.

Aiding and abetting: Providing another student with answers, or helping them to cheat, is an equally serious violation of the principles of academic honesty.  A student who commits such an offense is subject to the same penalties as the student who cheated.

Penalties: The consequence for any infraction of this policy is, at a minimum, a zero grade for the entire assignment. In addition, in order to pass the course, the student may be required to recomplete the assignment honestly. Consequences for more serious infractions of this policy, or for second offenses, may include, but are not limited to, a grade penalty in the course, a failing grade in the course, or being suspended or expelled from the university.

Course Grades

From an absolute persepective, grades denote the following performance levels:

• A: Can prove theorems, calculate, and count with fluency without help.
• B: Can prove theorems, calculate, and count quite well with some help.
• C: Can make notable progress proving theorems, calculating, and counting with significant help.
• D: Can barely prove theorems, calculate, or count, even with extensive help.
• F: No clue what to do, even with extensive help; or has not put in a serious effort to learn the material or perform the work for the class.

Each homework and examination problem will be assigned an integral score from 0 to 10 points, as follows. Each score will assigned by considering the entire solution as a whole, not by summing partial scores.

• 10 points: Perfect. No mistakes, however small.
• 9 points: Nearly perfect. Only a small number of minor errors.
• 8 points: Mostly correct. At least one major error, or several minor errors.
• 7 points: Significant progress. Evidence of significant progress, apparently headed in a productive direction. Sevearl shortcomings or several serious errors.
• 6 points: Some progress. Evidence of some progress. Apparently headed in an unproductive direction, or progress is extremely slight.
• 4 points: Serious effort. Evidence of serious effort, without evidence of any progress. Please seek help from TA or instructor.
• 1 point: Please try harder. Something handed in, with a name, without any evidence of serious effort. A blank sheet with your name on it and the problem number earns one point.
• 0 points: Please try. Nothing handed in.

Homework Assignments

I also strongly recommend that you format your assignments using LaTeX. The zeroth assignment is required to be formatted in LaTeX. This is to give you practice using LaTeX. After that, you may format and print assignments using LaTeX, another word processor, or plain ASCII (though ASCII is not really sufficient for many of the mathematical concepts you will need to express); or you may hand write your assignments. Readability is an important part of your grade, so however you submit your assignments, they must be legible and clear.

Homework assignments must be submitted as hardcopy. The solution to each problem must appear on a separate page, with your name on every page of the problem set. (Homework pages may be detached for grading, so please be sure you follow this guideline in order to receive credit for all of your work.) Homework submissions must be made by the due date and time as indicated above. All homework submissions must be made in person to the TA or to the instructor. It is the student's responsibility to deliver homeworks. If you will not be in class, or will be late for class, it is your responsibility to arrange an alternate delivery method for your assignment. Do not leave homeworks in the instructor's mailbox or under her office door.

Assignments that I consider to be unreadable will be returned ungraded.  You may submit an assignment returned for this reason up to one time during the semester.

Although this is not a writing class, success in any scientific discipline requires the ability to effectively communicate one's thoughts.  Proofs must be written using correct, grammatical English. If you have difficulty writing, whether it's because English is not your first language, or because you haven't taken many writing classes in your undergraduate program, I highly suggest that you take advantage of UMBC's writing center, in the main library. (Phone 455-3126, hours 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Friday.)  This is a free tutoring service that will help you prepare essays and papers for any course.

Examinations

Late Policy

• 0 to 24 hours late: 25% penalty
• 24 to 48 hours late: 50% penalty
• More than 48 hours late: no credit will be given

I have read and understood the Fall 2002 CMSC 471 course policies on academic honesty and grading.  I agree to follow these policies, and I understand the consequences for violating them.

Name (printed) _______________________________________________________

Signature ___________________________________________________________

Date _______________________________________________________________