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Project Academic Honesty

Find the UR's academic policy pointer on the Schedule and Syllabus page and read it. In the following well-articulated policy from Prof Nelson, note that for a team project, often all team members will have their names on the document, so below, "you" refers to both an individual and a team. A slightly edited version:

Attribute ANY work that is not your own, including software off the web, text cribbed from other sources, etc. You are encouraged to look for resources, but not to the extent that it diminishes your own contributions. If in doubt, ask. In any case, use of UN-attributed material is plagiarism, and a violation of the University's academic honesty policy. Plagiarism is taken VERY seriously in this department. DON'T DO IT. If in doubt, reference.

Specifically, text taken from web pages, even a single sentence, is plagiarism. Text paraphrased from web pages is plagiarism. Sentences from web pages cut up into phrases and re-arranged are plagiarism. If you want to avoid possible problems, my suggestion is never write while looking at (someone else's) text. Generate everything from your own understanding of the subject.

Use of unattributed text in any project document will result in zero credit for that document. Text that comes from an outside source should appear in quotes. Too much use of quoted material will tend to reduce your credit for an assignment, as the point of written assignments is to convey your understanding of a subject.

The Proposal and Project Writeup

Your team's (presumably evolving) project proposal can be in electronic form (preferably .txt, .docx, .pdf -- a pages document would give me trouble I think.) Or you can print it and hand that in. Appropriate graphics, images, figures are welcome.

The project proposal should follow the form outlined in the link below on project reports and writeups, AND INCLUDE:
How you want the project graded. Say explictly what you are contracting to complete in order to rate a grade of:

The project writeup should be a PDF document embedded in a web page, which might (should?) have its own organization (up to you). Possible sections might include a powerpoint presentation (for your final project presentation?), interactive demos, links to related work, movies and screenshots, release notes, pointer to downloadable code, whatever is appropriate. This is a chance to do a professional-looking "permanent" presentation to show off your work at its best.

Given all that, here is my personal quick guide to the usual content and organization of Writeups and Proposals. You may well find the UR Writing Program useful.

More How-tos and Guides

On the 172 Resources page you'll find a pointer to mathematics and writing helpers.

A slightly extended set of suchlike stuff is on the CSC 173 version.


Last update: 8/12/14: CB