Tips about collaboration on homeworks.

(1)   Do not write down something that you cannot explain to your TA or instructor.

(2)   When you are helping other students, avoid showing them your work directly.  Instead, explain your solution verbally.  Students whose work is copied also receive academic sanctions.

(3)   If you find yourself reading another student's solution, do not write anything down.  Once you understand how to solve the problem, remove the other person's work from your sight and then write up the solution to the question yourself.  Looking back and forth between someone else's paper and your own paper is almost certainly copying and will result in academic sanctions for both you and your fellow student.

(4)   If the instructor or TA writes down part of a solution in order to help explain it to you or the class, you cannot copy it and hand it in for credit.  Treat it the same way you would treat another student's work with respect to copying, that is, remove the explanation from your sight and then write up the solution yourself.

(5)   There is often more than one way to solve a problem.  Choose the method that makes the most sense to you rather than the method that other students happen to use.  If none of the ideas in your solution are your own, there is a good chance it will be flagged as copying.