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On homework

Papers should be stapled and your name clearly indicated. Late homework will not be accepted. If you have a medical excuse or other serious circumstances, allowances will be made; contact your instructor at the earliest opportunity. Your lowest homework score will be dropped (as everyone has a bad week sometime).

Collaborating vs. plagiarism. You may collaborate with other students on homework. I believe, however, that for maximum benefit, you should try hard to do all the problems yourself before consulting others. What you turn in should represent your own solutions expressed in your own words, even if you arrived at these solutions with others. Remember, you are doing the homework to learn the material; do not try to defeat its purpose. Copying someone else's homework and presenting it as your own will be treated as a violation of Cornell's Academic Integrity Code, as will copying solutions that you might find on the internet or elsewhere. In keeping with the good practice of acknowledging all contributors to a piece of work, if you do collaborate, please give the names of your collaborators so on your homework. (Your grade will not be affected.)

Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Writing well. Mathematics is not mere computation; arguments and abstract concepts must be communicated. Use complete sentences with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Write linearly down the page rather than scattering words, symbols and equations. Explain your reasoning carefully. Indicate the significances of and relationships between any calculations which contribute to your answers. Define and employ clear and concise notation. State clearly any results (from lectures or from the textbook) to which you appeal in your solutions. Imagine your fellow-students as your readers—ask yourself whether they would they be able to follow your arguments. You may write your answers by hand or use LaTeX or other typesetting or word processing software as you prefer.

Support. Come to my office hours or those of the T.A.! Some of the tutors at the Mathematics Support Center in Malott 256 may have background in Algebraic Topology.