One can find in most undergraduate catalogs an attempt to define what academic honesty means. As one frequently sees when such attempts are made, there are more than a dozen specific acts listed which anyone would consider to be dishonest (e.g., altering grades on official records, copying on examinations, etc.), and these are followed by a catch-all condition: ``Any willful act of dishonesty which interferes with the operation of the academic process.''

I feel that there is no point in trying to refine or expand this definition. To try to define honesty precisely and inclusively would be an invitation to find loopholes. However, the impression I get when students ask me about cheating is that they want a clearer idea of the difference between fair and unfair collaboration on homework assignments. I can give a rule of thumb which might be helpful for students trying to understand what are the limits of fair collaboration.

First, there is never any reason for one student to see the individual work of any other student until after their assigments have been graded. The modification of this statement for group assignments is the obvious one: A student who is not part of the group has no reason to see the work of the group before that assignment has been graded.

On the other hand, students are encouraged to talk to each other (and to other sources, including me) about the course material in and out of class. But then, if someone says something that helps a student to complete some class work, that help should be acknowledged. The helper's name and the extent of their help should be appended to the work. If a student receives help which he does not acknowledge, then he is cheating.

The statements in the previous paragraph extend to written sources. Any help gotten out of a book or journal must be acknowledged.

If a student follows these rules, acknowledging all help, he may find that he loses credit when he has received too much help! That's how things are. The loss of credit is not a penalty because of a lack of honesty, but because the student is avoiding responsibility. Therefore, one must make choices about how much help one seeks.

This last warning should not be frightening. It is intended that students benefit from doing their own assignments, so that is the expected behavior. But when a student faces an insurmountable obstacle after completing only 20% of an assignment, it is better to ask someone for help in overcoming that obstacle so that the assignment can be continued than to be doomed to turning in only 20% of the assignment. Furthermore, I should add that I don't usually deduct points because a student has received help. I am only reserving for myself the right to do so in situations where I feel that students get so much outside help that they aren't benefiting from doing the assignment. When I find that some students have a different idea of fair collaboration than I do, I warn them first that they are crossing the boundary and penalize them if it continues.