Policy on Electronic Correspondence

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Contents

• Avoid plagiarism!
• Get answers faster!
• Be polite!
• Be patient!
• Don't ask at the last minute!
• Closing remarks

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Avoid plagiarism!

• Never post to the course newsgroup (or to any other public forum) your solution to an assignment, or even your idea of the solution to an assignment, or even one small part of a program or proof that is part of your solution to an assignment, etc.
  In particular, questions similar to the ones in the following list should be avoided completely: you should ask these types of questions only by direct e-mail to your instructor, not by posting them to the newsgroup.
  • "... Is this the right idea? ..." or "... Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this? ..."
    (Think about it: if we ask you a question on an assignment, it's because we want you to figure out how to do it. If you describe what you intend to do on the newsgroup, you've just committed plagiarism with the entire class by giving away your idea for the solution!)
  • "... For this question, are we supposed to do X or Y? ..."
    (Don't take a chance: maybe you've given the question away by asking this because the whole point of the question was to get you to think about X and Y and figure out which one to do...)
  If you ask a question like this, or post anything that gives away part of the solution to an assignment, it will be treated as a case of plagiarism with all the consequences that this entails. (See our advice on avoiding plagiarism.)

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Get answers faster!

• Before asking a question by e-mail or in the newsgroup, please check the course webpage CAREFULLY!
  We try very hard to keep the webpage updated with the most recent information regarding all aspects of the course (announcements, answers to common questions, etc.) so the answer to your question may already be there. Send or post your question only if you've already checked all relevant sections of the webpage carefully without finding the information you need. (And if your question is about something that you expected to find on the webpage, let us know where you expected to find it so that we can update the webpage.)
• If your question is about something in the textbook, or just about course material that is covered in the textbook, take a few minutes to check the relevant sections, or look it up in the index. Generally, you will find your answer much faster than the time it would take you to compose your message, send it, and then wait for a reply. Even if you don't find exactly what you're looking for, you will probably find out enough to be able to ask a more precise question.
• If your question is not about the course material but about the computer system, then please check the system documentation first! We have no doubt told you where you can find general information on the computer system: please use those resources. They contain more detailed and accurate answers to more questions than we can provide you with. In particular, we cannot answer questions specific to your computer at home, because we are not necessarily familiar with the operating system you're using.

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Be polite!

• Always sign your full name at the end of your message,
  so that we know we are answering an actual student in the course. You should also include your student number in e-mail messages sent to us, but do not include your student number if you are posting to the newsgroup (unless you want every other student in the class to find out your number and be able to know your marks and other personal information...) If we cannot tell who you are, we may ask you to send your message again with proper identification before we answer.
• Always use a descriptive subject for your e-mail,
  and always include the course identifier (like "CSC363") in your subject. Remember that your instructor may teach more than one course during a term, and it's not always obvious what course your question is about. Also, subjects like "A question" are NOT descriptive: more than 75% of e-mails we get are questions! At least, let us know what the question is about (lecture material, assignment, test, etc.). If your E-mail does not have a subject field, or if the subject field does not contain the course identifier or is not precise enough, we may look at it last, and our usual response time (see below) will not apply.
• Use correct English.
  No matter how friendly you may think we are, we are still your instructors and the tone of your messages should reflect this, because they are communications of a more official nature. Writing things like "would u plz ..." or "r u going to ..." or "l8r" or "bye 4 now" may be fine for personal messages but they are not acceptable for other e-mail. The same is true (although to a lesser extent) when you use all lower case letters, all upper case letters, or omit all the punctuation. You'll get faster, more positive responses to your questions (or for that matter, to your job applications or any other official correspondence in general) if they are well-written with correct grammar and correct spelling and if you do not assume a familiarity with the recipient that is inappropriate (even if you feel that the familiarity is there, it shouldn't show up in your official correspondence).

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Be patient!

• We normally answer e-mail or post replies in the appropriate newsgroup or on the course webpage within 2-3 business days (i.e., not including weekends).
  If you've sent or posted a question and have not received an answer by that time, it's almost certainly because the answer can already be found on the webpage or in the textbook, so check again more carefully! (If we know that we will not be checking e-mail for more than 5 business days in a row, we will set up an automated reply so that you don't wait for nothing.)
  Also, please be patient when you send a question: just because we don't answer right away does not mean that we are ignoring you or that we forgot about you! It could be that we haven't checked e-mail (or the newsgroup) recently, or that we need to look up the information before we answer, or any number of other reasons.

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Don't ask at the last minute!

• We reserve the right NOT to answer any question on the day that an assignment is due or on the day before,
  especially if it's a basic question about the assignment or the course material that the assignment is on! In other words, we made an effort to give you the assignment early so you have enough time to do it, so we expect you to at least make the effort to read and understand the assignment (and the relevant course material) well before the due date.

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Closing remarks

As long as you respect these guidelines, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have, about any aspect of the course. (We also welcome any suggestions or concerns you may have about the course: see our policy about feedback.) Don't let these guidelines discourage you from asking questions! They are only meant to help you find the information you need quickly and accurately, and to leave us enough time to answer everyone's questions.

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