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I have used the web and Stack Overflow extensively during the past month or so in creating my final project for my C# class. I have used so much code that I didn't write myself that I feel I am being unethical by not giving proper credit to the people who helped me; or the websites that have provided excellent examples.

Is it unethical to publish work which was created by me, even though its hardest problems were solved by other people? Should I credit these people for helping me with my assignment? Or the web sites which provided examples?

gnat
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HelpNeeder
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3 Answers3

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Think about it like this: It's a class. The purpose is for you to learn things. It does not really matter whether you learn them from the teacher or from some website, as long as you do learn. And the purpose of the assignment is twofold: having you learn actively (by using your knowledge, which tends to make it stick better) and having you prove that you've learned. The result will not really be "published" in a meaningful way.

Considering all this, there are only ways in which your behaviour would be unethical is if you used all that code without learning from it, and either

  • The class is graded on a curve and your getting a better grade than you should might cause others to get worse grades than they would otherwise have gotten.
  • You use the diploma or certificate gained through that class to misrepresent your actual skill level to prospective employers.
Michael Borgwardt
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I think you should cite your sources, and bother most about learning more.

Homework is not useful per se, it is a mean for you to learn things. If you didn't learn enough, you are the loser (not your teacher).

Basile Starynkevitch
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Yes, it's unethical. You write:

I have used so much code that I didn't write myself that I feel I am being unethical by not giving proper credit to the people who helped me;

It's your final project. Not the web's. Not Steve McConnell's. If you're submitting code you didn't write, that's plagiarism, and any decent instructor who caught you would at least give you a zero, if not drop you from the course.

Put differently, if you submitted a final paper to your English Composition class composed largely of paragraphs you copied from Hemingway, Shakespeare, Thoreau, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, you'd deserve the same fate.

Ross Patterson
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