Poll: How to respond to homework questions

Matthew Donadio m.p.donadio@ieee.org
Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:50:14 -0400


Tom Pledger wrote:
> I'm curious about what the people on this list consider appropriate,
> as responses to homework questions.  Even if there isn't a consensus,
> it may be interesting to see how opinion is divided.
> 
> Please consider the following.
> 
> (A) Give a perfect answer.
> (B) Give a subtly flawed answer.
> (C) Give an obfuscated answer.
> (D) Give a critique of what the questioner has tried so far.
> (E) Give relevant general advice without answering the specific question.
> 
> I mean them to include giving references, e.g. a Wiki URL to relevant
> general advice would count as (E).

I think this depends on the situation.

There is a big difference between "I am having some trouble with this
homework problem.  This is what I did.  Could someone give me some
tips?  Thanks" and "How do I write a map function in Haskell?"

For the first case, I would vote for D and/or E as appropriate.  For the
second case, I vote for (F) Ignore.

-- 
Matthew Donadio (m.p.donadio@ieee.org)