It’s that time again…that third-week-of-the-semester panic is just starting to sweep over campus, and away messages are shifting from “Watching Project Runway” to “Studying calc all night” or “Trying to remember how to write a paper.”

But there’s hope for some. Math 104 students can get free tutoring and paper-writers have all sorts of resources available to them. And no, I’m not talking about buying a paper from I’mALazyAss.com.

Private services go way beyond what the Writing Center offers (www.writing.upenn.edu)

As was reported in the Daily Pennsylvanian last week, there are people who run entire businesses geared towards helping students write papers.

It seems only fair that resources are available for everyone, no matter what assignment is giving them trouble. After all, certain groups of Penn students are at a tremendous disadvantage. China Okasi, a Penn alumna and founder of Penn and Paper, a professional editing service, says that her company is geared mainly toward international students, who are already at a disadvantage because of “language and cultural issues.”

But helping people with practice problems is not the same thing as helping someone re-work the essay they are actually handing in. When you’re dealing with an essay, it’s far easier to cross the line between helping and doing someone’s work for them.

So where should we draw the line? College junior Kerry Killeen said that “It’s okay to offer general feedback,” but that specifically telling someone what to change might entail crossing the line.

Okasi says that her company does a “thorough editing job,” but that they don’t address content-related questions, which would give an unfair advantage to the writer.

The Code of Academic Integrity’s definitions of “Academic Dishonesty” are predictably vague. “Unauthorized assistance” with classwork is prohibited, whatever that means.

Last year, one of my professors ordered us to have a parent or friend read our papers for clarity before we handed them in. He specifically warned us that there would inevitably be a handful of us that wouldn’t listen and would do badly. So I obliged, and sent my paper to my father, along with explicit instructions not to give me too much help.

In this case, asking for help was specifically authorized. While my father was careful not to address any issues except clarity, it could have gone too far.

We’re probably safe going to Penn and Paper or the Writing Center. But what level of help should we be comfortable with? These questions are hard–the line is blurrier for editing papers than preparing for exams. And the various sources of help we’re “allowed” to use make everything more confusing.

This is something that the University Honor Council and the Office of Student Conduct should directly address. No student should have to be afraid of breaking a rule that is not clearly articulated. Telling us to use our best judgment just simply isn’t enough.

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