I teach paralegal studies. Last term, I had an incident with two students who submitted the exact same project, word for word. When I confronted one of the students, she first stated "I did my own work." After I explained to her that it was clearly not the case, she stated "Well, you said we could work together." I told her that while I encourage students to work together to find information and resources, each student must submit their own original work. Also, if she and the other student thought it was a group project, why didn't they submit one paper with both their names on it?" The student then stated, "Well, I let the other student use my paper, but I didn't do anything wrong because you said we could work together." Needless to say, this drove me crazy. It has gotten to the point that I place a warning and/or disclaimer on any assignment explaining that one must submit their own work, if they choose to work with another student to find the information or "This is not a group assignment." Since when are things that appear so obvious have to be defined? In the nine years that I have taught at the college level, I have NEVER heard something like this in my life...either at a career college or a traditional college. Of course, being a former attorney, I know that the student is making excuses for what she did. But, she does not understand that giving a completed paper to another student to use is never OK. Has anyone out there encountered such a situation where guidelines, even those that are obvious, must be defined? How is that helping the student? And, is it an insult to the others in the classroom who do get it?