At this point, is this academic dishonesty? If so, what kind (plagiarism, cheating, etc.) and why?
Response 1: At this point I would say this behavior shows poor judgment on Diane's part, but is not academic dishonesty. It would have been better for Jack to go to the instructor, explain his circumstances, and see if it would be possible to get an extension.
Response 2: I think not, because Diane is showing an example of what she did. In the business world, looking at other examples is called "benchmarking", but can lead to plagiarism if the author is not careful.
Response 3: No, at this point this is only collaboration. The work of other students, shared by consent, is not plagiarism. What Jack does with this information is what will constitute plagiarism, or not. He can read her material to see how she structured things, but when he applies himself to doing the assignment he must make sure his own work is original within the specifications of the assignment (she may have used formulas or guidelines preset by the instructor, which are fine to reproduce, but the content itself should reflect Jack's own analysis). Here I would recommend that Jack communicate with the professor to see if he can get an extension so he can do a proper job on the analysis. I would also recommend that Jack not use her paper as a reference while he is completing his assignment. It's okay to read it once or twice, but it's better used as a form of research, not a firm guideline to follow. If he were to follow her structure very closely, even though he might choose different words, this would constitute a form of plagiarism in that the work would not be completely his own.
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