Asking Questions
A large part of learning how to program is learning how and where to ask questions. At some point in your career, you will need to do something you have never done but likely someone else has. By learning a few principles for asking questions, you are able to work effectively on any problem given to you.
Nobody wants to look over code counting parentheses or checking other small errors that are easily noticeable if the code is "pretty" or documented. If you have no idea what is going on with your code it is a good indication nobody else will either, so avoid asking questions such as "Why does my program not work?" A better question would be along the lines of "This error function is not accepting my string, do you know why?" Also asking your Discrete Math professor about the assembly code behind a printf statement is not a great idea either.
How to ask
One way of checking your errors is to first go through and add your Purpose, Contract, and Example comments on each function. Many times you will realize what is happening while doing this. Also you should make your code "pretty" as suggested in your text. This allows for a person to take a quick look at your code and notice small problems, such as the wrong number of parameters or parentheses.
Another tip is to practice what is called "self-documenting" code. That is your variables names make sense, and it is clear from the code to see exactly what is going on. Sometimes this style is not possible, then you should comment your code explaining what is happening so that the onlooker is able to quickly understand what you are doing.
Who to ask
Knowing where to ask the question is half the battle so to speak. My first choice is always documentation. Often times just looking things up in a help directory or man page is enough to tell me exactly what I need to know. Also it doesn't annoy someone who knows that you would be able to find the question if you took five seconds to look it up. The second choice is asking Google. Chances are if you are getting some strange error or you don't know how to get things done, you aren't the only one. Google is able to find many solutions to some of my strangest questions. Finally if you are still stuck, ask Usenet or your TA, but make sure that you are on the correct forum in Usenet or else you make people upset. Although I don't recommend asking Usenet to solve your homework for you, basically you don't learn how to do it and you never know your professor or TA might be on.
As your lab TA, I am here to guide you into good practices such as these. Please do not take offence when you ask a question and I tell you to make your code a bit more readable or to read some documentation then ask me again.