My younger brother is applying to college, and he wants to recycle an essay he wrote and submitted to his boarding high school when he just transferred to that school. If his essay is already included in the database of the high school, is it considered plagiarism if colleges somehow have access to that database and saw that it was an essay he already submitted? Thanks.
Why in the world would colleges have access to your high school’s database? No, it’s not on the Internet, and he wrote his words, so it isn’t plagiarism.
However, I would recommend writing a new essay since it’s been years since he wrote that essay and he might have changed personality-wise or something.
Oh okay thank you! Yeah I just want to make sure there’s no problem with recycling an essay like that. He really loved that essay because it discussed an activity that’s integral to his identity, but he still plans to expand on it; not just resubmitting it without any additional work.
No it isn’t plagiarism if he wrote it.
Sorry, @monolid but you are getting TERRIBLE advice in this thread.
Many colleges subscribe to the same set of databases as most Highschools, and there is every likelihood that if it passes through SafeAssign, BlackBoard or a similar filter, the original essay will turn up.
Moreover, @lindagaf and @hhjjlala are wrong about self-plagiarism. Most universities include re-submitting work which was submitted elsewhere under the definition of ‘plagiarism’, and it is technically an academic no-no. Furthermore, as hhjjlala correctly notes, it implies the author could not come up with a new piece of representative writing when needed, a vital academic skill.
Reconsider.
It is well known that Thomas Jefferson drew heavily from previous self-penned writings while drafting the Declaration of Independence. I am guessing by your name @ProfessorD that you are a professor, but would you mark down a student who drew from his or her own work? That seems very unfair.
Many students, (including my kid), use an essay in various forms for several different college essay supplements. I think that’s totally fine. If it is original from the source, i.e., that student’s mind, how can that be plagiarism? I agree that reusing something unrelated to a current graded assignment, verbatim, is probably not cool. But in a college application essay, it’s fair game. The student isn’t trying to get an unearned grade. The student is selling him or herself. A company doesn’t broadcast a different advertisement to every city where the ad airs (well, it can, depending on the market). Many students will tweek an essay to fit with what they think a college is looking for. And this is fine. After all, a student is usually paying money for an applciation to be read. It’s a different transaction.
@lindagaf Thomas Jefferson also owned slaves. Using him to justify a practice which is no longer accepted is not a winning argument.
“Fair” doesn’t enter into it. By one definition, it would be “fair” to grade my students by height. Or flunk them all, equally. “Fair” is a word, like “good,” which always requires further definition.
By the definition used by most modern academic institutions, submitting work which you have previously submitted elsewhere is plagiarism. Your advice is likely to get someone in serious hot water.
@ProfessorD , this has been discussed many times before on CC. There is wide consensus, at least here, that reusing essays and changing them for one’s own college application is NOT plagiarism. We are not talking abut graded homework assignments. If every student who recycled an essay on a college app, which is what we are specifically discussing, had their application thrown out, there would be no college apps to review. The Common App, for one, asks the applicant to verify that they are submitting their own work. It is their own work. Recycling essays has been given as credible advice countless times by many CC users, not just me. I wager you are the only person I have seen on this site who believes that every single supplemental essay for every single application must be completely unique and original.
The reason why it is easy and sensible to recycle essays is because very often the applicant is being asked to write for a similar prompt. Do you really think it’s plagiarism to recycle an essay where the prompt for three different colleges is something along the lines of “tell us what makes you happy.” This was a prompt my kid indeed had to create supplements for. Three different colleges asked a very similar question, so for each of those colleges, she reused her essay, altered somewhat for each college. If she plagiarized her own work, good for her. She is well aware of the difference between doing that and presenting a college application essay as work for a graded assignment.
I will concede that it is probably not a great idea to recycle an essay that was previously submitted in an academic context. Those might come up should a plagiarism check be conducted. And who would want to use an essay written for academic purposes anyway.?
If you think my advice will land a student in hot water, by all means, please flag my post. I will be interested to see if my post is removed.
Furthermore, a student is expected to,submit exactly the same Common App essay to each college they apply to. So is the Common App, and all the colleges using it, advocating plagiarism? I don’t think so. Of course colleges are aware that a student most likely submits exactly the same essay to each college. Your argument doesn’t hold up in this context. And if the core of a student’s essay is something that student previously wrote, I am still saying it isn’t plagiarism IF it is the student’s work.
@Lindagaf if you think the “consensus” of an internet message board will outweigh a University’s policies on academic dishonesty…
While both facts about Thomas Jefferson are true, only one has bearing on this topic. The other is a red herring.
That having been said, I would either write a new one, or if using it, say at the beginning this is from an essay you wrote in 20XX. While you are not turning it in for a college assignment, which would be self-P, you should behave as if you are. I don’t think admissions would care if you wrote it previously tho.
The college application essay is not academic.
“Not academic.”
The essay which is supposed to demonstrate your aptitude for a university course of study.
Oooooookay…I think we’re done here.