<p>Hi there, I have an 8pg paper due next Thursday for my University 101 class. The paper can be on anything at all, so I don't need to create a paper within limited specifications. I was thinking that I could potentially use an old paper from last semester instead of creating a new one from scratch. The thing is, I don't want to get into any trouble, but I feel that if I actually ask my professor if I can use it he will either say "no" outright, or at the very least take it into consideration while marking. </p>
<p>If I did use my old paper how would he be able to know? As the professor I made the first paper for is in Europe this semester and the two courses (History and Uni101) aren't even related. Is there any way he could actually tell without actually contacting my old professor? Which he would have no reason to do.</p>
<p>I would definitely rehash my paper and alter my thesis regardless, but it will still mostly be the same. My professor for Uni101 is very slack, so I somehow doubt he would really check if my paper was used before. </p>
<p>What should I do? I technically could just do a new paper but I also have a history project and a midterm this week, so I'm kind of stressed for time.</p>
<p>But I’m honestly curious as to how my professor would even be able to tell as the paper can be on anything. Unless there’s an actual database containing all submitted work I doubt he could, and what professor actually has the time to individually go through each student’s previously submitted work?</p>
<p>At many colleges, reusing a paper without the explicit permission of BOTH professors is considered academically dishonest. It might not be “cheating” per se, but it is almost always considered a breach of academic integrity.</p>
<p>Under some circumstances, there are ways for professors to tell if a paper is reused. For example, some colleges (and/or individual professors) routinely use services like TurnItIn. The paper gets scanned into a central database and compared against every other paper in the database. If both of your professors use the service, your paper would get flagged.</p>
<p>Short of that, I suspect there is little chance you would get caught but it would still be possible. Professors do sometimes share papers for various reasons - workshops, “best paper” exemplars, etc. </p>
<p>Okay, so it’s obviously against the rules and bad. But what are the chances that I would even be caught? My paper wasn’t anywhere near good enough to be used in workshops or even be talked about between professors. Just an average B grade paper. I’m also fairly certain that my professor would not use an online program like that, he just doesn’t seem like that kind of prof. He’s the kind of professor that would give people extensions on their work just because they hadn’t finished it yet.</p>
<p>Edit: Not to mention that my old prof is actually in Europe right now, which even further decreases the chances of me being caught.</p>
<p>So now that you know it’s considered academic dishonesty at universities to use the same paper in two courses, you would break the rules because you’re unlikely to get caught. That’s unethical. You should do something because it’s the right thing to do, not because you won’t get caught. You have other students in that class who do not have papers, and it will put you at an advantage. Plus you would be getting double credit for the same work.</p>
<p>Finally, as long as I’m lecturing you, you are betraying the trust between a professor and a student. That professor sounds like someone who cares enough about students to help people in difficult situations, and you want to take advantage of that.</p>
<p>Honestly, I feel like I’m entitled to break that trust. You see, this paper was actually due last Thursday, but I didn’t even know until that day. I switched into the class after he gave out the syllabus and therefore missed it, so I talked with him after class and he told me to email him, which I did. He never replied, which resulted in me not even knowing about the assignment until it was due.</p>
<p>Fortunately he gave me an extra week, even though if I had known about the assignment before I would have done it during reading break instead. Now I’m forced to use the time I would have been using on another assignment and studying for a midterm to complete this paper. Thanks to him my grades in my other two classes will suffer. This is why I’m considering breaking this trust, I’ve been thrust into a difficult position and it isn’t my fault.</p>
<p>Oh trust me, he mentioned it. But the way he talked about it was like it was due at the very end of the semester, and that everything we were learning was to come to fruition in the paper. I also never heard any students talking about it, I don’t know anyone in the class and thus do not regularly engage them in conversation, surprisingly… I joined the class late, like I said, and sent the email just before my reading break. I’m not sure how revolutionary this may sound to you, but there are actually no classes during reading break, which meant that email was my only option.</p>
<p>Do you think I’m stupid or something? Of course I used the 4 hours to work on my paper. Just because I left the internet window open doesn’t mean I’m solely doing this. Ahh the subtle mysteries of multi-tasking. </p>
<p>Still, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to submit my old paper. It would save me a lot of time.</p>
<p>Self-plagiarism? What a crock of ****.
BTW dude, don’t risk it, most teachers use a plagiarism checker of some sort, which submit your paper to a database.</p>
<p>Stop making excuses for yourself. It’s 100% your fault that you weren’t aware of the deadline. Given that, your professor was kind enough to give you a week extension. And now you want to break the rules of scholarly submission because you’re too lazy to do some work. Weak.</p>