<p>I agree with everyone that I see nothing intrinsically wrong with this, morally. Well, maybe a little something – if you were supposed to do the work to write a paper for two courses, and only did one course’s worth of work, you shouldn’t necessarily get two courses’ credit. But in any event I have never heard of an educational institution where this doesn’t violate a rule, and wouldn’t be grounds for expulsion or other severe discipline. Students should assume that this rule exists rather than assuming it doesn’t exist unless they can find it. </p>
<p>So, regardless of the morality – just don’t do it.</p>
<p>Credit hours are earned by the intellectual work of the student. I see nothing wrong with submitting the paper described provided the faculty signs off and the length is expanded from the original assignment. Otherwise it seems to me that only half the work was completed.</p>
<p>The concept of shared ideas is a good one, and the research and thought are being reused which I don’t see as a problem.</p>
<p>I am not understanding how this is plagiarism when you are the author. This may not be the best example but how is this different than using the same essay for college applications to different schools.</p>
<p>What about the inherent unfairness to others in the class who were not so fortunate to have an archive of crossover theses to draw upon for resubmission? College students have a finite amount of time to divide between their classes, and the quality of their work in any particular class may depend on the time they can afford to devote to each class. A student who spends a few minutes reprinting a recycled essay gains a time advantage in all the remaining classes, and may have written the essay during a period when they had more time for the assignment. </p>
<p>I also think kids should be encouraged to evaluate topics from multiple perspectives. Rather than embellish and build upon an old theme they should look at the topic with fresh insight and perhaps different conclusions. Isn’t that the cornerstone of critical thinking?</p>
<p>“how is this different than using the same essay for college applications to different schools.”</p>
<p>It isn’t inherently different. It’s just that it’s allowed in the admissions setting and generally not allowed in the coursework setting.</p>
<p>I highly recommend it in the admissions setting. No one applying to ten schools should have to write ten different “Why Whoville College?” essays. If you’ve chosen your schools well, you should have to write three, max.</p>
<p>It’s not at all a matter of what is allowed. It is what is learned. College admissions essays - perhaps sadly - is a sorting rather than learning exercise. Work done for classes is both sorting and learning exercise. If you feel that you will learn more by submitting the same essay to two different classes, than you should do it (provided you have permission). If you won’t learn more as a result, then you shouldn’t even be asking, because you’ve answered it for yourself.</p>
<p>All kinds of things are allowed in this world that aren’t good ideas. And many things are permitted that aren’t ethical.</p>
<p>When your complete an assignment for a professor, for a course, you are putting together something that passes muster for him/her as well as providing a learning experience for yourself. So it is with work assignments. Regardless of how great your work is, if the assignment is to investigate A and you choose to write thepaper on B, or if your are to argue X and you decide you don’t agree and want to argue Y, you are at risk of doing very poorly. So, assignments are also exercises in giving someone what s/he wants, because, yes, ultimately that grade is going to reflect a lot of that.</p>
<p>So, no, I see nothing wrong with doing this, as long as the professors/teachers are aware and are okay with it. There are some implied things in courses and one of them is that the work is “one and only” and that you are giving the same line to others. Sort of like a relationship, you know. If a student should ask me, if s/he could do this, I would not have any issues, only warning the student that not a quarter is going to be given that the paper has to also stretch for another class. It would be graded solely as work for that class, which would also be the case if you do not tell the prof. </p>
<p>This problem also come about in terms of recycling old work. I did some research papers in high school that were really extensive and quite good. With a few changes and updating, they could have been submitted for college assignments, I 'm sure. Back then the issue did not come up as readily, since though the thought did occur to me, the papers were back home in Europe and I was in the US and I’d have to have someone look for them at home, send them to me, before I could even use them as bases. But these days with computers? Puh. A couple of keystrokes and it’s ready to print out fresh. A few changes here and there, update it, and you are done. So what’s the problem here, since you are plagiarising only from yourself, right? That is a problem starting new work specifically to address the assignment. Which is the same situation when you are doing one piece of work for both assignments. There is an implicit exclusivity to course assignments. Of course, if the assigner does not mind, that is fine.</p>
<p>I see a very distinct difference between this and submitting the same essay to colleges for admissions. Namely the whole concept of the Common app and the process itself makes it pretty clear that one can use the same essays to multiple schools. An assignment has the very strong implication and requirement that this is to be original work.</p>
<p>It’s not plagiarism; it’s just considered a form of academic dishonesty and not allowed without permission. Many of my D’s syllabuses (syallabi?) clearly said that the school’s code of conduct expected that any work turned into a class for a grade will be work prepared solely for that class. </p>
<p>Exceptions just require a professor’s approval.</p>
<p>Resubmitting the same paper again VERBATIM is just plain lazy, when it is so easy to massage it a bit on the computer to tailor it to the new assignment. </p>
<p>Scientists submit very, very similar (but not verbatim) papers all the time. It is not realistic to expect people to have an 100% original ideas for each paper they write. In fact scientists will write several papers on the same topic to advocate their conclusion for that topic-- just look at their list of publications. Similar titles but not verbatim titles.</p>
<p>I would also say whether it’s “fine” or not depends on the purpose of the assignment. If it is to expand your understanding of the material, then obviously you aren’t doing that if you are recycling a paper. If, however, it is to demonstrate your mastery of the material being taught, it might be a different story. I’m imagining a music class in which the teacher tells everyone to write a simple fugue. You go to the teacher and tell him you wrote some fugues this summer–does he want you to write another one? He might want you to do so–he might want you to do something else.</p>
<p>Is it unethical to take a literature class when you’ve read the books already? Do you have to read them all again?</p>
<p>I also think it’s fine if the professor’s in question agree to it if you write a longer paper, so that you really do learn two courses worth of material.</p>
<p>“Is it unethical to take a literature class when you’ve read the books already? Do you have to read them all again?”</p>
<p>That’s not an ethical question. If you are doing it to avoid work or learning, it is cheating, with the you as the only victim. It may not be “unethical”, but it subverts the purposes of education.</p>
<p>“If it is to expand your understanding of the material, then obviously you aren’t doing that if you are recycling a paper. If, however, it is to demonstrate your mastery of the material being taught, it might be a different story.”</p>
<p>The difference between learning and sorting.</p>
<p>Me, too. Especially outside of a school environment. To this day, I’d like to tell you that I am rereading Dickens. In fact, most of it is for the first time. I can’t believe that I got through #1 LAC as an honors, phi beta kappa english major, and they only made me read* Martin Chuzzlewit*. What’s up with that?</p>
<p>At my college, they’d call it self plagiarism, and it would be caught as all essays are put through the Turnitin software. Plagiarism invariably leads to expulsion.</p>
<p>I think it is worth emphasizing the use of Turnitin and other similar software - some profs and schools use it without telling the students. So, it would get you caught if you resubmitted something twice (even in HS vs. College). My daughter has never had any 2 assignments similar enough to be able to do this and if she did as was stated above she could use prior research and rewrite something tailored to the new assignment. This she has done - her public speaking class had them do informational speeches where she specifically told them to use a topic they had written a paper on (the emphasis was on building and giving a speech not research).</p>
<p>mini: I had to read Dombey and Sons. Really long. And Orly Farm, but that was Trollope. Both are over 1000 pages. Might have been for the same class.</p>
They can call a dog a goat, but that doesn’t make it one. There is no such thing as “self-plagiarism.” I’m OK with them calling it cheating, but I just can’t stand that nonsensical term.</p>