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re-using papers

qwedsa

qwedsa

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
736
i know they're cracking down on plagiarism and such

but would one get in trouble for using the same paper, that they themselves wrote, in more than one class with almost no editing? what about with lots of edits?
 
I do it. BUT I'm careful not to re-use papers that I or TA/ profs checked using "turn it in.com"
 
As long as you haven't sold your paper to an online company or posted it anywhere on the internet, you will be fine. Had a friend that wrote a paper for a class, turned it in, and then sold it for like $10 to some online essay broker or whatever, and then failed the semester because the teacher ran an online check and it came up :p.

He even showed her the bank statement of the company depositing money into his account and she still wouldn't believe him 8)

@Ravr: never heard of turn it in.com before, I think I can guess the premise, but do you know if they keep a database of all the essays they've graded to check for plagiarism?
 
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not worth it. if the topic is so similar, it shouldn't take too long to do a new essay about it and 2 hours of your day is certainly worth not having to worry about your academic integrity
 
>>but would one get in trouble for using the same paper, that they themselves wrote, in more than one class with almost no editing? what about with lots of edits?>>

I currently teach. This is unacceptable, by the letter of the law.
Besides, you're going to be answering a slightly different question from that which is being asked, so the essay's going to seem shittier than it is (or was, rather).

Now here's a grey area:
quoting yourself in an essay without citing yourself.

ebola
 
^^
Hehe I'm not sure many undergrads have enough published work to make this a problem.
 
>>Hehe I'm not sure many undergrads have enough published work to make this a problem.>>

I'm not talking about published work.
I'm talking about jacking a paragraph from an old essay of yours and dropping it a new one.

ebola
 
Of course you can do that. It's not like anyone is actually going to read an undergrad essay except for the TA anyway.

edit: my post was in response to ebola's.
 
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The point of writing papers is to become better at writing. If you care about that, then work on a new paper. If you don't, then I guess it is your loss.
 
putting aside the ethical issues, every time you are asked to write a paper is a new chance to learn about a topic or study a topic from a new angle....you're spending a lot of money to go to school, so it's sort of a waste to re-use papers from the perspective of getting the most of your college education. if it's a crunch situation, that's different, of course.
 
It is considered "self plagiarism." Pretty stupid, huh

This was told to me by the head of the Office of Student Conduct at a major university in the northwest USA, so it's reliable info.
 
Off-topic:

I'm currently dealing with a student who chose to re-use SOMEONE ELSE"S paper. :)

ebola
 
What do you teach ebola? Level/subject etc.

I'm studying to be a history teacher, if a kid ever did that I'd have to think up some special punishment. Or I'd just do what he did and reuse something I already wrote for someone else - a big fat F
 
I'm leading a discussion section for social theory, populated with juniors, seniors, and ambitious sophomores.

ebola
 
I don't see with re-using some portions of a paper to write a new one, as long as u add some other stuff. YOU did the research, your work, you do what you please with it
 
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