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The Ethicist

Can I Use the Same Paper for Multiple College Courses?

By Chuck Klosterman

• May 31, 2013

When I was in college, I’d sometimes write a single paper that would satisfy assignments in more than one course. For instance, I once wrote a paper on how “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” expressed satire; I submitted it for assignments in both my poetry course as well as my completely separate satire course. I did not disclose this to either professor. When I share this with people, half call the practice cheating, and the other half call it genius. My niece told me it would certainly be grounds for expulsion at her college. In my mind, I was adding a level of intellectual complexity to my studies. Was this an ethical practice, or was I cheating? JOE, CONNECTICUT

As I read and reread this question, I find myself fixated on the idea that this must be unethical, somehow. I suppose my knee-jerk reaction could be described like this: Every professor is operating from the position that any assignment she makes is exclusive to that particular class, even if she doesn’t expressly say so at the onset (in other words, it’s simply assumed that work done for a specific class will be used only for that specific class). It’s as if you were breaking a rule that was so over-the-top obvious it may not have been overtly outlined. But you know what? The more I think this over, the more I find myself agreeing with your position. I don’t think this is cheating. I wouldn’t say it qualifies as “genius,” and it might get you expelled from some universities. Yet I can’t isolate anything about this practice that harms other people, provides you with an unfair advantage or engenders an unjustified reward.

I look at it like this: You were essentially asked two questions that shared a common answer. The fact that you could see commonalities between unrelated intellectual disciplines is a point in your favor. Some might call your actions self-plagiarism, but the very premise of stealing your own creative property is absurd. You’re not betraying the public’s trust. It seems strange only because the assignments involve a degree of creativity. If this had been a multiple-choice physics test you failed to study for — yet were still able to pass, based on knowledge you acquired from an applied-math class taken the previous semester — no one would question your veracity.

It’s possible to argue that you were “cheating yourself” and wasting your own academic experience — but that’s not an ethical crossroads. That’s more of an existential dilemma over the purpose of a college education that (in all probability) you paid for. In the abstract, the notion of using the same paper twice feels wrong — and if you contacted your old school and told them this anecdote, it would most likely cite some rule of conduct you unknowingly broke. But fuzzy personal feelings and institutional rules do not dictate ethics. You fulfilled both assignments with your own work. You’re a clever, lazy person.

E-mail queries to [email protected] , or send them to the Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, and include a daytime phone number.

The Ethicist’s Answers to Your Moral Quandaries

Kwame anthony appiah helps us handle the tricky situations that put our values to the test..

Should I Lie So That My Cousin Can Have a Catholic Wedding?: Your own sense of integrity matters; if you feel uncomfortable providing the testimony  he wants, you should stand by your principles.

I’m Horrified by My Kid’s Obsession With Toy Guns. What to Do?: Your son’s feelings about real guns  are unlikely to be determined by his feelings about fake ones.

Is It Wrong for Public School Principals to Send Their Kids to Private School?: People who help run public schools don’t lose their rights as parents  to make the decisions they believe are best for their children.

I’m Pregnant, and My Husband Says We Can’t Tell Anyone About the Donor Egg: When your husband talks about the child’s privacy , he’s suggesting that the child deserves the right to decide.

My Boyfriend Said He’d Save Our Cat but Not a Stranger if Both Were Drowning: We shouldn’t assume that how people respond on questionnaires  will necessarily predict how they’ll respond in real life.

To submit a question to the Ethicist, send an email to [email protected].  To receive advice directly in your inbox, sign up for the Ethicist newsletter .

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How to Reuse Papers & Avoid Self-plagiarism when Retaking Class

Reuse Papers & Avoid Self-plagiarism

If you are taking a class you did before or your friend completed, you may be tempted to submit the same papers. In this post, we explain how to reuse old papers and effectively avoid self-plagiarism when you are re-taking classes in college.

If you do it right, you will do just fine. However, you may be flagged for plagiarism if you do not handle it well. To understand this better, let us first know what self-plagiarism is.

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What is Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism can be defined as using one’s previous work in a new context without citing the previous use of the work.

In college or universities, self-plagiarism takes the form of using your old paper in another class and presenting it to your professor as a new one.

It does not really matter the type of work, whether an essay paper or any kind of data. It is dishonest to present work that you have already received credit for.

Just as writers are required to cite other writers’ work, they must do the same to their own previous work, especially when they retake a class.

Another form of self-plagiarism occurs when authors of a certain study separate aspects of the study to aid in several different publications.

Self-plagiarism can be a form of copyright infringement when the research used has been previously published.

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How to Avoid Self-plagiarism when Re-taking a Class

If you retake a class and want to reuse papers, the most effective ways to avoid self-plagiarism are paraphrasing, referencing, changing the topic, and using past work as a model for new ones in the new course.

Others include using the sources only and getting inspiration from them. Let’s discuss each of these in detail.

1. Paraphrasing Past Papers to Remove the Similarity

Paraphrasing can be defined as using your own words to write a paper or work almost the same length as the original to avoid plagiarism.

In order to paraphrase your own work and make it new again, you can:

• Change your sentences’ structures and ensure they do not lose their meaning.
• Change the voice. This can be done by changing the passive voice to the active voice and vice versa.
• Replace generic words with their synonyms to create new sentences.
• Change parts of speech and also clauses to phrases.

2. Cite your Previous Papers Appropriately

Citing your own work can help you avoid self-plagiarism. This can be simply done by creating your own work that you presented earlier as an unpublished paper.

For example, if Sean Wright wanted to cite something that he had included in his work in the year 2016, one may cite it in the current paper as:

Wright (2016) argued that the population increase in Chicago has led to increased regional insecurity (p. 9).

If the work had citations from other sources, the same citations must also be included in the new work. For example, if Sean Wright, in his previous work, had cited Catherine White, the new citation would be:

According to Wright (2016), demographist Catherine (2014) provides several effects of population increase on the country’s economy (p. 12).

Citing when summarizing other sources.

It is important to cite even when summarizing to show where your information and ideas came from. There are three forms of citing when writing summaries for academic submission:

• The use of narrative citations.
• Combining narrative citations with parenthetical citations.
• The use of periodic citations.
• The use of reminder phrases.

The study ideas are clearly shown through these citations, and their origin is known.

If you disagree with this, you can request help writing non-plagiarized papers from a homework help expert.

3. Changing the Topic of your Past Essays

Changing the topic can help you as a writer avoid self-plagiarism. It will help you research the topic from a different view and reframe your ideas to fit a different purpose.

You will mostly avoid duplicating your ideas on the previous topic. Pass through your previous work to ensure no similarities between the current and the previous work.

When dealing with strongly held views, the probability of plagiarism is high, and the writer must anticipate this in advance before writing.

Treating the new topic as someone else’s work will help increase the focus and reduce the chances of possible plagiarism.

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4. Use the Sources used in your Previous Papers

When reusing previous papers, it should be purposely to support new ideas and not replace them.

Previous content can support a new point you are putting across or provide extra information on the topic you are writing about.

Remember that the text you are writing must be original.

Writers should try minimizing the usage of old sources to minimize the chances of self-plagiarism.

 5. Use your Past Papers as Inspiration

One can refer to successful past papers for motivation. You can remember the strategies you used to write the paper and apply the same strategies to write new work.

Instead of reusing old papers and getting flagged off, you can effectively avoid self-plagiarism by using them as models, especially when re-taking your class.

How does Turnitin know if you reused old papers?

Turnitin has a database with records of all content submitted through it. Turnitin also has agreements with several academic proprietary databases.

As we determined in our guide on whether Turnitin detects self-plagiarism, it is easy for the scanner to know your own plagiarism. Turnitin compares the content in its database with the content submitted to identify plagiarism in a document.

FAQs on Self-Plagiarism and using Past Papers

Can you copy your own work without plagiarizing.

Yes, you can copy your own work without plagiarizing if the previous document is not duplicated to look similar to the new one and by citing the sources of your already published content in the new content.

Can you plagiarize your own work on Turnitin?

No, this is because Turnitin keeps a record of your papers, and therefore it can notice similarities in the new paper.

However, you can request your paper be returned to you, and plagiarism in your new paper will not be detected if the paper is not on the database. One should note that plagiarism under any circumstance is unethical.

If I Retake a Class can I use the same papers?

Yes, you can, but this will be self-plagiarism and can land you in trouble with your teacher for cheating. However, you can use your old papers as inspiration for writing new ones.

When you present your previous ideas in a new essay, you will not have plagiarized. The notion that you can use your work repeatedly because you are the author is dubious.

How can I copy and paste without plagiarising?

Copying and pasting content directly can easily be noticed by plagiarism checkers.

Therefore, writers should paraphrase the copied work using their own words to avoid plagiarism. Writers can cite their work and use quotes and references to escape the plagiarism test.

Can I use the same paper for two classes

Papers submitted in one class or already published work cannot be used again in another class. It is unethical.

To reuse content, one should paraphrase, cite, and reference or quote it in the new paper.

Can you use the same paper in two different classes?

No, when submitting the same kind of paper in different classes, make significant changes to make the papers look different. The paper checked first will make the other plagiarized, leading to low or no credit for your work.

Can you plagiarize the dictionary?

Yes, you can plagiarize the dictionary if you don’t properly attribute the source of information.

How much work is being copied, the purpose and nature of the work, and the view of the copyright holder can determine the fair use of dictionaries regarding copyright violations.

Can you plagiarize even if you cite the source?

If you correctly cite the sources of information and adhere to the rules of the different citation styles in your content, you’re not guilty of plagiarizing. However, citing is not enough. One must paraphrase, quote, and reference the content to increase the chances of avoiding plagiarism.

Can you accidentally plagiarize?

Yes, you can accidentally paraphrase by forgetting to cite the sources of the content, failing to show references, and by forgetting to quote words said by different people in your content.

Poor paraphrasing can also lead to accidental plagiarizing; therefore, one must master the skill perfectly.

Can you go to jail if you plagiarize?

Legally, plagiarism has consequences. Copyright laws term plagiarism a criminal offense and give authors the right to sue plagiarists. The plagiarist can pay fines or serve a prison sentence if found guilty.

Can teachers and professors tell you if you have plagiarised?

Yes, most experienced and knowledgeable teachers and professors who have come across many writing contents can easily identify plagiarism and the original sources.

Students may change some sentences, which may make lecturers not notice plagiarism. Lectures, in turn, use plagiarism checkers.

What do you do if you get caught plagiarizing?

If you are guilty of plagiarizing, own the blame and don’t give excuses, and apologize to the owner of the original work that you plagiarized. You should also apologize to the recipient who you planned to deceive.

Is using paraphrasing tool cheating?

Writing is a skill different from paraphrasing. If one is poor at paraphrasing or does not have enough time to go through bulky content and paraphrase it, using paraphrasing tools to get the content paraphrased cannot be termed as cheating.

Is it okay to copy and paste if you cite?

No, plagiarism checkers will not spare the copy-pasted work in the presence of citations. Therefore, you should paraphrase and quote the content where necessary before submitting the paper to the instructor.  

Can you get expelled from school for self plagiarism?

You can get expelled or suspended from school if your paper clearly shows self-plagiarism.

If you submit a paper you had previously submitted or published online without stating that it was used, your school can easily take disciplinary measures against you.

Watch more on the issue of self-plagiarism from an educational point of view

With over 10 years in academia and academic assistance, Alicia Smart is the epitome of excellence in the writing industry. She is our managing editor and is in charge of the writing operations at Grade Bees.

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Is It Unethical to Use One College Paper for Two Different Classes?

Lee grayson.

A paper written for one class may meet the requirements for another course, but it's important both instructors understand you want to submit duplicates to meet the dual assignments. Instructors occasionally don't have issues with the duplicate submissions when teachers adapt the assignment to require a more elaborate presentation to meet requirements for more than one class. However, schools, departments and teachers typically treat dual paper submissions as an unethical practice. The University of Texas at Austin calls the dual submission "a form of academic dishonesty."

Explore this article

• Official Guidelines
• Overlapping Topics
• Topic Variation
• Extended Research

1 Official Guidelines

College and departments frequently set specific rules regulating the reuse of student reports and papers. Individual teachers also have standards. The easiest way to determine the ethical standards is to ask about the instructor's rules when receiving the formal assignment. Consulting the college catalog or the printed or online rules of ethics also gives you the official institution regulations for submitting a paper for two different classes -- but confirm your instructor also follows the institutional guidelines. Assumption College professor James M. Lang writing in "The Chronicle of Higher Education" in 2010 calls turning in a paper for more than one course "plagiarizing yourself."

2 Overlapping Topics

Professors sometimes agree to allow students to do overlapping research for two courses when the topic fits the assignment made for two different classes. The research overlaps but the paper written from the research takes a new direction for each class. This arrangement saves the student research time but still produces a unique written assignment for each course. It's still advisable to clear the dual research with both professors prior to writing the papers to avoid any possible misunderstandings.

3 Topic Variation

Selecting topic variations using the same research saves the research time, but it also allows the student to create content for two different papers. Topic variations, for example, may include research on the history of rapid transit for a social-science class and also have research content for a paper on the most efficient modern-day transit systems for a course in political science. Research for the first paper also provides the background to explain the historical aspect to write a term paper for the second class. Selecting topics for both classes in this case doesn't come under the unethical category, and typically doesn't require the student to disclose the overlapping research to either instructor.

4 Extended Research

Students completing research for advanced courses or written work for classes required for a department major sometimes arrange with both instructors to turn in the same paper for two different classes with the agreement that the work goes beyond the regular assignment requirements. The two professors may agree to accept the same paper provided the paper has additional pages of text or the written submission has extra references. Instructors sometimes agree to this arrangement when the topic has research done in archives or involves formal research interviews.

• 1 University of California, San Diego: Academic Integrity and Cheating
• 2 The Chronicle of Higher Education: Plagiarizing Yourself

About the Author

Lee Grayson has worked as a freelance writer since 2000. Her articles have appeared in publications for Oxford and Harvard University presses and research publishers, including Facts On File and ABC-CLIO. Grayson holds certificates from the University of California campuses at Irvine and San Diego.

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Is It Plagiarism to Use the Same Essay Twice?

• October 3, 2022

Did you know that it’s plagiarism to use the same essay twice?

Self-plagiarism is one of the most common types of academic misconduct. It’s fairly understandable because it seems like you should be able to reuse your own paper. But by nearly all academic (and sometimes professional) standards, submitting a paper twice is plagiarism.

Because this is confusing, let’s take some time to look at what self-plagiarism is, and why it can get you into a lot of trouble. 

What is self-plagiarism?

Self-plagiarism is defined as submitting a paper written for one purpose as the fulfillment of a different assignment. Mirriam Webster defines it even more specifically: “ the reuse of one’s own words, ideas, or artistic expression (as in an essay) from preexisting material, especially without acknowledgment of their earlier use.”

Self-plagiarism can occur in any kind of writing but is most common in scholarly writing for classes or publication. It can also occur in professional writing ranging from business documents to work-for-hire writing (like blogs, for example). In each of these cases turning in an old paper is plagiarism, but the reasons are slightly different.

Why is it plagiarism if you use your own work twice?

 It seems tempting to ignore or discount self-plagiarism as a less-significant form of misconduct. Some even wave it off altogether because reusing your previous work does no material harm to another writer like other forms of plagiarism do. 

So why, exactly, is reusing a paper plagiarism? As we said above, the answer is slightly different for different types of writing.

In academic settings

For students in high schools or colleges/universities, plagiarism policies are put in place to ensure both academic integrity and the intended learning outcomes for writing assignments. In high school, writing assignments are designed to teach a particular set of skills that students will need in the future, whether that’s in college or in the workforce.

In colleges and universities, writing assignments are designed to accomplish any number of things

• Teach academic writing processes
• Teach research skills
• Simulate real-world tasks
• Prepare students for graduate study or professional work
• Assess learning
• Meet designated curricular goals

This is why professors generally specify that a paper for a course must be original work. The assignment must meet the intended goals.

When students reuse portions of previous papers, they are not creating original work. Submitting the same paper in two different classes, reusing an original paper for one course in another, means that you have not met the guidelines in at least one of those courses. 

Sometimes professors safeguard against this form of plagiarism by creating very specific paper prompts that would not likely be useful for any other course, and that allow them to easily assess if a student has submitted an assignment from another course. Some professors will change the prompt each semester, in case a student has to retake the class or has sold their work to a writing service.

Even so, it is not uncommon for students to reuse their work in another class. And due to the growing use of plagiarism checking software, it’s easier than ever to catch. 

In published work

For those who are publishing their work, self-plagiarism may cause even more significant problems. If an author submits writing that recycles their previously published work, without citing that work as a source, they have most likely violated copyright laws. 

When writing is published, the words and ideas generally become the property of the publisher. A close look at a publication contract for a book or academic journal will reveal that the author no longer owns the words or ideas outright. Or, as American Journal Experts puts it:

While you are still the intellectual owner of the ideas and results, the publication is property of the journal. As such, reuse of that material without citation and/or permission is not acceptable. While this is counterintuitive, in the eyes of the law, reusing your own words is copyright infringement, even if you wrote them.

What this often means for seasoned academics is that they will need to cite their own work just like all others when citing sources. While this can make for some verbal gymnastics, it’s the only way to effectively avoid self-plagiarism. 

In professional writing

Outside of academia, it’s still plagiarism to use the same essay twice in many cases. This may be particularly true if you work in an industry where writing is part of your job regularly. Legally, reusing a piece of writing may be a contract violation.

Let’s say, for example, that you work in marketing. If you are asked to create a blog post for an employer or a client, then generally the completed blog post doesn’t belong to you. 

This is called “work-for-hire.” You were paid to create the blog, and the employer has purchased all rights to the work. If you use that same blog, or part of it, for someone else, you have stolen the property of the organization that has paid for it. 

This can also be true for those writing reports, grant proposals, and even computer code.

How do I avoid self-plagiarism?

The good news is that self-plagiarism is fairly easy to avoid. 

Here are 3 ways:

• Do original work: If you don’t reuse your own papers, it’s not plagiarism.
• Cite your sources: If you use material from previous work, cite the previous work just like you would cite any other source.
• Use a plagiarism checker: software like Copyleaks’ Plagiarism Checker can help you to catch even inadvertent reuse of your own ideas and words, and to catch it before it becomes a problem.

In short, it is plagiarism to use the same essay twice. Copyleaks can help keep you safe!

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Can You Turn In The Same Paper For Two Different Classes On Turnitin

You’ve probably used Turnitin before. It’s one of the most popular plagiarism checkers on the market, and chances are your teacher has already required you to use it. But have you ever wondered if submitting the same paper to two different classes is okay? And is it even possible?

Or probably you’ve been working hard every class. You’ve put in the hours at night and on the weekends. You’re making progress, but you don’t want to redo all your work so that you can pass the course. And you are contemplating submitting the same paper for a different class. Let’s find out.

You can turn in the same paper for two different classes on Turnitin, but there are some conditions to meet.

The first condition is your second instructor must allow the submission. This is because Turnitin checks for plagiarism. When you submit a paper to Turnitin, it searches for similar content in the database and gives you a percentage of originality. Therefore, submitting the same article to two different classes can lead to severe problems and thus the need for one of the instructors to okay it.

Also check: Can Turnitin remember old essays?

Similarly, Turnitin allows professors to set rules for submitting student papers. Some professors allow students to submit the same paper for multiple classes, while others don’t let it at all. Therefore, if you have questions about whether or not you can submit the same article for multiple classes, ask your professor before submitting your work online.

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On the other hand, if you submit without informing your professor, they will receive a report on the same. If the submission is within the same class but different assignments, Turnitin’s report will indicate this as a self-match and will not count in the plagiarism report.

What Happens If I Submit My Assignment Twice On Turnitin?

Submitting your assignment twice on Turnitin is considered self-plagiarism, and both works will be marked.

You will receive a plagiarism report that shows both copies of the document. The Turnitin software compares your work to other students’ submissions and checks for similarities. If the software finds a match, it alerts the teacher.

The teacher will then compare the two versions of your assignment and decide which one is original. They may give you a penalty for submitting your work twice, or he may choose not to take any action.

If there are no significant differences between your two submissions, then it will be difficult for the teacher to determine which is original and which is not. However, if you have changed even minor details, such as changing a few words or phrases, this can make it easy for the teacher to determine which version is original and which is not.

Additionally, you can get away with it if you explain to your instructor that it was a mistake. This is because the system is designed to detect multiple submissions of assignments. Even though it is not a very serious offense, it is not encouraged. Learn more about the legality of self-plagiarism in our next section.

Is It Legal To Plagiarize Yourself?

Self-plagiarism is not illegal per se, but it is never encouraged.  

The short answer is that it’s not illegal to plagiarize yourself. The long answer is that you should avoid doing so because it’s considered bad form and could hurt your reputation in the long run.

It’s important to understand that plagiarism is not just taking ideas from others and using them in your work. It also involves copying their exact words or structure without acknowledging their contribution to your work. If you’re writing a paper or article and want to use some of the same material from other sources, you need to cite those sources. And if you decide to omit any citations for whatever reason, you need to make sure you don’t use any of those sources’ exact words in your writing.

The issue with plagiarizing yourself is that it can lead readers to think they are reading new content, whereas it is not. However, there’s a lot of controversy over this question. Some people say that it isn’t plagiarism because the source material was yours; others say it is still plagiarism because the idea belongs to someone else, even though it is practically yours.

Consequences Of Self Plagiarism

The consequences of self-plagiarism include the following;

You will lose credibility and respect

Most people do not respect plagiarists, especially in your field of study or business. Plagiarizing is an act of arrogance because it shows a lack of respect for others’ work and ideas.

Further, some people who engage in self-plagiarism do not see their actions as unethical. However, others may consider it a form of cheating because they recycle their ideas instead of doing new research on a topic for each paper they write.

In addition to being considered unethical, many institutions have policies against self-plagiarism because it wastes time and resources that could be spent on more original research by other students. Some institutions also require faculty members to report self-plagiarism by students who submit papers that contain copied material from previous writings.

You may be expelled from school or fired from your job

Students can be suspended or expelled from school for cheating, and employers can fire employees caught cheating on the job. If you are caught cheating at school or work, you can be expelled or fired without a second chance

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Reusing Your Own Paper

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A student is taking a course this semester that is related to a previous course he took. His final paper for the previous course was on a topic that is central to the present one. Due to the overlap, he decides to hand in the paper as one of his assignments for the current course. Is this permitted?

Why is this an issue?

One of the objectives of your studies is to build on your education by applying concepts and knowledge acquired in previous courses to current ones. But the work produced for each course must be original, and the resubmission of an old paper does not build on previous knowledge; it recycles it. An interview with the disciplinary officer will be required. See the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures  in the Handbook on Student Rights and Responsibilities for more details.

How can it be avoided?

It is sometimes possible, and even desirable to use previous work as a launching base for new assignments, and this can be part of the academic process. Students who want to do this should contact the course instructor or TA to find out if and how a previous piece of work can be expanded or otherwise used to fulfill the requirements of a current course. If the student fails to do this and submits a previously graded paper, the TA must inform the course instructor, who will then contact the appropriate disciplinary officer.

I am registered in course section B, but actually attend section A, because I prefer the schedule. The instructor insists that I write the quiz with my registered section, but I have no study partners in that group. In this situation, it makes sense to find out about the quiz from a student in another section who wrote it earlier in the day, right? To obtain prior knowledge about a test, without an instructor's permission (e.g. in a tutorial) is an academic offence; you would gain an unfair advantage over others in the course section.

Related Information "Another factor that related to lack of awareness was 'ownership of work.' This referred to turning in the same paper in two different classes, an action designated as cheating in most institutional policy statements, but not consciously viewed as dishonest by students. For the students who were aware that this was inappropriate behaviour, they differentiated this behaviour from other cheating behaviour because the actual work was their own." - Love, P. G., & Simmons, J. M.  (1997, November). The meaning and mediated nature of cheating and plagiarism among graduate students in a college of education. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Albuquerque, NM. Available from the ERIC database. (ERIC Document No. ED415826).

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Flagged by turnitin: two students in the same course.

Turnitin flags similarly-worded passages in student papers submitted in the same course. Because Turnitin labels all matches to other Yale papers as “Submitted to Yale University,” you’ll need to determine whether the paper that matches with your student’s was submitted in your class or another class at Yale. To do this:

• Click on the number above the highlighted text. (You can also click the source in the right sidebar.)
• In the pop-up window, click the “full source view” icon to display the source side-by-side with the student paper.
• Scroll to the top of the source paper to look for the author’s name, the course it was submitted to, and the submission date.
• Scroll to the top of your student’s paper and compare the name, course, and submission date with those of the source text.

In the example below, the papers were written by different students (Timothy Dwight and Ezra Stiles) in the same course (FISH 202), which suggests collaboration.

Figuring out your course of action will require you to determine: (a) whether the students collaborated, and (b) whether such collaboration is allowed.

(a) When Turnitin flags passages among papers in the same course, it sometimes indicates not that the students copied from one another, but that they are working from the same source text. The similarity in their wording may indicate that each student has failed to paraphrase that source effectively , but it isn’t necessarily evidence that they copied work from one another.

(b) If you do determine that the students collaborated, you’ll need to consider whether this collaboration is a violation of your course policies. The Yale College Undergraduate Regulations leave policies on collaboration up to the instructor . And while most instructors expect students to do their own work, assignments that allow—or even require—students to write together aren’t uncommon.

How to Respond to Each Student

How you respond when similar passages appear in your students’ papers will be determined by your course policies on collaboration. In a case where such collaboration violates the policies of your course, you might tell each student: “Passages in your paper are highly similar to passages in the paper of Student X. Copying from a peer is a violation of the policy of this course, in which all students are expected to do their own work.”

What You Can Do in Class

Put your collaboration policy in writing on both your syllabus and your writing assignments. Discuss it in class as well. Your policy should specify both when in the writing process students are allowed to collaborate and what kinds of collaboration are allowed. Are students, for example, limited to discussing their essay ideas with one another, or are they allowed to exchange written drafts of their work? For students working on group projects, you’ll want to make clear whether students may share language with one another or whether each must submit a paper written entirely in their own words.

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Thank you. payment completed., you will receive an email from us to confirm your registration, please click the link in the email to activate your account., there was error during payment, orcid profile found in public registry, download history, submitting and presenting the same paper for multiple conferences.

• Charlesworth Author Services
• 15 September, 2021

Multiple submissions of the same paper to several conferences and/or journals may seem like a good idea to boost your academic reputation and presence. However, this is generally regarded as bad practice and not altogether ethical. This article outlines some key points to consider if you are thinking of submitting the same paper to multiple places. 

Multiple submissions and self-plagiarism

It is considered self-plagiarism if you include chunks of previously published research in current research without clearly citing yourself and your work. In the same way, delivering exactly the same paper and content at several conferences, without clearly indicating where, when and why you have previously presented this material, can also be considered self-plagiarism . It is generally considered unethical practice to present research that has already been shared at another conference, platform or event as if it is a new piece of work . 

Funders, institutions and employers are unlikely to be impressed by a long list of conference papers when they realise that you have actually just delivered exactly the same research multiple times. Such activity can be seen as deceptive, dishonest and a sneaky tactic to falsely enhance your academic accomplishments and accolades. 

How to present at multiple conferences

If you do still want to submit your work for consideration and to present at multiple conferences then you need to think about how to write significantly different papers for each of them. It is possible to include similar issues, datasets or findings, but each paper should have a markedly distinct main focus while at the same time responding clearly and directly to the theme of each conference.

So for example, your research might comprise interviews with young people about their use of social media. You could present one paper about youth perspectives and use of Instagram at a conference on image-led social media. In a symposium on digital technologies and mental health, you could use the same dataset and present another paper about the impact of social media on rising levels of anxiety in young people. In other words, you are working from the same data but offering two different papers, each with original findings or distinct arguments.

Update your research and be honest

Sometimes it may be necessary and relevant to include the same content, findings or data from a previous paper in another paper for a separate conference. This might happen if you have made significant amendments to your research design , the research has evolved to encompass other directions or themes, the findings now significantly influence or differ from what you previously discussed, or there are new developments and updates in your research. 

In these situations, it can be acceptable to re-present your research but you must explain clearly at the beginning of your presentation what you have previously presented and where. This serves the double function of contextualising your current paper while also acknowledging your previous work openly and honestly. 

When it is acceptable to deliver the same paper or findings

Sometimes renowned academics may be invited by conference organisers or research institutions to present a talk . In these cases, it is not uncommon for the speaker to present a paper or some work that they may have previously delivered elsewhere. This is generally acceptable as audiences understand a keynote or invited speaker will usually talk about some area of their research that they are already well known for. 

However, even in these instances, speakers will usually declare at the beginning of their talk if they have presented this paper before and/or highlight any amendments or developments that have been made since they last presented.

Help or harm your reputation?

If you are thinking of resubmitting the same paper to multiple conferences, pause to consider what you hope to gain from doing this. If you want to boost your academic CV and profile , understand that recycling content can actually do you more harm than good . 

You risk developing a reputation for being dishonest and deceptive, or for sloppily reproducing old content instead of producing original, thoughtful research. You don’t want your peers to stop taking your presentations seriously because you have become known for always delivering the same old thing.

Presenting papers at conferences is an excellent way to share novel findings from your research and connect with others who would be interested and impressed by your work. Make the most of these opportunities by investing the time and effort into producing original papers that will be worthy of your audience’s attention and respect. This will do much more for your academic reputation and profile than a long list of conferences where you’ve simply churned out the same content.

Maximise your publication success with Charlesworth Author Services .

Charlesworth Author Services, a trusted brand supporting the world’s leading academic publishers, institutions and authors since 1928. 

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Using the same paper for two classes?

<p>I was just wondering about this. If one wrote a paper and submitted it for two classes (the classes have similar paper topics), would this be considered plagiarism? Has anyone done this?</p>

<p>I’ve never been in a position to do this, but I do know that in every class that I’ve had to write an essay for, the teachers have explicitly told us not to reuse papers we’d written for other classes.</p>

<p>I’d ask the teacher when the situation actually comes up. I’ve had teachers say it is plagiarism (though that seems a little absurd to me…), but I think there are others who would be okay with it, if asked.</p>

<p>I think it depends on the school. At my old college they specifically stipulated that re-using papers was considered plagiarism (I don’t know how you could plagiarize yourself).</p>

<p>It probably won’t work, anyway. The paper will be tilted towards one of the classes and you’ll get a lousy grade for the other one.</p>

<p>Professional academic ethics says that 25% similarity is acceptable - so if you can “spin” the paper topic towards the other course with that ratio, it could work. But in my experience, you’ll probably do better with an entirely different topic.</p>

<p><a href=“I%20don’t%20know%20how%20you%20could%20plagiarize%20yourself”>quote</a>.

[/quote] </p>

<p>That’s oddly funny. I sort of plagiarized myself today by rehashing the a paper I wrote last semester by the same teacher. It was the same assignment anyway and it wasn’t word for word. Both papers were for an Anthropology class and the question was a one page assignment on defining oneself.</p>

<p>My school considers it plagiarism, or at least, a form of academic dishonesty. Honestly, though, I think you’d have a harder time trying to write one paper that fits two sets of requirements (despite similar topics) than you would writing two separate papers. Also, you shouldn’t count on your professor not being able to tell that your paper wasn’t specifically written for that class. </p>

<p>What might work, though, is if you write a paper for a class and then ask the professor of the other class if s/he’d consider letting you use the first paper as the basis for the second (obviously not using it word for word but perhaps expanding on the topic and doing more in-depth research).</p>

<p>I’ve turned in a paper 4 times, but I’ve reworked it each time. I wrote it first semester sophomore year and then had an assignment second semester where it fit nearly perfectly. I edited it some for content and turned it back in, and then last semester two classes had writing assignments where it would work, although one required a pretty drastic (~75%) rewrite. I’ve mentioned it to each professor and they’ve always thought it was funny and didn’t care. So yeah ask your professor.</p>

<p>I would just take one paper, write it for one class… then take it edit it for the other class enough that its not completely similar. If the topic is similar I don’t even see how I could churn out a 2nd paper after the 1st one @_ @ my brain would be dead.</p>

<p>I rehashed my college essay several times for many applications… different from this but you see how this sorta goes.</p>

<p>at my school it is plagarism.</p>

<p><< --Virtuoso –</p>

<p>I was just wondering about this. If one wrote a paper and submitted it for two classes (the classes have similar paper topics), would this be considered plagiarism? Has anyone done this? >></p>

<p>It’s been quite some time since I was in school, but I consider it one of my proudest academic accomplishments AND a great lesson in time management.</p>

<p>I two very involved papers assigned and due at the same time one of my years… one paper for English/Writing and the other for Political Science. With the rest of the my workload plus “extracurricular” activities AND a job, there was simply NO WAY that I’d ever be able to do two entirely different papers with any quality, much less finish them at all.</p>

<p>So, I sat down and thought long and hard to come up with a single topic that would satisfy both classes. It’s been too long so I can’t remember what topic I arrived at, but each teacher approved the topic and I essentially killed two birds with one stone. I do recall having to make a slight alteration to the concluding paragraph for one class, but they were essentially the same paper. I got an A on one and an A- on the other.</p>

<p>It wasn’t cheating or plagiarism committed against myself… it was a lesson in resource management. I fulfilled all the requirements demanding of both classes AND did not have to risk having any of the other aspects of my schooling and life suffer for it.</p>

<p>At my school, we’re supposed to get prior approval from both instructor’s to use a paper for two classes the same semester. If we reuse (or largely reuse with some editing) a paper from a previous semester, we need to get approval from the current instructor. Our school considers violations of this policy to be academic dishonesty, but not plagiarism.</p>

<p>You can most certainly plagiarize yourself. In academia, this is almost as bad as just copying somebody else’s work.</p>

<p>It’s not so much the idea of stealing… as it is of trying to say you did work which you didn’t. If you use previously written material, cite yourself. I’m not even kidding.</p>

<p>so why isn’t it plagiarism to submit the same essay to two different colleges?</p>

<p>It is.</p>

<p>Just because nobody calls you out on it, or you don’t get caught, doesn’t change the fact that it’s plagiarism.</p>

<p>It is considered academic dishonesty at my school (though not necessarily plagiarism). Also, if you don’t do significant revising, it’ll probably be obvious.</p>

<p>Submitting the same essay to two different schools via the Common App is accepted - that’s why the Common App exists. However, you are expected to write as separate essay for each school within their supplement - and theoretically, you shouldn’t use them twice.</p>

<p>There’s a website devoted to plagiarism. It goes into some detail about what it is and why people frown on it.</p>

<p>I would say that even in an essay you’re submitting to multiple places, it should be noted at the bottom. If it’s an essay you already wrote in class, say, and you just find it lying around, note that on the bottom of the essay.</p>

<p>Otherwise, you’re implying that you sat down and wrote that specific essay with the intent of sending it one and only one place, and while it’s not a very important matter (usually), it’s still dishonest.</p>

<p>Here at Villanova, it’s considered plagiarism to reuse an essay without explicitly asking permission (and getting it) from the professor who you are handing it into the second time.</p>

<p>I don’t see how it’s plagiarism. The key phrase in any definition you’ll find of plagiarism is taking * someone else’s * work and passing it off as your own. Yourself is not someone else. It makes no sense. And I say, hey, if CommonApp lets you submit the same essay to multiple colleges, then how is it plagiarism? Answer: It’s simply not.</p>

<p>not allowed at my school</p>

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MIT Technology Review

• Newsletters

OpenAI’s new GPT-4o lets people interact using voice or video in the same model

The company’s new free flagship “omnimodel” looks like a supercharged version of assistants like Siri or Alexa.

• James O'Donnell archive page

OpenAI just debuted GPT-4o, a new kind of AI model that you can communicate with in real time via live voice conversation, video streams from your phone, and text. The model is rolling out over the next few weeks and will be free for all users through both the GPT app and the web interface, according to the company. Users who subscribe to OpenAI’s paid tiers, which start at $20 per month, will be able to make more requests. 

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati led the live demonstration of the new release one day before Google is expected to unveil its own AI advancements at its flagship I/O conference on Tuesday, May 14. 

GPT-4 offered similar capabilities, giving users multiple ways to interact with OpenAI’s AI offerings. But it siloed them in separate models, leading to longer response times and presumably higher computing costs. GPT-4o has now merged those capabilities into a single model, which Murati called an “omnimodel.” That means faster responses and smoother transitions between tasks, she said.

The result, the company’s demonstration suggests, is a conversational assistant much in the vein of Siri or Alexa but capable of fielding much more complex prompts.

“We’re looking at the future of interaction between ourselves and the machines,” Murati said of the demo. “We think that GPT-4o is really shifting that paradigm into the future of collaboration, where this interaction becomes much more natural.”

Barret Zoph and Mark Chen, both researchers at OpenAI, walked through a number of applications for the new model. Most impressive was its facility with live conversation. You could interrupt the model during its responses, and it would stop, listen, and adjust course. 

OpenAI showed off the ability to change the model’s tone, too. Chen asked the model to read a bedtime story “about robots and love,” quickly jumping in to demand a more dramatic voice. The model got progressively more theatrical until Murati demanded that it pivot quickly to a convincing robot voice (which it excelled at). While there were predictably some short pauses during the conversation while the model reasoned through what to say next, it stood out as a remarkably naturally paced AI conversation. 

The model can reason through visual problems in real time as well. Using his phone, Zoph filmed himself writing an algebra equation (3 x + 1 = 4) on a sheet of paper, having GPT-4o follow along. He instructed it not to provide answers, but instead to guide him much as a teacher would.

“The first step is to get all the terms with x on one side,” the model said in a friendly tone. “So, what do you think we should do with that plus one?”

Like previous generations of GPT, GPT-4o will store records of users’ interactions with it, meaning the model “has a sense of continuity across all your conversations,” according to Murati. Other new highlights include live translation, the ability to search through your conversations with the model, and the power to look up information in real time. 

As is the nature of a live demo, there were hiccups and glitches. GPT-4o’s voice might jump in awkwardly during the conversation. It appeared to comment on one of the presenters’ outfits even though it wasn’t asked to. But it recovered well when the demonstrators told the model it had erred. It seems to be able to respond quickly and helpfully across several mediums that other models have not yet merged as effectively. 

Previously, many of OpenAI’s most powerful features, like reasoning through image and video, were behind a paywall. GPT-4o marks the first time they’ll be opened up to the wider public, though it’s not yet clear how many interactions you’ll be able to have with the model before being charged. OpenAI says paying subscribers will “continue to have up to five times the capacity limits of our free users.” 

Additional reporting by Will Douglas Heaven.

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• Will Douglas Heaven archive page

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