Self-Plagiarism?

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Feh sounds fine to me. I've handed in theme songs I wrote of other programmes and pretended I composed them as new for cash before a couple of times and I have reworked old songs loads of times. Who cares how and when you did it.

 

[Yossarian]

Unless you feel the basic tenets of modernist and post-modernist theory have completely changed beyond recognition between 2nd year and 3rd year, I don't see why there'd be a problem if you worked with some of the stuff from the first essay.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

here's the scenario..

2nd year essay written for the Politics dept summarising the basic tenets of modernist and post-modernist theory... got a very high mark for it.

now i've been set a 3rd year in the Communications dept with an almost identical essay title and thrust.

So whilst I wouldn't just recycle it in its entirety, there's a lot there I can use, and expand on. Bearing in mind getting my degree done to some extent isn't going to be the purest academic exercise in the world (i don't have the time or the money, sadly), any legitimate corners I can cut would be useful.

So in the unlikely event the connection is made, is it actually against uni rules to rework your own work?

You could use the first as a point of departure, do further research, and hand in an expanded paper.

Did they not give you a number of topics to choose from, as is the norm for these essay writing exercises?

If that's the case, you could simply choose a different topic, and avoid the problem altogether.

 

[Dubversion]

no johnny, it's a mid-term paper with a single essay title.
and if i can make life easier for myself by reworking an old essay, I'd be silly not to - I'm working full time and studying full time. Time, basically, is scarce.

 

[bluestreak]

like i'm going to take the little shit off ignore for the one time a year that happens

I made that mistake with chymaera the other week.

 

[Dubversion]

yep. Unless Dwyer comes up with a means of converting base metals to gold or reveals the new set of Husker Du tour dates, I'm not interested.. It's more likely to be him wheeling out his rather lame Boss Hog comments, 3 years past their initial and rather tenous sell-by date.

i mean, what could be more 'meh'

 

[foo]

no johnny, it's a mid-term paper with a single essay title.
and if i can make life easier for myself by reworking an old essay, I'd be silly not to - I'm working full time and studying full time. Time, basically, is scarce.

exactly. you'd be silly not to.

just do it and stop fussing.

 

[nino_savatte]

Just cite your own work; I've done it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

recycling your own work is just good common sense.

Especially if you're expanding on it.

 

[Diamond]

Definitely do it.

I used the same ideas a number of times with essays at university.

As long as you view the first piece of work as setting a sort of template or theoretical machine then the next set of information/facts that you feed into it will be just as viable. Same techniques, different facts, therefore different results, therefore different essay.

Isn't this how most academics work anyway? They have one or two big ideas/theories and then modify and adjust them to different scenarios and changing conditions for the rest of their career.

Or is that a very cynical point of view?

 

[Dubversion]

thing is, this isn't even lookiong for my big ideas. it's merely looking for a summary, not even a critique.. (quite depressing for a 3rd year essay, but there ya go )

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Just cite your own work; I've done it.

Exactly. Be honest about it. If you're considering handing in basically the same essay with the same ideas, and this is noticed, you will probably only be marked once for it - i.e. the second essay will score 0%.

 

[aqua]

how do you think academics write so many papers? they're all based roughly on the same material

 

[beeboo]

I doubt this would have even occurred to me as an issue to be honest, I'd have just thought it was a bit of a result not having to do the work

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

no johnny, it's a mid-term paper with a single essay title.
and if i can make life easier for myself by reworking an old essay, I'd be silly not to - I'm working full time and studying full time. Time, basically, is scarce.

I suppose it ultimately depends on why you're continuing your education.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Just cite your own work; I've done it.

Quelle suprise!

 

[nino_savatte]

Quelle suprise!

Academics always cite their own work...or hadn't you noticed? Citing one's own work is rather different to reworking it..or didn't that cross your mind?

Moron.

 

[nino_savatte]

Exactly. Be honest about it. If you're considering handing in basically the same essay with the same ideas, and this is noticed, you will probably only be marked once for it - i.e. the second essay will score 0%.

The Canuck seems to think that I've done something dishonest but academics will always cite their own work. Reworking another essay isn't the done thing.

 

[nino_savatte]

how do you think academics write so many papers? they're all based roughly on the same material

Innit? I've just put down John Fiske's Understanding Popular Culture and he cites his own work no less than 4 times.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The Canuck seems to think that I've done something dishonest .

What an imagination!

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The Canuck seems to think that I've done something dishonest but academics will always cite their own work. Reworking another essay isn't the done thing.

There is a ranking system for legal scholars that tracks and ranks them by how many times they are cited in Law Journals. Some professors will cite themselves over and over to raise their ranking.

Its not dishonest, but its a bit tacky.

 

[scifisam]

Odds are, once you get down to writing this essay it'll turn out a bit different to the original one anyway. Same bibliography, maybe, and perhaps a few passages the same, or almost, but if the words themselves and at least some of the arguments must be a bit different, surely?

Like when I started my PhD on a similar subject to my MA; I was warned that I couldn't simply expand the MA, but found that my mind was going off in a different direction anway, due to having studied further.

I guess that's a bit different to a midterm paper, though. Didn't even know the UK had midterms!

 

[nino_savatte]

What an imagination!

You don't even remember what you posted when I said that I had cited my own work.

Quelle suprise!

Not my "imagination", bubba but it's obvious that you can't spell a simple word like "surprise".

 

[nino_savatte]

There is a ranking system for legal scholars that tracks and ranks them by how many times they are cited in Law Journals. Some professors will cite themselves over and over to raise their ranking.

Its not dishonest, but its a bit tacky.

It's not "tacky" unless you happen to be a legal 'scholar' (wtf is one of those? surely it's a contradiction in terms). If you happen to be working in a related subject area then citing one's own work can be quite useful.