Is this cheating?

[BluegrassRN]

I have a research article critique due in two separate classes. I get to choose the article. The assignments each have slightly different criteria, and the final product is two different forms (one is a template we fill out, one is a paper).

Is it wrong to do the same article? I honestly can't decide. On one hand, a lot of it is straight up duplication, though it will be presented in a different format, with assignment B requiring more depth than assignment A. On the other hand, I have done projects similar to those done in earlier, in different classes, and not felt bad about it at all. For example, in LPN school I did a project on the economics of breast feeding. It was pretty basic. Six years later, in my RN program, I did another project. The economics of breast feeding vs formula in the WIC program. I discussed my previous research and presentation with my instructor, and she didn't see anything wrong expanding upon my previous topic, particularly since it was an area of great interest to me.

In each class, I would be doing the work required of the assignment. I won't get the one assignment back before the other is due, so I won't be able to use the instructor feedback on assignment A to enhance and improve assignment B in any manner. Assignment B is for a larger grade, has more requirements, and is for an upper level class (a 300 level vs a 600 level).

Any thoughts? All comments are appreciated.

[decembergrad2011, BSN, RN]

I've done this before, as long as the instructors are different and the class is different. I will edit it to be more focused to the assignment, but as long as it's relevant, I really don't see the big deal. I did have an English teacher that made a point to say that we could not use a previous paper as a rough draft, so I made sure to do everything from scratch in her class because she was likely to check.

I think that self-plagiarism is one of the dumbest concepts out there, regardless. But I'm also someone that thinks this culture of citing a source every other sentence because your instructors assume you can never make a logical conclusion yourself, and MUST have stolen it from someone that you aren't giving credit, makes for worse articles and reports as well.

Make sure that you're fulfilling the requirements of each assignment and I can't really think they can say much as long as they aren't the same assignment verbatim.

[llg, PhD, RN]

The school where I teach has a clearly expressed policy on this subjects. Students are not allowed to use work done for one class in another class unless it is pre-approved by the professor. Such a thing is considered a form of cheating because it is "cheating the educational requirements as a whole." In order to earn an academic degree, students are required to do a certain amount of work. If a students turns in the same piece of work for multiple classes, then the student has not done the same amount of work as those who wrote unique papers for each class.

If you still don't understand why this is considered a form of cheating ... Imagine a hypothetical case of a poetry major who writes a brilliant poem in his freshman year. It would be obviously unfair for him to submit the same poem over and over again throughout his 4-year program to fulfill the requirements for multiple classes. He would get A after A after A because that one poem was so brilliant -- but he should not be awarded the degree because of that one poem.

As the OP's two projects are not exactly the same, I think that the professors might be OK with it. But I would certainly check your school policy and with the instructors to be on the safe side. I wouldn't take a chance without getting approval first.

[decembergrad2011, BSN, RN]

If you still don't understand why this is considered a form of cheating ... Imagine a hypothetical case of a poetry major who writes a brilliant poem in his freshman year. It would be obviously unfair for him to submit the same poem over and over again throughout his 4-year program to fulfill the requirements for multiple classes. He would get A after A after A because that one poem was so brilliant -- but he should not be awarded the degree because of that one poem.

But if a writer chose to publish his poem in several different volumes of books of his original poetry because it was such a lovely poem, nobody would think anything of it. I'm sure he would not have to cite himself. And anyway, when I was in high school, we wrote plenty of pieces of work that were later incorporated into a writing portfolio for our senior year. This was entirely legal, and actually part of the process, as the portfolio was supposed to be seen as your best writing in high school. As a senior, I had at least two pieces that came from my freshman year because they WERE that good - why write something different if it served the purpose?

Personally, I think a good paper is a good paper. If you wrote it, why does anyone care? The kicker here is that requirements for papers change, and I would venture a guess that for the vast majority of assignments in college, it's almost impossible to turn in an old assignment that fulfills requirements of a new assignment without changing components of the paper. If a student turned in an old paper that was verbatim of what they had turned in before, and it did meet the requirements, it makes me wonder why they should have to do the same exact assignment twice in their college career to begin with, especially if the paper was of excellent quality. In my experience, that's rarely possible.

It's probably not fair that I write 5 page A quality papers in 2 hours, while other students must take weeks, but it's still there. Your grades only reflect a portion of your effort, most of it is focused on skill and end result. And rarely are papers, ideas, or even sentences dramatically unique. I think this obsession with plagiarism is silly, and especially the idea that any plagiarism is intentional. I mean, you could probably find the same ideas I'm expressing in this post on a website, in an educational book, in a journal article - yet I did not sit down and copy their ideas when I wrote this post.

[llg, PhD, RN]

But if a writer chose to publish his poem in several different volumes of books of his original poetry because it was such a lovely poem, nobody would think anything of it.

Personally, I think a good paper is a good paper. If you wrote it, why does anyone care? .

.

Actually, when you publish an article in a magazine or scholarly journal, you have to sign papers turning over the copyright to the publisher. You're not allowed to publish it again elsewhere without approval of the publisher who owns the copyright. The fact that some scholars publish "similar" works containing a lot of the same ideas under different titles is considered VERY shoddy and unethical scholarly practice.

[decembergrad2011, BSN, RN]

Who decided it was unethical and shoddy scholarly practice to publish your own work again and again? That just screams of elitism and anal retentiveness. I'm not going to cite the dictionary every time I use a word just because it was published there first!

The whole thing just seems silly to me, and a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. The fact that we ruin the lives of college kids over no tolerance plagiarism policies, many of which assume that it's intentional without evidence, bothers me more than anything else.

Then again, this subject puts a bad taste in my mouth because I have been accused of plagiarism by a teacher in the past, who assumed that because I wrote a fantastic paper, I must have copied it. This whole idea of "You're just a student, so of course you're too stupid to figure out something this brilliant, where's your citation??" bothers the heck out of me. We are clipping the wings of our youth before they have a chance to fly with all of the worries about giving someone else credit for an idea that they most likely didn't think up on their own to begin with.

But I will end my posts here, and agree to disagree. If I ever have to publish something in a scholarly journal, I know that I will have to abide by these types of rules whether I agree or not, and I make APA my best friend for assignments. However, I am just not one to accept things at face value on a topic if I don't agree.

[Music in My Heart]

The OP did not say that they were going to submit the same paper more than once. They said that they're considering using the same source materials. I would agree that the former is cheating; the latter, however, doesn't seem to be.

[llg, PhD, RN]

The OP did not say that they were going to submit the same paper more than once. They said that they're considering using the same source materials. I would agree that the former is cheating; the latter however, doesn't seem to be.[/quote']

That's why I think it would probably be approved. But I wouldn't take a chance without asking the professor about it. I wouldn't want to hurt my reputation (or chance of graduating) when a simply question to the professor might take care of it.

[BluegrassRN]

I'm doing two different articles.

Though the entire "self-plagiarism" concept continues to escape me. The poem example? If a person writes an "A" poem in his freshman year that meets all the requirements of all his instructors and poetry classes for all his years of college, **** yes he should continue to submit it. If the caliber of instruction is so poor at his school that his instructors can't teach anything new, and his old poem continues to meet any requirements set out by his professors or TAs, why shouldn't he submit the same poem?

Just one more reason why academia is out of touch with the reality of most people's lives. The more education I receive, the more the ivory tower really and truly disgusts me. O for an instructor who has set foot in a hospital as a NURSE in the last 20 years!!! O for an instructor who can give an organized, grammatically correct presentation! O for a test that has questions written in a clear, grammatically correct manner! O for an instructor who actually checks her class discussion board and email on a daily basis, and actually responds to student questions! Nope, not going to happen. Oh well, I'll jump through their hoops, since that is apparently what I need to do to get a BSN.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

"self-plagiarism"...there is no such thing and the very idea is ridiculous. It's your work, you haven't signed the rights to it over to anyone. It is yours to modify or present as you see fit.

[CuriousMe]

"self-plagiarism"...there is no such thing and the very idea is ridiculous. It's your work, you haven't signed the rights to it over to anyone. It is yours to modify or present as you see fit.

There's no such thing as self-plagiarism according to whom? To you?

It exists according to my professors, and since they'll be grading my work and not you....I think I'll stick with their definition. :)

[morte, LPN, LVN]

"self plagiarism" is a inappropriate word to use to describe what they are taking about...except when dealing with copyright....and even there the more appropriate term would be copyright infringement.....and the OP isnt doing this.....

[morte, LPN, LVN]

OP, I'd check with your Prof's. We're not allowed to cite ourselves....even with the citation, it's considered self-plagiarism.

i would be curious what a lawyers take on this would be...