Plagerizing yourself?

Yes, you can use it if you cite yourself, just as you would any other source.

When I was accepted into Nursing school they spelled out in very precise ways all that was considered plagiarism, one of which included using a past paper of your own from another class when having been asked to create an original work for your current class. However, prior to nursing school I took some classes that allowed me to do just what your asking.

Essentially it boils down to this. You need to ask your instructor if they deem it acceptable.

My school breaks it down like this-- "If a student turns in a paper for two classes without gaining consent from both instructors, it is considered an act of dishonesty and, therefore, an act of cheating (i.e. receiving double credit for a single assisgment)". Cover yourself and ask to be on the safe side.

Great! Thank you so much for your answers.

As a general rule, you cannot use the same paper twice for two different classes. At my school, it is grounds for being kicked out of school.

I agree that you may not be able to use the original paper, especially considering your paper is online so using your own words, i.e. submitting the same paper would automatically cause a plagiarism checker to go nuts. You could, however, possibly use passages from the old paper, or re-word parts of the paper, or even the whole thing. I recycled a paper I wrote in high school when doing my undergrad degree, and found that my writing style had evolved, and a slight difference in topics actually produced pretty different papers. The framework, however, was already there. With the framework and most of the ideas I needed already in place, the paper was much easier to write. The two papers, again, ended up being much different. It was almost like the first paper I had written was a rough draft. If you have written the paper recently, you may not do as much editing, and this may not be the case. Either way, I would say it probably wouldn't look good if your prof or teacher realized you used the exact same paper that you had previously turned in for another class. At the very least, re-work it!

It wouldn't be considered plagiarism, but it would be considered cheating. If you are given an assignment and you use a past paper and turn it in without specifically stating to the instructor that you originally completed the assignment for a previous course, then you're cheating.

But if you like the topic and you already have the research citations, writing another similar paper on the same topic would be acceptable. I'd just be careful not to refer to the original paper, or you'll end up using the same sentences/ideas.

In our class this is not acceptable unless you have permission from the past instructor and the current instructor.

Never used the same paper twice, but it was nice to already have some sources to get started on the research. There was a great quote I found that I ended up using in 3 or 4 papers (it was a nice general start to a variety of topics.)

Surely, your writing skills and knowledge base will be better and broader now than at any time in the past. However, research is research...if you already did it, you know some of what is out there.

Even if you repeated a complete sentence from a previously written paper by you it is NOT plagerism. By definition, plagerism is using the work of another and taking credit for it. Sure, a checker might find it, but it is yours! Otherwise, I agree with what others have said, reusing a previously submitted paper is bad form and would not be smiled upon.