Is re-using your own work cheating?
By TheRealDawn
@dawnald (85135)
Shingle Springs, California
January 7, 2009 11:35am CST
Kind of a funny story. In college I was studying German and in 2nd year composition I had to write an essay about a poem, by Rilke I think. I got an A- on it. Then I went to Germany for a year and when I came back I had a more advanced composition class. The first one was taught by an older woman (in her 30's, older, haha), a full professor, and the second class was taught by a graduate student. I got assigned to write an essay on the very same poem. So I took my previous paper, rewrote it with my much better German and, to my surprise, got a C on it. Ironic. But anyway would you call that cheating using something that you had already previously submitted?
5 responses
@AnakSuNamun (2084)
• United States
7 Jan 09
Hey,same thing happened to me!
I was in high school and one of our final exams was a composition,mine was accepted by the principal herself,she praised it a lot and gave me an A. So 2 months later I was trying for the university and they had composition as entering exam and I thought "What the heck?",I recollected my "old" composition and added a few extra pages and expressed as much opinion as I could sitting in that auditorium. I barely got a C for it
I know that people have different opinions and what was good for my principal might've been average for the other people but I was flabbergasted. The other side of the coin was that my university was pretty corrupt and it was impossible to get good grades at entering exams if you didn't bribe somebody. But I managed anyway
I know that people have different opinions and what was good for my principal might've been average for the other people but I was flabbergasted. The other side of the coin was that my university was pretty corrupt and it was impossible to get good grades at entering exams if you didn't bribe somebody. But I managed anyway1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jan 09
In my case, the second teacher didn't so much have a problem with how I wrote it as what I wrote. Something about a discredited literary theory or something. Anyway, I hope that it worked out for you!
@AnakSuNamun (2084)
• United States
7 Jan 09
And you know what was the most annoying thing? I was shown the paper afterwards and in 6+ pages there was not a single grammatical or punctuation error so they had to blame for using different styles! Excuse me,but I am not a writer,I thought you people were gonna teach me that! lol
1 person likes this
@AnakSuNamun (2084)
• United States
7 Jan 09
True,but I didn't consider that cheating. Making people pay for something that should be free an available to everyone is cheating! lol
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
8 Jan 09
as long as she can pass the tests, I guess...
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
7 Jan 09
According to our school policy and I'm sure some other crazy people, taking a paper that you have written for another class and resubmitting it, even with corrections or with additions is plagiarism and cheating. At my school, getting caught doing that sort of thing can get you an automatic F in the class or it can even get you kicked out of school.
Personally, I think that is crazy. If you wrote it, and you just went in and changed some things, added some things and made it better, then it's definitely not plagiarism. You are cheating I guess, by not really doing much work on that assignment by using a previous assignment, but it's definitely not plagiarism since you wrote it.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jan 09
Interesting, I wonder why they would consider it a problem. It's lazy maybe, but as long as it meets the requirements of the assignment, I can't see why they'd have a problem with it.
@mcat19 (1357)
• United States
7 Jan 09
When I was in college, oh so many many years ago, I wrote one paper and turned it in to 2 classes. In those days, I had to type it twice, but that was easier than writing an entirely new one. As I remember, I got an A on one and an A- on the other. Go figure. I had permission from the teachers, but even without, I don't think it's cheating. You did write the thing.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jan 09
I never even thought to ask but then it was submitted to 2 different teachers, 2 years apart!
@newgreenyou (7)
• United States
7 Jan 09
Nah thats not cheating. I hold on to all my papers so I can let my kids submit them as their own in the future. haha!
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jan 09
Well dang shucks, I should have thought of that. After all, if you inherit it, it's not cheating! 
