Self Plagiarism?

[Mr White]

Hi people,

Im currently writing my dissertation proposal (Coming up to 5am over in in sunny Scotland, guess who's not the model student!!!) and Ive found that some of my background research overlaps with a previous piece of work for this year. Now The previous piece of work has been handed in and marked, but I still have it saved on my computer.

What would be the situation of plagiarism if I copied and pasted a section from my old study?

What Im thinking is, it wont be plagiarism because, the work Im trying to pass off as my own, is in fact my own anyway, and is no different to if I had planned the essay out using a pen an paper and jotted notes down.

But also whats going through my mind is, everyone else will have written this piece of work now, not 5 months ago, so in that sense, its dishonest and trying to save me time/effort/money (on coffee haha) to give me an advantage over another student. Which is the same reason why plagiarism is so frowned upon.

But its my work!!!

But I didnt do it today!!!

Im talking myself round in circles here!!!

Whats the deal?



James

[texasfury]

It's impossible to plagarize yourself. However you are recycling work verbatim. Maybe if you make reference to your previous paper it would be ok. Consult with someone not in your department on how to handle this.

[Mr White]

Aha good thinking. So whilst not being plagiarism its still an issue?
I dont think discussing it is an issue here Fury, its to be submitted in 8 hours!!!

Im thinking of risking it, its not something they look out for, and I dont think they'd recognise the passage that they marked 5 months ago!!! Not when theres over 70 people in my class!

James

[lerxstcat]

If I were you, I'd paraphrase what you wrote earlier. That way if you're called on it, you can say the two papers had tie-ins, but that you rephrased the idea specifically to avoid plagarising yourself.

[Mr White]

Ah good thinking - Thanks Rich!

James

[QuantumRider]

I work at a patent law firm.

It is very common for an applicant to insert the phrase,
"The contents of the applicant's previously filed Patent Application No. xxxx-xxxxx is incorporated herein by reference"

It saves the time and effort of reciting everything that was described in a previous application into a new one.

Maybe you can take a similar approach?

Hope this helps!
-QR

EDIT: When I first saw the thread title, I thought that maybe you were referring to that 80's singer Rick Astley (?), whose two hits sounded exactly the same

[Jack The Riffer]

If you own the work it is not plagiarism. John Fogerty was sued by his former record company for plagiarism of his own work but it was because they owned it.

[lerxstcat]

Ah good thinking - Thanks Rich!

James

You're welcome, James! Actually I had a method of last-minute parer writing that never failed to get me an 'A' in college. I would get 3 actual books on the subject, and an encyclopedia article on the subject.

I would compose my outlline and first draft pretty much paraphrasing the content of the Encyclopedia article. Then I would go into the books to look for corroborating material, flesh out the draft with additional detrails from the books, and of course paraphrasing all along the way. Then I would farm out my footnotes to the 3 main sources, and NEVER reference the Encyclopedia itself.

My instructors would think I read 3 books cover to cover to prep for the paper, and I always got As with glowing comments in the margin! Meanwhile I had done the work a day or 2 before it was due - sometimes the night before!

Now that was wrong of me, and I would NEVER advise someone to use these tactics - but sometimes survival requires desparate measures!

Funny thing is, each time I did that last-minute, I swore I'd do it the "right" way next time - whatever that was! I never did it the right way though, so I can't help you there!

[Mr White]

I swore I'd do it the "right" way next time - whatever that was! I never did it the right way though, so I can't help you there!

Haha! Ive been in university for three years, and every 6 months Ive had at least 3 essays to be done. And only 2 of those were not done in the night before!!! I should be ok, recently Ive got some good grades so thats given me a kick up the arse to do better in uni. I should be ok, The essay turned out to be total shite, but I should still do ok in the module, Ive had ok grades in the other assessments!

Quantom Rider - Dont be knocking Rick Asley! That boys a genius! You know everyone thought he was black when they first herad "Never Gonna Give You Up" ?


James