Self-plagiarism

Reusing your own earlier work or ideas without citing it. Many schools treat it as plagiarism.

Self-plagiarism means reusing your own earlier work, whether sentences, ideas or a whole paper, without saying so. The MLA Style Center says that if you reuse ideas or phrases from your own prior work and do not cite it, you have plagiarized.

Why it counts. Citations exist so a reader can tell what is new in your paper and what came from elsewhere. Your own earlier writing is a source like any other. Handing in the same work twice also suggests new effort that wasn’t made.

What to do.

• Cite your earlier work when you build on it, the same way you would cite anyone else’s.
• Ask first if you want to reuse a paper, or a large part of one, for a second course. Many instructors and schools require permission. Policies differ, so check yours.
• Start fresh when you can. A new angle on a topic you know is usually better than recycled text.

What it doesn’t cover. Using the same research interest across several courses is normal. The problem is submitting the same text, or presenting old work as new, without credit or permission.

See plagiarism for the general definition.