"Copying" from yourself - a sin?

[paradoxy]

Straight to my own situation: finishing high school, we were required to write a paper that would prepare us for the academic world. It was more a formality than not, as it was enough to use one source and write 10 pages. Everybody got the highest grade.

I chose a topic I was obsessed with at the time (The Problem of Evil in the History of Monotheistic Religions), so I researched for a full year, read mountains of books, got in touch with a priest, Rabbi and a local mosque’s leadership, and then wrote a 65-page elaboration on the teachings on evil in all major monotheistic religions and heresies spawned by them.

Now, for my MA studies I’m supposed to write about medieval teachings on the Fall of angels and man. I will have to do quite a bit of new research and writing for this, but a significant chunk of what I should write is already in my highschool paper.

Is it OK to rework bits of my old paper into the new one?

It would seem dishonest to get credit twice for something done once, but it seems to me that back then I had done much more than was expected from me, so I can use the “extra” work done then for my benefit now.

What do you think?

P.S. I have a 5mo baby and am pressed for time, as the survival of my family depends on my academic work (we live off my scholarship)

P.P.S. The prof I’m writing this for didn’t even read my previous essay, just browsed thru it and asked me about what I’d written, so I could just copy and paste cooking recipes off the net… any work at all seems like a waste.

I’m aware P.S. and P.P.S. have no bearing on the morality of the issue, but they do influence my attitude and enthusiasm.

Thank you!

 

[Transformer]

I can’t imagine lifting segments of your own work being unacceptable, especially when you intend to rework those parts of your previous work anyway. It certainly isn’t plagiarism, by definition. What do you think your professor would say about your drawing directly from your previous work?

God bless.

 

[Goblin_Taters]

I don’t see any problem with it. To be correct, though, you should cite your previous document in the format of an unpublished manuscript. Many authors cite their own works that deal with similiar subject matter.

 

[paradoxy]

I don’t see any problem with it. To be correct, though, you should cite your previous document in the format of an unpublished manuscript. Many authors cite their own works that deal with similiar subject matter.

How hadn’t I thought of that? Of course, that makes it honest. Thank you!

I just had to run this by CAF people. If no one HERE thinks this is wrong, then it can’t be.

 

[emily47017]

when i was in college, it was considered academic dishonesty to plagiarize yourself, but if you’re reworking the material and embedding it in a bunch of other information , that seems okay to me.

citing yourself is always a good option. i did that once in an ethnomusicology class, and one of my classmates was jealous that i even had something to cite.

 

[JimG]

Why would it be wrong to use your own material–material which you have previously researched and elucidated? I can think of cases where a person might have a particular interest in a subject, and continue to research and write about it from high school through college and graduate school, ultimately turning it into a doctoral thesis. I don’t consider use of one’s own work to be plagiarism.

Now, if it had been previously published, I could see citing it.