When a student in college is faced with the same assignment and instructions as issued before by their instructors, they will be indecisive on whether to issue their previously done work or do the work afresh. Resubmitting the same result is the easiest way out, and most students will certainly opt for that option than redoing what they had previously done. However, college students should remember that self-plagiarism is still considered plagiarism, and the penalties will be the same as plagiarism.

It is not advisable to reuse papers in college as most colleges have strict plagiarism rules. One can repeat the entire course, risk getting a zero, or even be disqualified from the same institution. Ideally, one cannot reuse papers in college as most plagiarism software machines like Turnitin has a database that stores any paper submitted through it; hence uploading a similar paper will be flagged off for plagiarism. Nevertheless, one can reuse their paper in college. Still, they can use the same content by paraphrasing, using synonyms, rearranging the sentence structure, and at times hiring a professional writer to handle the work.

Can You Reuse Paper In College

In a typical scenario, one cannot reuse paper in college as it will be flagged off for plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is not in any way except plagiarism; hence, one’s work is still considered plagiarism when used more than once. Most plagiarism scanners like Turnitin and SafeAssign can easily detect reused work since they store those work in their databases. However, there are various ways in which one can reuse paper in college; the following will show us how to go about reusing paper in college:

1. Paraphrasing a previously submitted paper is one way of reusing paper in college; the student should restructure the sentences to appear as new content, thus avoiding plagiarism as the scanner will not be able to flag it off as plagiarized work since no similarity will pop up.
2. Proper referencing is another way of reusing old papers in college; a well-referenced work and acknowledgment of the original author will aid in avoiding plagiarism. Since plagiarism is taking someone’s work without acknowledging them, proper referencing will help give credit to the original author even if the same student is the author.
3. A student in college can also opt to use the previous paper as a reference point only. By doing this, they will only use the old paper as a research tool and then come up with their work that is not similar to the previous paper, but the content in question might be similar.
4. Using synonyms is another way a student in college can reuse paper; this happens when one uses different words that mean the same as the previous one in the old paper. This makes the paper look like a new one. Thus, it will not appear plagiarism, enabling the college student to use old paper.
5. Removing the previously submitted work from the plagiarism software is the safest way as the student will request their instructor to remove their work. The instructor will do the same software; there will be removed in two weeks. The college student will reuse paper without facing the plagiarism issue.

If I Retake a Class, Can I use The Same Paper?

Retaking a paper in college is a pervasive affair; students fail or do not attend classes. Thus, the instructors can decide that they retake the same paper. Reusing a paper that made the same student fail beats logic, as one should never expect a different result when using the same method.

College students shouldn’t use the same paper when retaking a class, leading to another failure.  However, the student can use that paper to make corrections but not reuse it as they will fail again. If the institution uses plagiarism software, it will detect the work as a plagiarized piece, but if the college does not do the same, then a student can reuse the same paper when retaking a class but will risk failing the same paper twice.

Can You Use A High School Paper In College?

High school and college are two very different institutions. High school is lower than college; hence, one cannot use a high school paper in college. In high school, the structure required when submitting a paper is not the same as that of college and even the chain of thought will defer. Let high school work remain and advance to the college level.

Can Canvas or Blackboard Tell if You Reuse a Paper?

Canvas does not have the capability of flagging plagiarized work. It, therefore, uses Turnitin to help detect similarity in any submitted work. Turnitin will therefore check any form of similarity submitted through canvas vis a vis what is stored in its database. Thus, Turnitin helps canvas check whether a student has re-used a paper. Canvas, via Turnitin, can tell if one reuses a paper.

On the other hand, blackboard uses safeAssign to help detect reused paper as a blackboard cannot check plagiarized work. Therefore, blackboard, through safe assign can tell when one reuses a paper.

How to Avoid Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism is still plagiarism. Copying one’s work is also unethical as copying other people’s risk. There are various ways one can avoid self-plagiarism. They include:

1. Paraphrasing ones work
2. Proper referencing
3. Use the previous paper for research, then develop entirely new work.
4. Removing the old paper from the plagiarism software tool that was used before
5. Use of synonyms
6. Use the old paper to correct previous mistakes.

Conclusion

Reusing work in college is not allowed even when that work is yours. Plagiarism is still plagiarism and as long as the same result is still available in the plagiarism software tools used, it will be flagged off for plagiarism, and your work turned down. Nonetheless, there are circumstances in that plagiarism will not be avoided, but the same should be done correctly, as discussed above. It is only plagiarism when proper credit is not granted to the owner, even the same person. Therefore, with appropriate acknowledgement and referencing, among other methods, it can be used though not advisable.