Can you plagiarize yourself?

Background: This topic was a result of my English Composition I class. A peer, Jeffrey O'Connell, posted the following on 08/31/2010:

"Plagiarism is using someone else's ideas and material that isn't common knowledge, without giving credit to that person and citing them. Changing words around and paraphrasing in your own words is also considered plagiarism. The most important concept that I learned about plagiarism was that you can actually be found guilty of plagiarizing yourself. This was something I was completely unaware of. However, I don't agree with it. Think about it. Plagiarism, according to the tutorial, is theft. Well if it's considered theft you have to ask yourself, "how does one steal from oneself?" You can't be found guilty of stealing your own car, you can't be found guilty of stealing your own money, so how can you possibly steal your own ideas. I understand that if you wrote a paper last semester on a specific topic and used that very same paper, word-for-word, for a class this semester, to be considered plagiarism. That I get, but if you changed the words around but kept on the same topic, it should not be considered plagiarism, because once again, how can you be guilty of stealing from yourself. It was your ideas to begin with. My post may sound a little confusing, I admit, but hopefully someone out there understands what I'm getting at and agrees with me. Let me know everybody."


Here was my response, posted on 09/01/2010:

"Plagiarism of yourself is an interesting concept, I agree. I think a primary point of citing sources, aside from the simple idea of using someone else's ideas, is to give credit to something not "new" that you are referring to. Think of the definition again and consider these questions: 

• Is it common knowledge that you did a paper on the same topic last semester?
• Is paraphrasing of someone else plagiarism? Why not yourself, if you are the source?
• Is "re-wording" still not an indirect form of paraphrasing?
• Why would you discount yourself to not consider yourself worthy of citation?

Take this as another explanation:

 

"6. Never plagiarize yourself. You can refer to papers you have previously written or published. You can even quote yourself. But never copy/paste previous writing and present it as if it’s new. To do so is to deceive your instructors." (2009 Cengage Learning, Inc.) They have a whole section on plagiarism, that is quite interesting, by the way that you can check out.

 

Dr. Lance River's perspective from Lake Superior State University is, "...Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas as your own without giving appropriate credit or without the person’s consent to use his or her words or ideas without acknowledgment. This can be somewhat confusing, because at its core, plagiarism isn’t just about stealing someone else’s words or ideas, but also about claiming to have done work you actually haven’t. Thus, many professors, me included, would see using a paper or research you have done for one course in fulfillment of an assignment in another as plagiarism, even though you are the paper’s author. You can plagiarize yourself!" (Adapted from Lunsford and Connors, The St. Martin's Handbook (3d ed. NY: St. Martin's, 1995); the SIUC Department of Computer Science Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism; the SIUC Department of English Policy on Plagiarism; Homewood-Flossmoor (IL) High School Policy; Fowler, The Little, Brown Handbook (2d ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983); and the SIUC Student Conduct Code)

 

I think for all intensive purposes you can plagiarize yourself, however obscure the idea may seem, when you consider the technical definition of the term. Stating simply that is it "theft", is too washed down, in my opinion. When working with papers and citations, by default we are dealing with technicalities (i.e. APA formatting), so the definitions and the requirements they demand must me considered with the same respect. Just food for thought.

 

Keep in mind, there are MANY sites that teachers probably use to verify originality these days to verify originality. You don't want to "fail" because of improper citation, right?"


My instructor respond to my posting, on 09/06/2010, with the following:

"You are amazing, Shannon, thank you for this. Mrs. Smith"

Needlss to say, I think my instructor agreed with my position. What do you think?