Time Saving Tip for Students
September 29, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under time saving
You’ve just written that 25 page paper for English. You’ve spent hours researching, reading, citing sources, inserting quotes, proofreading, and rereading. You’ve completed the required assignment to get credit for the class, but why not maximize your efforts?
My suggestion to you today is that when you get your paper back from the teacher or professor, don’t toss it. Don’t delete it from your computer and don’t toss out the disk. Let your work carry on into other classes.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have used my work from one class in another class. Here are some examples and ideas:
- For your English term paper pick a general topic such as eczema. Later use that paper for science or health class.
- Use your psychology paper on schizophrenia for your health or sociology class.
- Save the video on weather that you made in technology. Use it for your science teaching methods project and make your lesson’s theme weather.
I have even saved papers that I wrote in high school. If I’m not mistaken, I was able to use a biography paper from high school in my college English class. Most of the work had already been done, I just needed to add a few more things.
Keep your old papers and make corrections where necessary. Even if you have to spend another hour adding more parts to the paper, it will still save you time. If your school has a policy against recycling your own papers, then you can save time by keeping with the same topic. At least you’ll be knowledgeable about the subject and have your research notes to use.
Have you ever used your work or research from one class for another class?
image sxc.hu
No, because this is pretty much not acceptable in college, you can get in big trouble for this…
This is a bad post…sorry
How is this not acceptable in college if you’re the one that wrote the paper?
When I was in my very first graduate level class (in the college of education) we got a paper assignment that was VERY similar to one I’d done the previous semester, and I mentioned to another student that I could rework my previous paper a tiny bit and it would fit the requirements for this one. I was excited about all the time I’d save.
I said this within earshot of the prof, and she told me that to do so would be plagiarism. I couldn’t believe it. I looked it up in the school’s conduct/policy manual, and shore ’nuff, you can plagiarize yourself.
If you’re going to do this, it’s a good idea to be very familiar with your school’s policies.
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com (I didn’t get in trouble because 1) I didn’t do it and 2) she knew that it was just a rookie mistake).
Wow, I’m feeling old. They didn’t have these policies when I was in college. I did transfer college after my first two years so I was starting fresh with new professors and a new school so that made a difference too.
As a professor, I can tell you this is bad news. Even if it isn’t against your university’s policies (which it is in many cases), it’s still a bad idea. Students who “recycle” their old work aren’t learning much because they’re not applying the skills they’re supposed to be learning for the course. From a pedagogical standpoint, it’s a nightmare.
If you want to get the most out of your (expensive) education, get practice researching, organizing, and writing something new for each assignment. If you’re familiar with the material already, take it in a new direction. Push yourself and reap the rewards rather than relying on what you’ve done in the past.
Apricot: Most students are busy working 30-40 hours a week. I would’t think they would have time to take a full load, work that many hours, and then research and write something new for each assignment.
That is not true of *most* students, it’s true of some. If you’re not in school to do the work, learn, and ultimately *earn* your degree, then there’s no point in being in school. Most of the students I’ve had who work full time understand this and do their work as they should, rather than writing the same paper five times over.
Getting an education is not supposed to be easy. Schemes like this degrade the value of a college degree.
I can’t believe you would advocate what is essentially cheating to further yourself. I’m certainly unsubscribing from your feed. I will not support this kind of thinking.
I never suggested writing the same paper five times over. There is plenty to work, learn, and earn in college, even if you do use the same paper or research twice.
I’m sorry you’re so strongly offended by this post. That was never my intent. I am a person of very high moral character. I do not advocate cheating at all.
There are plenty of blogs out there that I read, but if I were to unsubscribe from them or stop reading them because there was something on them that I didn’t agree with, then my blog reading list would be cut down significantly. I don’t know why we can’t do the adult thing here and agree to disagree and move on.
Isn’t that in essence cheating?
Cheating involves lying and fraud, usually at the expense of others. Cheating is what the students in my oceanography class were doing. They were copying off of other people and turning in the work as their own. Cheating is copying someone else’s paper and claiming it as your own.
It’s simple – If your school has a policy against it, then DON’T do it! If they don’t, then make use of something that YOU did. If they do have a policy against it, you can still use your research and expand upon it.
I think I disagree with your definition of cheating…I think if someone reuses a paper for a different assignment they are most definitely cheating themselves. They are taking the easy route, instead of putting in time and effort to learn something new. It sounds to me like you are a teacher…wouldn’t you disapprove of your students using the same assignment for a couple different classes, instead of doing the assignment you asked them to do?
The highest grade level I’ve taught is 8th and I don’t recall seeing any of their assignments that were worth repeating. However, if they did a science experiment on aviation and then had to write a science paper in 11th grade, I would find no problem with them choosing the same topic, using their previous research, and expanding upon what they had already learned.
I would not have a problem with that scenario either, but that is not exactly what you were talking about in your original post…
That’s because I was talking about 8th graders. Their 8th grade work isn’t going to be good enough for high school or college. However, an 8th grader or 11th grader can take their work, do more research, and add to it.