Resubmitting a previous assignment

code | scenario | smart strategies | consequences

Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters

1. It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:

(e) to submit, without the knowledge and approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted, any academic work for which credit has previously been obtained or is being sought in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere;

Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on “knowing”, the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.

Scenario – Resubmitting a paper

Your instructor has asked all students to write a research paper on one of various topics related to Criminology. Given that you wrote a paper on one of the approved topics last year, you decide to just use the paper that you previously submitted in last year’s course. This not only saves you time, but you also remember that you received an exceptional grade on last year’s paper. You decide to add a few additional paragraphs to the paper you previously wrote, but don’t ask your instructor whether or not you are able to recycle your old assignment. You are confident that your sources are cited appropriately, so you submit your assignment through the plagiarism detection software.

The Issue

Students are not allowed to submit assignments for which credit has previously been received unless approval has been given by the instructor. The purpose of enrolling in a variety of courses is to learn more about a discipline through a range of perspectives. If you simply re-submit your old assignment, you are not “learning” rather taking the easy way out of engaging in your studies. It is likely that you will be approached by your instructor to discuss the situation, since the similarity of this research paper to your previous assignment will be detected by the plagiarism detection software.  Resubmitting an assignment that previously received a grade is considered an offence under the Code.

Smart Strategies

• Always ask your instructor for permission to use a previous assignment and to find out whether this might be acceptable.
• If you are truly interested in the topic selected, write the paper through a different perspective, and approach the topic with new research questions to learn more about the subject matter.
• Remember that work previously submitted through our plagiarism detection software program remains in the database, and will be flagged.

Range of Consequences

For a discussion of consequences see Key Consequences.