Other Kinds of Plagiarism: Self-Plagiarism and Generative AI
Self-Plagiarism, or the act of submitting a paper you’ve written for a prior assignment, is a third type of plagiarism that confuses many people. At the Writing Center, we often get asked “How can I plagiarize myself?” Well, good question. Technically, the academic dishonesty isn’t in the fact that you’re copying yourself, but rather that you aren’t giving credit to the class and professor you’d originally turned the paper in to. That’s why, should you want to use parts of an older paper, or submit an older paper in its entirety, you need explicit, written permission from the instructor you’d originally submitted the paper to and the professor you plan on submitting the paper to. The key to avoiding Self-Plagiarism is getting consent from every single professor involved in the situation, current and past. Professors at Muhlenberg will typically assume that work you submit for them is original and specific to their curriculum. They may not want you to use work from another class. Always ask!
Generative AI, more commonly known by the commercial name “ChatGPT,” poses a particularly interesting challenge for students hoping to avoid plagiarism. Different professors will have different policies referring to how, or even whether, generative AI will be allowed in their class. If you’re ever in doubt or it hasn’t been explicitly mentioned in your professor’s syllabus, ask them directly. Much like Self-Plagiarism, you should always ask before you use generative AI. Even if your professor permits the use of Generative AI, it can be a good practice to let them know exactly when, where, and how you’ve used it. We encourage you to use a footnote at the end of any sentence or paragraph that was composed with AI assistance. If you used Generative AI to help you develop your ideas, such as by brainstorming topics, you might include a footnote at the bottom of the first page that says “The ideas in this essay were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT,” or whatever specific technology you end up using.
For both of these categories, the key to avoiding plagiarism is explicit consent from all professors involved in the situation. Now, let’s look at some examples.
Self Plagiarism
Tyrel, at the end of his Senior year and tired of writing assignments, thinks that a paper he wrote for a Sophomore year chemistry course covers enough of his current assignment for a Biological Psychology class that he’d get at least a B-. After changing the date, and a few other superficial details, he turns the paper in.
Using Generative AI
Julia really doesn’t like writing discussion posts. So, halfway through the semester, she gets an idea. She’ll put the prompts into ChatGPT, check the answers it gives, and then copy and paste them right into Canvas.
Patrick is close to finishing an essay that’s been tormenting him for a week. He’s confident that everything he’s written so far is good, he just has to finish the conclusion, a task that always haunts him. After an hour of staring at a screen with little progress, he asks ChatGPT to write a conclusion for his essay. It looks like it could be a good skeleton, so he changes some words and phrases, adds a citation or two where needed, and is finally satisfied that it’s good enough to turn in.