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Reusing Your Work and Citing Yourself: Reusing Your Work and Citing Yourself
As you progress in your Walden program, you may find that you research and write about a topic more than once. This is typical as you engage with key concepts and specialize in your field of study. See the information and best practices on this page to ensure you follow APA citation guidelines and Walden policy if you plan to reuse past written work.
Your Published Writing
If you have published your writing outside of the Walden classroom—in a journal or even in a local newsletter or blog—and would like to reuse portions of it or refer to the findings or ideas in that work, you will need to cite yourself.
Follow APA’s guidelines for citing and referencing published works.
Your Previous Coursework
If you are considering reusing your previously submitted Walden coursework in a new course or term, review the following best practice and policy sections.
Best Practices for Reusing Work
- During your studies at Walden, you may write on the same topic for a second, third, or fourth time; regardless, your writing should reflect new approaches and insights into that topic to demonstrate intellectual growth.
- Your writing submitted for previous Walden courses will show up in the Turnitin Similarity Report when reused. Contact your faculty if you plan to reuse your work to avoid concerns about possible plagiarism. Additionally, you could cite your unpublished writing (see How to Cite Your Unpublished Work below).
- Your faculty for your current course can guide you about whether reusing your previous writing seems appropriate for a particular assignment or writing task.
Walden University’s Policy on Reusing Work
The following comes from the Walden Student Code of Conduct :
Walden Students’ Use of Their Own Scholarly Work
- Students may reuse their work without an expectation that previously awarded grades or credit will attach to the new assignment. Any work previously published by the student must be appropriately cited if reused.
- Field Experience Exception: Any assignments or documentation submitted related to field experience (work, hours, client or patient logs, etc) must be new, current, accurate, and relate to clients or patients seen during the term and in direct reference to the assignment.
How to Cite Your Unpublished Work
Although not required in the policy above, in rare instances, you may need to or want to cite your unpublished Walden coursework.
If you cite or quote your previous work, treat yourself as the author and your own written document as the source. For example, if Marie Briggs wanted to cite a paper she wrote at Walden in 2022, her citation might look like this:
Briggs (2022) asserted that previous literature on the psychology of tightrope walkers was faulty in that it "presumed that risk-taking behaviors align neatly with certain personality traits or disorders" (p. 4).
And in the reference list:
Briggs, M. (2022). An analysis of personality theory [Unpublished manuscript]. Walden University.
Multimedia Resources
- The Northwest Passage, or Why You Should Cite Yourself Only Sparingly (blog post)
- To Cite Yourself or Not Cite Yourself (blog post)
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Citing Your Own Work
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Have you ever been given an assignment and thought, “I’ve written a paper like this before…”? If yes, then you might’ve considered re-using content from that previous paper for your new one. If it’s still relevant and the result of your own work, so why not?
Doing so, however, should be treated with extreme caution, and if done incorrectly can lead to something called “self-plagiarism.” Let’s review how you can self-plagiarism when using work you’ve written before for a new assignment.
What is self plagiarism?
Self-plagiarism is defined as incorrectly citing (or not citing) a piece of your own work in another work you are writing.
There are a few different types of self-plagiarism:
- Word-for-word
The most common type of self-plagiarism occurs is when you copy word-for-word a paper you have already written and insert it into a new assignment. If you take any direct material from an old paper of yours, you must create a citation for the older paper. This applies even when your assignments are for different instructors or courses.
- Salami-slicing
Another type of self-plagiarism is known as, “salami-slicing,” happens when the author of a study separates aspects of the study and publishes it in more than one publication, depending on what the goal of each published article is. Salami-slicing is considered unethical since it doesn’t present a whole, complete presentation of a research study. Segmenting the data into many “slices” could lead to misinterpretations.
- Copyright infringement
Perhaps the most well-known outcome of self-plagiarism is “copyright infringement.” This is when an author publishes work that is copyrighted, only for that writer to take that copyrighted material and publish it elsewhere without citing the original work. Even if the writer was the original author of the copyrighted material, proper referencing to the original is still needed.
How to avoid self-plagiarism
There are a few simple steps a writer can take to avoid committing self-plagiarism:
- Conduct further research
If a new paper assignment you’ve been given is similar to one you have already written, consider conducting further research on the topic. Doing this may open up new concepts and avenues of writing that you had not considered before.
- Consult your old class notes
Instead of copying directly from your old paper, check any old notes or outlines that you created for that class and try to come up with unique ideas to write about, or perhaps a slightly different angle than the one you previously chose.
- Cite your previous work
If you wish to use an older paper you have written on a topic as a source for a new paper, you can cite yourself, just as you would cite any other source you use in your research. Here is how you would do this in some of the most popular citation formats:
Harvard referencing style:
Your Last Name, First Initial. (Year) ‘Title of your paper’. School Name. Unpublished essay.
Harvard example:
Lu, P. (2017) ‘George Washington in early American paintings’. Southern New Hampshire University. Unpublished essay.
APA citation format :
Your Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of paper. Unpublished manuscript, University Name.
APA example:
Lu, P. (2017). George Washington in early American paintings. Unpublished manuscript, Southern New Hampshire University.
MLA citation format:
Your Last Name, Your First Name. “Title of Your Paper .” Year written. Your School’s Name, unpublished paper.
MLA example:
Lu, Patricia. “George Washington in Early American Paintings .” 2017. Southern New Hampshire U, unpublished paper.
Looking for more styles or citing guides? Visit Cite This For Me to access a Chicago citation generator , a guide on how to do an in-text citation , an example of an annotated bibliography , and more!
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In-Text Citation or Reference List?
Handouts distributed in class and presentation slides such as PowerPoint should be cited both in-text and on the Reference list.
Your own notes from lectures are considered personal communications in APA style. They are cited within the text of your assignment, but do not get an entry on the Reference list.
Presentation Slides from a Website
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of presentation [Lecture notes, PowerPoint Slides, etc.]. Publisher. URL
Kunka, J. L. (n.d.). Conquering the comma [PowerPoint presentation]. Purdue Online Writing Lab. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/index.html#presentations
Presentation Slides from WebCampus (Canvas)
Instructor, I. I. (Year Presentation Was Created). Title of presentation [PowerPoint presentation]. WebCampus. URL
Graham, J. (2013). Introduction: Jean Watson [PowerPoint presentation]. WebCampus. https://unr.instructure.com/login/canvas
Note : The first letter of the word Watson is capitalized as it is part of a person's name.
Class Handouts from WebCampus (Canvas)
Instructor, I. I. (Year Handout Was Created if known). Title of handout [Class handout]. WebCampus. URL
Magowan , A. (2013). Career resources at the library [Class handout]. WebCampus. https://unr.instructure.com/login/canvas
Class Handout in Print
Instructor, I. I. (Year Handout Was Created if known). Title of handout [Class handout]. University Name, Course code.
Wood, D. (2013). Laboratory safety overview [Class handout]. University of Nevada, Reno, BIO173.
Class Lectures (Notes from)
Note : Your own notes from a lecture are considered personal communications in APA style. They are cited within the text of your assignment, but do not get an entry on the Reference list. Put the citation right after a quote or paraphrased content from the class lecture.
(I. I. Instructor who gave lecture, personal communication, Month Day, Year lecture took place)
"Infections are often contracted while patients are recovering in the hospital" (J. D. Black, personal communication, May 30, 2012).
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