Ahmad violates the principles of academic integrity in general and plagiarism in particular. Even though he wrote the initial paper himself, this assignment was already submitted to another class. Slight changes in the previously submitted project do not make it the original work. It is possible to talk about self-plagiarism in this case, which is also a type of cheating. In other words, the student can only receive the grade for the same paper once, even if he changes some phrases in the text. When self-plagiarism becomes evident, Ahmad becomes guilty of violating the principles of academic integrity due to self-plagiarism.
Academic research that corresponds to the principles of ethical behavior should only use other people’s words that are correctly cited. In addition, using the parts or the entire text of the previously published assignment severely violates these principles. Ahmad could not rewrite the same argument from his previously submitted paper because it is regarded as an example of self-plagiarism. The optimal solution, in this case, would be to search for other sources on the same topic and to use information from them in the new paper. The argumentation to support the theme should also be different to meet the ethical standards of academic research. If all new sources are cited in the paper, Ahmad submits for the second time and does not repeat the same ideas he used in the previous assignment, and the document can be considered plagiarism-free. Therefore, the student needs to ensure that he does not repeat the same claims in the exact words he did in the text he submitted for another class. Otherwise, he is guilty of self-plagiarism and violation of the ethical principles of academic research.