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For one of my courses (subject is history related) I have to write a longish (currently 40 pages) article about a topic.

I feel a bit bad, because I worked a 3 digit number of hours and only one person (my professor) will ever read it.

In the previous courses I have either

  • Put the PDF on my university webspace, and hope Google will spill it out to someone interested in the topic.

  • Distill Wikipedia articles out of it. This has the disadvantage that it takes additional time to change the formatting etc to make the content Wikipedia compatible.

Are there any other uses?

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  • Do you have a personal website, with article access?
    – Captain Emacs
    Apr 8, 2016 at 15:13
  • Maybe for a blog? Magazine?
    – The Guy
    Apr 8, 2016 at 15:24
  • blog is just a version of "put them online and hope someone finds them". Can you elaborate on "magazine", what kind of magazine would accept articles on highly specific topics, that don't have fancy graphics, but lots of "boring" citations and bibliography?
    – arved
    Apr 8, 2016 at 15:42
  • Hunt for a journal that might be interested in publishing it? There are literally thousands of journals of varying levels of scholastic rigour.
    – shoover
    Apr 8, 2016 at 16:11

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So five years later I have found another answer to my own question:

Choose a similar topic for your final thesis. This way you can reuse large parts in your thesis.

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    I'd exercise caution with this advice: it's important, especially for coursework assignments (including a thesis), that you obtain permission before reusing content like this. Even when there are not legal obstacles to doing so (e.g., you own the copyright on the work, it's your own work and is properly referenced, etc), it may circumvent learning goals in a course and therefore can be considered academic dishonesty/misconduct.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Nov 17, 2021 at 17:20
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    @BryanKrause and OP. Note that permission should come for the instructor in the new course or whatever. I don't believe it is necessary to ask for it from the old.
    – Buffy
    Nov 17, 2021 at 18:46
  • @Buffy Yes, exactly. One would ask their thesis advisor/whoever is responsible for assessing the thesis: "I previously wrote a 40-page paper for blah blah; is it okay if I copy portions of this work to my thesis?"
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Nov 17, 2021 at 19:52
  • I'll add that submitting the same work for credit in two different instances clearly constitutes academic dishonesty under our policy: "submission of work that duplicates or substantially borrows from assignments the student has turned in previously, whether earlier in the same semester or previous semesters, when instructors expected original work (known as double submission or “self plagiarism,” this action varies in severity depending on the specific context of a course or assignment);" A discussion with the at least the new prof asking if this is OK is expected BEFORE THE FACT
    – Scott Seidman
    Nov 17, 2021 at 22:38
  • So it boils down to the question if a course assignment is "published" by handing it to the prof, or if it is just "circulating".
    – arved
    Nov 18, 2021 at 12:54

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