As luck would have it, we read a novel earlier in the year in English that connects extremely well with this topic. I've already read a bunch of stuff that can be used as resources for this research and I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to write.
Out comes the previous assignment and I re-read it to refresh my memory of what angle I took in English. I take out a piece of paper and split it into a column of what I already know and what I need to know to address the question at hand. I head to the library to get the relevent books from the previous research out and to find some new material to address the unknowns.
It doesn't take me too long to get a decent outline together and the essay pretty much writes itself. I'm pretty proud of the paper and am feeling like I dodged a bullet in getting this done in a record amount of time. It's a win-win!
This isn't necessarily a bad outcome. Reworking previous research allows the student to go even deeper into the topic at hand than they already have and draw connections to ideas outside of the assignment in a meaningful way. This reinforces the learning done in the previous English assignment as well. The teacher might object to the ease with which the task was achieved, but if the quality of the learning is solid and the student has done a good job of addressing the research topic, really, the only concern that the teacher might have is around the student's use of the class time while others are writing their papers. If this really is a concern, maybe the teacher makes a note to talk to the English teacher in question to either coordinate assignments next year or for either or both to modify their assignments to eliminate duplication of topics.