Plagiarism

Presenting another person's ideas, words or work as your own. Citing the source is how you avoid it.

The MLA Handbook defines plagiarism as presenting another person’s ideas, words or entire work as your own. Three points from the MLA Style Center are worth knowing:

• Length and intent don’t matter. Copying a text of any length without crediting the source is plagiarism, even if it was an accident.
• Paraphrase needs a citation too. Putting someone’s idea or argument in your own words, without giving credit, is plagiarism.
• Patchwriting is not paraphrasing. Keeping most of the original wording and swapping a few words or using synonyms doesn’t count as putting it in your own words.

The MLA Style Center also says that reusing your own earlier work or ideas without citing it can be plagiarism. Check your institution’s policy on this.

What citing does. In-text citations and a reference list make it clear which ideas and words are yours and which came from others, so a reader can tell the difference and find the sources.

Citing doesn’t make something your own. A reference list entry covers the source you used. Long stretches of copied text still need quotation marks or a block quote, as well as the citation.

PaperCitation checks whether references exist and match published records. It does not check whether your text is original.