Academic Honesty

"It's important to note that you need not copy an author's words to be guilty of plagiarism; if you paraphrase someone's ideas or arguments without giving credit for their origin, you have committed plagiarism" (9).

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016

Below is some text from the book What Is a Dog?

The reason the earth can support a population of 850 million "village dogs" is because human beings have — inadvertently — provided them with a niche. This niche is an environment in which dogs have survived for centuries. If humans were to disappear, the village dog niche would disappear, and dogs would go extinct. Dogs could not take up residence in the wild because that niche is already taken — by wolves, coyotes, and jackals.

Below is the text from What Is a Dog? as it appears in a student's essay

The world's 850 million "village dogs" thrive because they have adapted to a niche created by human society. Without that niche dogs would likely become extinct because they would not be able to survive competition with wild canines like coyotes and wolves.

Why is this plagiarism?

The writer did not include a citation to indicate that the words were paraphrased.

"A paraphrase may continue for several sentences. In such cases, cite the work being paraphrased on first mention. Once the work has been cited, it is not necessary to repeat the citation as long as the context of the writing makes it clear that the same work continues to be paraphrased. . . . If the paraphrase continues into a new paragraph, reintroduce the citation" (269-270).

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed., American Psychological Association, 2020