Copyright: How much can I fairly copy in my essay?

Not very much. "Whereas summaries, paraphrases, and brief quotations in research papers are normally permissible with appropriate acknowledgment, reproducing . . . significant portions of [a copyrighted work] without obtaining permission to do so from the copyright holder is an infringement of copyright law and a legal offense, even if the violator acknowledges the source" (60).

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2009.

Here are two examples of what publishers consider unfair copying.

• The American Psychological Association requires writers to seek its permission before they may copy "single text extracts of more than 400 words" or "series of text extracts that total more than 800 words" (sec. 1).

APA Permissions Policy. American Psychological Association, 2020.

• University of British Columbia Press recommends "As a general guide, you should obtain permission for all published and unpublished prose excerpts over 300 words and for poetry excerpts that constitute more than 5 percent of the poem. . . . Cumulative quotations from a single source should normally not exceed 500 words without permission" (1).

Permissions Guidelines. UBC Press, 2016.