Using Turnitin
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is a software program used to detect similarities between students’ work and Turnitin’s database.
It’s not a human, so it will always need its findings checked.
Why is Turnitin used?
- It promotes academic integrity by encouraging students to write their own work and cite their sources of information.
- It prevents long-term cheating: your assignments are kept in Turnitin.
- It can help you see whether you have paraphrased and cited appropriately (i.e., it can help you learn key academic skills).
How to use Turnitin?
Although Turnitin was originally developed to prevent plagiarism, it can also be used to provide feedback and marks for assessment tasks.
Originality Check: preventing plagiarism
Turnitin identifies matching text and calculates this as a percentage, referred to as the similarity percentage. Although many students ask what the "acceptable" maximum similarity percentage is, there is no specific percentage that is considered acceptable or unacceptable at UTS. Some subject coordinators or tutors may specify a similarity percentage that they consider to be the maximum amount allowable, but this is their personal preference rather than an official UTS requirement. Check similarity score ranges.
The main things to keep in mind are that:
- the higher the similarity percentage, the more likely it is that your marker will suspect plagiarism;
- even a small amount of matching text can be considered plagiarism if it has come from another source without being appropriately paraphrased, cited and referenced;
- it is not always an indication of plagiarism and will always need a human to interpret the report.
You will be able to see where the matches occur and the sources of the matches in Turnitin. If you can’t see this information in Turnitin, check with the subject coordinator.
Subject coordinators provide information on their expectations in relation to the use of Turnitin, which can vary from subject to subject. Check the subject information and talk to teaching staff to find out if:
- you can view your assessment task in Turnitin to see details of the similarity identified
- you can resubmit your task before the due date.
If you are allowed to resubmit your task, you can use the information provided by Turnitin to make sure you have sufficient original material in your task and that you have cited and referenced your sources.
Gradebook: feedback and marking
If your assessment task is being marked in Turnitin, once the marks are released, you will be able to view your feedback in Turnitin.
Feedback may be in the form of:
- a mark for the task
- comments throughout and/or at the end of the document
- a voice comment
- levels of achievement on a rubric or grading form
- a combination of the above.
How to submit an assignment via Turnitin in Canvas
Go to your subject in Canvas an select 'Assignments'.
- Click on 'Upload Submission' (blue box in the top right hand corner).
- From the 'Submit File' page, click ‘Choose file’ to find the document on your computer.
- Review the details of your submission (Preview submission button).
- Click the ‘Submit to Turnitin’ button.
- You will be returned to the assignment page where you can 'Download' your submission file, see your Grade (if marked), 'Re-submit (if permitted)' or launch the Turnitin Feedback Studio by selecting the coloured similarity indicator.
- From the Turnitin Feedback studio, you can see originality information, , view feedback from your tutor (if provided) and your 'Digital Receipt'.
If Turnitin is set up under plagiarism framework:
- Click 'Submit Assignment' (blue button).
- From the file upload page, click ‘Choose file’ to find the document on your computer for submission, and select 'Submit Assignment'.
- You will be returned to the assignment page where you can 'Re-submit (if permitted)' or view your 'Submission Details' and 'Download' your submission file.
- From 'Submission Details', you can see your Grade (if marked), 'Re-submit' your assignment (if permitted), 'View feedback' from your tutor (if provided) and launch the Turnitin Feedback Studio by selecting the coloured similarity indicator.
- From the Turnitin Feedback studio, you can see originality information, view feedback from your tutor (if provided) and your 'Digital Receipt'.
This section is adapted from UTS Online Support page: Turnitin for students.
Enhance Your Learning using Turnitin
Avoiding a high similarity score: what do you need to do?
Paraphrase or summarise ideas from other sources - see our website for more information.
Reference all material properly – see your referencing guide on the Library website for information and examples.
Complete the Avoiding Plagiarism tutorial.
Have a HELPS consultation to check your referencing or similarity report.
Making the most of your similarity score
Before your assignment is due:
Submit your draft to Turnitin a few days before the due date. Read through your similarity report and make the changes needed.
If you want a second similarity report*, submit again; but you may need to wait 24 hours to get the second similarity report (which is why you should submit a few days early!)
* Not all subjects allow more than one submission. You MUST check instructions on Canvas or with your tutor before you submit.
After you’ve received your grade:
Read your feedback carefully. If you don’t understand your feedback, politely email your tutor and ask for more feedback.
If you need assistance with structuring your assignment, developing an argument, writing critically, or paraphrasing and citing your sources appropriately - come to HELPS!
FAQ
Q: "What is a 'good' and 'bad' similarity score?"
A: There's no such thing as a "good" or "bad" score. Each similarity report needs to be interpreted by a human to decide whether there is a problem with plagiarism.
Q: “My similarity report has highlighted only a few words in some of my sentences. Is this a problem?”
A: Usually no. If your report looks like the example below, we can see that Turnitin has picked up words or phrases that are common in your discipline or in writing generally (which means they appear in other students’ writing, journal articles and the internet!). The likelihood of disciplinary action is probably low.
Q: “My similarity report has picked up all my quotes; will I get in trouble?”
A: Depends. If you referenced them properly with an in-text citation and quotation marks then no, you won’t get in trouble. If you haven’t referenced them, then academic penalty may be more likely.
Q: “My reference list has been highlighted as similar and this makes my similarity report high; will I get in trouble?”
A: No! Your reference list has been highlighted because lots of other students have submitted entries for these texts too (you’re all in the same subject!). Same goes for your coversheet.
Q: “I used Turnitin to submit my assignments early and check my similarity. I’ve made some changes and now I’m going to resubmit: will this make my similarity score high?”
A: No, Turnitin does not apply ‘self-matching’ to resubmissions.
Q: “I want to check my similarity before I submit but my subject doesn’t allow for resubmissions. Is there something else I can use?”
A: Yes: Grammarly Premium has a similarity checker – it’s not as good as Turnitin and it may not catch everything, but it’s better than nothing! You have access to a free Grammarly Premium account with your UTS ID.
Q: “My similarity report has picked up writing I didn’t paraphrase at all. Many sentences in my paragraphs are highlighted. Will I get in trouble?’
A: Probably, yes. This is a sign that you need to make bigger changes to your sentence structure and vocabulary to ensure it is significantly different from the original.
Q: “I used Turnitin to submit my assignments early and check my similarity. I’ve made some changes and now I’m going to resubmit. Will this make my similarity score high?”
A: No, Turnitin does not apply ‘self-matching’ to resubmissions.
Need help?
- Visit HELPS and talk to friendly HELPS Advisors
