What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is an originality checking and plagiarism prevention service that checks your writing for citation mistakes or inappropriate copying. When you submit your paper, Turnitin compares it to text in its massive database of student work, websites, books, articles, etc.
Turnitin is integrated into the Assignments tool in all online classrooms and is managed by Classroom Support. This means that when you upload your paper to your classroom for grading, it will automatically be sent through Turnitin's repository. The Similarity Report that it generates will help identify possible instances of plagiarism.
How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
- How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?If your instructor allows file uploads as a submission type, you can upload a file from your computer as an assignment submission.
Any attachments added as part of a graded assignment submission are also copied to your user files but are not counted against your user quota. However, once the file has been uploaded as a submission, you cannot delete the file. Files are stored in the Submissions folder.
If your institution has enabled Google Docs as a submission type, you can also upload a file from Google Drive.
How to Submit an Assignment Through Turnitin in Canvas 3:40 min.
The Similarity Report Explained
A typical submission made to an assignment in Turnitin generates a Similarity Report. The Similarity Report is the result of comparison between the text of the submission against the search targets selected for the assignment; this may include billions of pages of active and archived internet information, a repository of works previously submitted to Turnitin, and a repository of tens of thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications. Any matching or highly similar text discovered is detailed in the Similarity Report that is available in the assignment inbox.
The similarity score is a percentage of a paper's content that matches to Turnitin's databases; it is not an assessment of whether the paper includes plagiarized material.
Similarity Score Ranges
Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.
Overwritten or resubmitted papers may not generate a new Similarity Report for a full 24 hours. This delay is automatic and allows resubmissions to correctly generate without matching to the previous draft.
The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:
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Blue: No matching text
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Green: One word to 24% matching text
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Yellow: 25-49% matching text
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Orange: 50-74% matching text
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Red: 75-100% matching text
Interpreting the Similarity Report
Turnitin does not check for plagiarism in a piece of work. Instead, we will check a student's work against our database, and if there are instances where a student's writing is similar to, or matches against, one of our sources, we will flag this for you to review.
Our database includes billions of web pages: both current and archived content from the internet, a repository of works students have submitted to Turnitin in the past, and a collection of documents, which comprises thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.
It is perfectly natural for an assignment to match against some of our database. If a student has used quotes and has referenced correctly, there will be instances where we will find a match. The similarity score simply highlights of any problem areas in a student's paper; you can then use this as an investigative tool, in order to determine if the match is or is not acceptable.
Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.
Overwritten or resubmitted papers may not generate a new Similarity Report for a full 24 hours. This delay is automatic and allows resubmissions to correctly generate without matching to the previous draft.
The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:
-
Blue: No matching text
-
Green: One word to 24% matching text
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Yellow: 25-49% matching text
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Orange: 50-74% matching text
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Red: 75-100% matching text
Example 1:
A student may have submitted a paper to Turnitin in the past. If they had their name on that submission, it is entirely possible that, if you have not excluded small matches, their name is highlighted in their Similarity Report.
An instructor can rectify this issue by excluding by word number. In most cases, excluding 5 words should safely exclude a student's name from being highlighted in their Similarity Report.
Example 2:
A student may have used Turnitin to submit drafts of the same paper, meaning their final draft has resulted in a score of 100%.
As the instructor is likely aware that their student has submitted multiple times, they can rectify this issue by excluding the student's previous submissions from the Similarity Report.
Example 3:
A student has copied and pasted a chunk of text into their paper, due to a lack of knowledge on the topic they are covering. Their similarity score is 20%. In comparison, another student who has a firm basis of knowledge for the same assignment and knows enough to gather information from several sources to quote and reference correctly has a similarity score of 22%. Both students will be shown to have matches against our database. However, one of these students copied directly from a website, whereas the other provided properly sourced quotes.
Instructors can opt to exclude quotes from the Similarity Report to lower similarity scores where applicable.
Example 4:
A student has managed to acquire a copy of another student's paper. They submit this paper to Turnitin on 15th October and receive a similarity score of 25%. The student who originally wrote the paper submits it to Turnitin a week later, receiving a 100% similarity score.
In this case, regenerating the Similarity Report of the student who plagiarized will immediately identify collusion allowing you to follow institutional regulation.
Example 5:
A student has submitted a qualitative study to Turnitin, including a significant number of quotes and an extensive bibliography, as required for the topic of the paper. The student's similarity score is 53%; this exceeds the acceptable score set by their institution.
This issue could have been avoided if quotes and bibliography had been excluded from the Similarity Report.
How can I check my paper for plagiarism before submitting it to my instructor?
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to be mindful about your sources you use during the research and writing process:
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Carefully keep track of your research before you write. A research journal and citation management tool can be a big help.
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Make sure you paraphrase or quote your sources correctly as you write.
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Double-check that you've correctly cited all of your sources after you write.
(Use your style guide!)
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Courtesy of the Richard G. Trefry Library