About Turnitin
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is text-matching software that compares the originality of a student’s written work against electronic texts from the Internet, published works (such as journal articles and books), and assignments previously submitted to Turnitin by other students.
Does Turnitin detect plagiarism?
Turnitin does not detect plagiarism. This is because Turnitin cannot make a judgement about whether plagiarism has occurred, it can only tell you whether a particular piece of text matches to text from another source. The tutor in charge of the subject will decide whether the text that has been identified as matching constitutes plagiarism.
How can I log in to Turnitin?
Turnitin isn’t working, what do I do?
Can I use Turnitin if my tutor has not set it up?
What is the maximum file size I can submit?
Text submissions have a maximum of 2 MB. Your text submission must contain at least 40 words and keep images to a minimum. The maximum attached file size is 20 MB
What file types can I submit?
Turnitin currently accepts the following file types for upload into an assignment that is set to generates Originality Reports for every submissions:
- Microsoft Word® (DOC and DOCX)
- Corel WordPerfect®
- HTML
- Adobe PostScript®
- Plain text (TXT)
- Rich Text Format (RTF)
- Portable Document Format (PDF)
- Hangul (HWP)
- Powerpoint (PPT and PPTS)
Submitting my work
How do I submit my work to Turnitin?
Can I submit my work to Turnitin more than once?
Will Turnitin check a resubmitted assignment against previous submissions for the same assignment?
If a student submits a revised draft to the same Turnitin dropbox the files will NOT match each other. This is because previously submitted papers are overwritten by resubmissions. Note:Similar papers submitted by the same student to a Turnitin dropbox in a different course WILL match.
If students in the same course submit similar papers to the same assignment, will these submissions be checked against each other as soon as they are submitted to Turnitin?
For some reason I can't see the 'Submit Paper' icon to submit my assessment
Try another internet browser, Turnitin recommends you use the internet browser Firefox. Firefox is available on all WITT computers, alternatively you can download for free to use on your laptop or PC. Just google search 'Firefox'.
I submitted the wrong document! What can I do?
If you have submitted the wrong document, we suggest that you contact your tutor by email and ask them to delete the submission. A second submission (of the correct document) will take 24 hours to generate an originality report and you may not have enough time to view or download the report before the deadline.
I submitted my document to the wrong dropbox! What can I do?
If you have submitted the document to the wrong place, we suggest that you reload the document into the correct box and contact your tutor by email and ask them to delete the incorrect submission. A second submission (of the correct document) will take 24 hours to generate an originality report and you may not have enough time to view or download the report before the deadline.
The Originality Report
How long does the Originality Report take to generate?
An originality report is usually created within 5 seconds for an average paper of 1000 words if this is your first submission, longer submission will take a little more time. If the similarity index is still showing "processing', try selecting the “Refresh Submissions” link to reload the page. If you have resubmitted an assignment, there may be a delay of 24 hours before an originality report is available.
Who can see my Originality Report?
Your tutor will view your originality report after the assessment due date. Tutor's can access the originality report earlier if you request them to do so for feedback purposes.
What does the similarity number mean?
Is it possible to get a similarity of 0%?
It is possible and acceptable to obtain a similarity of 0% through writing orginal work. A low similarity relates to the way your tutor set up the Turnitin dropbox. There are options to exclude bibliographies and small matches (5-8 words long) which can lead to a legitimate 0% similarity in your report.
How do I know if my similarity number is acceptable?
Your tutor will provide information on this.
The similarity is too high - what do I do?
If your similarity index is high and you want to reduce it, check that: (a) Quotation marks (“...”) are used around every quote and the source is cited. (b) You are not over-using quotations. (c) Your own words are not too similar to the original text. For further information check out the “How do I increase originality" tab.
How can I download/print my report?
You can download your originality report if you want to, or are required to, by clicking the printer icon at the bottom of the Turnitin report page.
What does it mean if my report is 'processing'?
Processing means that your report has not yet been generated. Check back again later to see if the status has changed. Remember that it takes 24 hours after a resubmission to generate a report.
