Turnitin® Frequently Asked Questions

What is Turnitin® and how can it prevent plagiarism?

Turnitin® is a ‘text matching tool’. When an assignment is submitted Turnitin® creates an electronic report (called an originality report) which shows whether any of your text matches work that has already been submitted or published by somebody else.

 

How is Turnitin made available to students?

The module leader creates an extra Turnitin submission portal that provides an originality report immediately after you have uploaded it. It is up to the module leader whether to provide this extra portal or not. If provided, the Turnitin portal is there for you to develop your writing prior to submission, you tutor will not review the work or mark it.

 

How does Turnitin® develop academic skills?

Using Turnitin® enables you to check that you haven’t copied (plagiarised) somebody else’s work and gives you a chance to revise your work so that you are absolutely certain it is all your own (original).

 

How can I use the Turnitin® originality report?

  1. Read through the originality report to see where your words match those of others – these are highlighted in colour and given a number which links to a list of original sources
  2. Re-read the original source to make sure you understand what the author was writing about then write it out again in your own words (paraphrasing). Make sure the source you are reading from is an original (primary) source. If you take information from somebody who has taken it from somebody else (and maybe even somebody else!) you cannot be sure whether the information is accurate.
  3. Check through your originality report and see if there are parts of your work that are not correctly referenced – you can correct these when you re-write your work. Make sure you use the School Referencing Guidelines on the Referencing page to present your quotes, citations and references correctly.

 

Will my work be put through Turnitin® by academic staff?

When you have submitted your final piece of work for marking, your tutor may decide to put it through Turnitin for checking.

 

Does Turnitin® ‘decide’ if I have committed an assessment offence?

Turnitin does not make decisions about the originality of your work or any other academic offence, nor does it determine if the text has been referenced correctly or not. The judgement of originality lies with the module leader in the first instance and may or may not involve the use of Turnitin.

See the Help section (? icon) in your Canvas module for further information about using the student Turnitin facility on Studynet.

 

 

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