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How does Turnitin work?

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

Reply 1

Bean_cat

Original post by Anonymous

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

Yes, It compares your work with previous assignments that have been submitted and compares with websites also. So if you were writing a report on something and used a quote from a website then it will show up highlighted on turnitin and will generate a score of similarity with other works. So, the more you copy from a website the higher your score will be and that will be evidence that a work has been copied from somewhere,

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

okay thank you, I submitted my work and it was 2%. does that mean I'm safe and haven't been plagiarized by copying and pasting

Reply 3

Mr Wednesday

Original post by Anonymous

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

Yes and no. Turnitin is very good at spotting text it has seen before, on the web, in text books, from previous submissions etc. However it takes a review by an academic to determine if it's plagiarism or fair use, e.g. placed in quotes and properly identified and referenced, or just cut n paste cheating, with a few words swapped out.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

By academics do you mean teachers? if I received the grades from my teachers and also the similarity report. I guess I'm okay. I haven't cheated or anything, just trying to understand the process.

Original post by Mr Wednesday

Reply 5

Meheraj

Original post by Anonymous

okay thank you, I submitted my work and it was 2%. does that mean I'm safe and haven't been plagiarized by copying and pasting

You're not just safe but very safe. Don't worry.

Reply 6

Bean_cat

Original post by Anonymous

okay thank you, I submitted my work and it was 2%. does that mean I'm safe and haven't been plagiarized by copying and pasting

definitely, sometimes turnitin picks up random stuff too but 2% is a very low score - you're safe :smile:

as long as your score is green then your assignment will be fine

Reply 7

samlade

If you know you havnt coppied work I would complelety ignore what score is provided anyway. Quite frankly I would expect a small level of similarity in pretty much all pieces of work.

I have studied at several unis and never even been able to see a score. Even if it was high it would be reviewed by an academic.

Reply 8

UoS PG students

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

Hey!
Yes, Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that checks submitted work for similarities with a vast database of academic sources, as well as previously submitted student papers. Turnitin provides a similarity report which highlights any matched text and gives a percentage score of how much of the submitted work matches other sources.
Submitting your work to Turnitin will show whether any part of your paper matches other sources, including websites, journals, and other student submissions. It is important to note that Turnitin is just a tool and the final decision on whether plagiarism has occurred rests with your instructor.
To avoid plagiarism, it's essential to properly cite any sources you use and paraphrase effectively. Turnitin can be a helpful tool in ensuring that you are meeting academic integrity standards, but it is always best to check with your instructor for specific guidelines and expectations.

Best Wishes
Priya :smile:

Postgraduate Ambassador
University of Southampton

Reply 9

4square

Dont get hung up on the %. Our cover pages get covered in Red saying 'you've copied this work'. Well of course I have. It's been in every single assessment I've done, and all the other students in the uni have copied it too. It's only my name and student number that sometimes appear, and it will highlight that I copied the essay title off my classmate.
Luckily, the lecturers ignore this. It's when that a patchwork of colour appears, so you copy/paste from one source, but then use synonyms for every other word that is poor practice and also plagiarism, even with a correct citation and reference.
We get to see our scores in the feedback. It used to be visible in first draft submissions too, but not final versions. Whether a script is kept in Turnitin's database is turn off-able

Reply 10

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

Hey there!
The general rule is that if your work is over a certain percentage of similarity to their database then it's classed as plagiarism. TurnItIn is an unofficial submission where you can check the plagiarism percentage before officially submitting it. It scans your work compared to other essays that have been submitted which means the quotes you've used as well. This is not an issue if you've referenced properly and cited all quotes and ideas. If you're over the highest percentage then you will be disqualified so it's always good to check before you submit anything. Most recently it claims to be able to identify over 98% of Chat GPT and AI generated work so I wouldn't rely on those either just incase.

Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU

Reply 11

Frank2003

Original post by Anonymous

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism? so if I submit work, will the similarity report say if I have copied my work from an outside source?

hey, yes, it does its job very well. But recently I discovered, that Turnitins detection can be easily bypassed. I tried Netus ai paraphrasing tool which contains AI bypasser and detection tool, so it makes content unique and even Turnitin wasn't able to detect it :biggrin: