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Turnitin - What are your thoughts?

Hey,

My uni uses turnitin to check for plagiarism and I know others do too. What are your thoughts on it?

I've never purposely plagiarised. I always reference quotes/cases/arguments etc. But when I upload a coursework draft to the test area I have no idea if it's going to come back high or low. One coursework came back as 7%, another was 54%!

For the high one, it highlighted every quote (referenced), every case name (referenced), all my footnotes where the references are and then some annoying bits like the word 'the' all the way through. I could only manage to get it down to 48%, yet still got a first.

The concept of it is a good idea, but I just feel like if your coursework topic has been done several times around the country you're going to get a high % despite not plagiarising. It's not surprising students from around the country find the same cases and arguments from journals is it?

Reply 1

LukeM90

I had an experience similar to this on a software dev module, basicaly the part it was bringing up was code that everyone had added as an annex or somthing, but because we all had basicaly the same project and had been taught the same way the code was almost the same for each of us :tongue:

I remember I also had a very nit-picking type tutor who would read through assignments before deciding if hed mark them, one guys got caught out because he copied from a website and there was a very pale (almost white) blue tint behind the text that copied with it lol,

another example was my friend copied an explanation of a new piece of kit before reading it thoroughly, was written very informal, including "it's the new sheriff in town" didnt go down well with the tutor lol.

I think as long as the content in terms of what the student has explained in their thoughts and arguments is not the same, then it shouldnt matter if its a little similar, some things just cant be explained in a different way :/

Reply 2

sph93

Original post by LukeM90

Yep that's the same with me. I do law so every topic has a few significant cases which you can't not mention. And then of course everyone mentions the same cases.

Unfortunately my tutor did her law degree when she was 16. So you can imagine how nit-picky she is haha.

That's exactly what I think. If it's word for word what someone else has said then you're in trouble. But recently with mine it's like we're being punished for using resources that we can't avoid. Oh well!

Reply 3

Origami Bullets

My uni doesn't let you see your plagiarism percentage :dontknow:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

GoingToBurst

Turnitin isn't a way of saying "this is 100% plagiarised, you are in trouble," it's a way of quickly notifying you/academic staff how much of the assignment is similar to other pieces of work in order for them to investigate it if need be. Yeah, it's annoying if it comes back with a high percentage but as long as you know you've fully referenced it then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

I think it's an excellent tool. Without it, it would take much longer for assignments to be returned if they were having to check each and every one for signs of plagiarism.

Reply 5

sph93

Yeah I think it's a great tool, maybe my uni looks at it differently. For instance a group of people for my last coursework got 40-60% and they're having meetings to see if they're going to get kicked off the course. Despite the fact they all say they've referenced how they have in other coursework.

Reply 6

jemi38

I go to an online school and my school uses turnitin. I think it's a really useful tool but it's a bit annoying when it highlights quotes and such. I've also noticed that the longer the assignment is, the lower the percentage is.

Reply 7

Clementine101

I like the idea of turnitin. But it doesn't factor in for quotes you've used or the cover sheet, which is why some people get quite a high plagiarism percentage. Last year one of my lecturers said not to worry about the number, he doesn't, and he can read the highlighted parts (the 'plagiarized' parts) to see if they actually are plagiarized or just direct quotes.

Reply 8

rosee92

Me no likey. It highlighted my essay question and said it was similar to something else submitted to the uni... Yeah perhaps the person who did the same question as me? Plus I'm always worried it'll go wrong

Reply 9

GoingToBurst

Original post by rosee92

Well, yeah, of course it would highlight that. You aren't going to be in trouble for plagiarism for that though. Turnitin isn't what decides whether you've plagiarised or not.

Reply 10

LukeyJB

If you've used a lot of sources you're obviously going to get a high similarity percentage because lots of other people would have also used those references. This issue is rife on law courses, especially pure case-law based modules where every single student in the country is citing the same cases.

Reply 11

jelly1000

My uni (UEA) manages fine without Turnitin.

Reply 12

discomposure

At my uni we can use turnitin to check we've referenced our work fully before submitting it, which is pretty useful.

Reply 13

rosee92

Original post by GoingToBurst

Well, yeah, of course it would highlight that. You aren't going to be in trouble for plagiarism for that though. Turnitin isn't what decides whether you've plagiarised or not.