Submitting wrong file format for an exam --- penalties?

I submitted a word doc instead of a pdf file on the turnitin portal. I have masked the author names in the file meta so it wouldn't breach anonymity. The file was submitted on time as well. My uni and faculty has clearly stated penalties regarding things like word limits and submission time, but have not stated whether there will be penalties and what that will be if I submitted the right document in a wrong but readable format. As far as I know word documents are also readable on Turnitin. I cannot submit the pdf format as the portal has already closed. Will I get severely penalised for this (eg: entire paper marked 0, capped at 40, etc)? I've asked the professors and our course admin regarding this as well, but it's the weekends so they probably have not checked their mailbox yet. I wonder if anyone had similar experiences and what the outcome was for you guys?

Actually, will they know I submitted the wrong file format if they just mark on turnitin and not download the document onto their computers? It's unlikely that the markers download every single student's papers onto their computers...?

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by Anonymous

I submitted a word doc instead of a pdf file on the turnitin portal. I have masked the author names in the file meta so it wouldn't breach anonymity. The file was submitted on time as well. My uni and faculty has clearly stated penalties regarding things like word limits and submission time, but have not stated whether there will be penalties and what that will be if I submitted the right document in a wrong but readable format. As far as I know word documents are also readable on Turnitin. I cannot submit the pdf format as the portal has already closed. Will I get severely penalised for this (eg: entire paper marked 0, capped at 40, etc)? I've asked the professors and our course admin regarding this as well, but it's the weekends so they probably have not checked their mailbox yet. I wonder if anyone had similar experiences and what the outcome was for you guys?

Actually, will they know I submitted the wrong file format if they just mark on turnitin and not download the document onto their computers? It's unlikely that the markers download every single student's papers onto their computers...?

Word documents are supported by Turnitin, and it can generate Similarity Reports for them. (There are a couple of exceptions: Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled .docm files and Document (.doc) files created using OpenOffice, as they are not 100% Microsoft Word equivalent - see here for confirmation.)

Does your university specifically say that all assignments must be submitted as PDFs? Or is that just the convention? If the document you have submitted is readable by both Turnitin and whoever will be marking it, then it would be unreasonably harsh to penalise you for getting the file format wrong. In my opinion.

However, that's not to say that your particular university or department doesn't have such a policy. Given that you've already e-mailed your course administrator about this, I suspect you're just going to have to wait and see. Even if someone else replies and says, "I did that too; it was fine." that doesn't mean it'll necessarily be fine for your university / department. However, my guess is that it will be. Good luck. :crossedf:

Reply 2

Mr Wednesday

19

Original post by Anonymous

I submitted a word doc instead of a pdf file on the turnitin portal. I have masked the author names in the file meta so it wouldn't breach anonymity. The file was submitted on time as well. My uni and faculty has clearly stated penalties regarding things like word limits and submission time, but have not stated whether there will be penalties and what that will be if I submitted the right document in a wrong but readable format. As far as I know word documents are also readable on Turnitin. I cannot submit the pdf format as the portal has already closed. Will I get severely penalised for this (eg: entire paper marked 0, capped at 40, etc)? I've asked the professors and our course admin regarding this as well, but it's the weekends so they probably have not checked their mailbox yet. I wonder if anyone had similar experiences and what the outcome was for you guys?

Actually, will they know I submitted the wrong file format if they just mark on turnitin and not download the document onto their computers? It's unlikely that the markers download every single student's papers onto their computers...?

Will it go through the system and get marked, almost certainly, a fraction of students always muck up like this, will it attract a big penalty almost certainly not. Any specific things that auto lose you marks should be written down in the module or course spec, we have a 10% hit on broken formatting for lab reports to make sure people pay attention to the basic rule set.

When marking the Turnitin interface shows you the "raw" file name as part of the link for where to go next to do the marking, along with the overall similarity % so it is noticable. Odds are it won't attract a significant penalty but it does contribute to the overall impression of competence or otherwise. Same for files with deeply unhelpful names like "Report.pdf".

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 3

cheadle

17

It will be noticed as when it is downloaded the file type will be obvious. However, assuming that everything else is okay with the submission, it's likely to be regarded as an oversight rather than an infringement and, while a comment might be made ("should have been in pdf format") probably won't attract a penalty unless specified in the assignment brief.

Submitting wrong file format for an exam --- penalties?

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