Access to HE - plagiarism and AI

Hi All,
I am on module 13 out of 18 and just found a new notice for assignment submission:
"Your work will be checked for Plagiarism and the use of AI generated content.
In line with UK academic standards, we will reject any assignment that has over 20% Plagiarism and over 20% AI Probability.
This means that your assignment will be returned to you with no comment or feedback provided if your work exceeds these percentages.
The expectation is that you will write the assignment using your own words and that all published sources are cited and referenced accordingly using Harvard Referencing Technique.
The use of online grammar check programs, such as Grammarly, can be identified as AI generated content within your assignments. Therefore, we advise you to use the spell check program included in your Word Processing software to check your work but you must make all changes manually."
I have been out of education for quite a while, but 20% feels really low. Particularly if you are not given any feedback if you are above these levels ( what if you are at 21%?) Does anyone know what levels are standard for university "turnitin" check?
I am a bit concerned that certain phrases will be classed as plagiarism because there is no other way to say certain things (e.g. "metals and non-metals form ionic bonds" - this is going to be in every text book) .
I don't use Grammarly, so don't know how the software works. But slight alarmed that you have to "make changes manually". Word normally will suggest how to spell a word or rephrase and I just automatically accept.
Has anyone yet been hit by this 20% check on the assignment?
What does everyone think of it?

I would go through your own work with a plagarism and AI checker before they do and fix/clarify any issues. 20% is a pretty reasonable margin, but all work will have small phrases and such that flag up. Things like "metals and non-metals form ionic bonds" should be fine, but don't use Word's rephrase feature much (if at all) as it may come up as AI writing and if there's too much you could get in trouble. Best of luck!!!

Hi All,
I am on module 13 out of 18 and just found a new notice for assignment submission:
"Your work will be checked for Plagiarism and the use of AI generated content.
In line with UK academic standards, we will reject any assignment that has over 20% Plagiarism and over 20% AI Probability.
This means that your assignment will be returned to you with no comment or feedback provided if your work exceeds these percentages.
The expectation is that you will write the assignment using your own words and that all published sources are cited and referenced accordingly using Harvard Referencing Technique.
The use of online grammar check programs, such as Grammarly, can be identified as AI generated content within your assignments. Therefore, we advise you to use the spell check program included in your Word Processing software to check your work but you must make all changes manually."
I have been out of education for quite a while, but 20% feels really low. Particularly if you are not given any feedback if you are above these levels ( what if you are at 21%?) Does anyone know what levels are standard for university "turnitin" check?
I am a bit concerned that certain phrases will be classed as plagiarism because there is no other way to say certain things (e.g. "metals and non-metals form ionic bonds" - this is going to be in every text book) .
I don't use Grammarly, so don't know how the software works. But slight alarmed that you have to "make changes manually". Word normally will suggest how to spell a word or rephrase and I just automatically accept.
Has anyone yet been hit by this 20% check on the assignment?
What does everyone think of it?

Hi @BelindaFlamazing
As Edwin mentioned, 20% is rather reasonable margin. If you've made sure to use your own words, even with a few unchangeable sentences such as the one you've given as an example, you won't automatically reach the 20% similarity.
Your university may have a link for students to the Turnitin Originality Checker that you can use to check your work as many times as you need, without it being retained on the Turnitin Repository. I've found that to be very useful as it gives the exact score, and other AI and plagiariam checkers may not be as reliable.
I would suggest asking your university and/or your lecturers if such an access to Turnitin is provided to you as a student for personal checks before submitting your work.
I hope this helps 🙂
-Lily (Kingston, Rep)

Hi @BelindaFlamazing
As Edwin mentioned, 20% is rather reasonable margin. If you've made sure to use your own words, even with a few unchangeable sentences such as the one you've given as an example, you won't automatically reach the 20% similarity.
Your university may have a link for students to the Turnitin Originality Checker that you can use to check your work as many times as you need, without it being retained on the Turnitin Repository. I've found that to be very useful as it gives the exact score, and other AI and plagiariam checkers may not be as reliable.
I would suggest asking your university and/or your lecturers if such an access to Turnitin is provided to you as a student for personal checks before submitting your work.
I hope this helps 🙂
-Lily (Kingston, Rep)