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Turnitin - FAQ

 

What is Turnitin.com?

Turnitin is an online resource for educators and students concerned with developing quality writing and research skills. Turnitin.com has a database of over a million papers submitted to them, a digitized version of the Gutenberg Collection of Literary Classics, and papers pulled from the Internet and various "paper mills," (i.e., services that sell term papers). The parent organization of Turnitin.com is Plagiarism.org. You may want to look over their educational tips on plagiarism prevention.

What are the policies of use for Turnitin?

For policies of use, please refer to the Faculty Senate document Academic Use Policy - Antiplagiarism Software, Turnitin.

As a faculty member, how do I sign up for a Turnitin account?

Turnitin has been integrated into Blackboard. No account set-up will be necessary for instructors to access Turnitin. You will be able to access Turnitin through your Blackboard courses when you create class assignments. If you plan to use Turnitin, you must add the following statement to your syllabus.

As a faculty member, are there training materials I can access?

Handouts for Faculty

Handouts for Students

How do I inform my students that I am using Turnitin?

If you plan to use Turnitin for assignments in your course, you will need to add the following statement to your syllabus.

How will my graduate/teaching assistant access my course in Turnitin?

Graduate/teaching assistants will be able to access your course in Turnitin once they are added as a teaching assistant in Blackboard.

When papers are uploaded to Turnitin do they become part of the Turnitin database? How can we keep students' papers out of this database in order to protect copyright for original works?

In order to keep student submissions from being indexed, please select the "no repository" option under Submit papers to when setting up your class assignment. If the "standard paper repository" option is selected, then papers will become part of the Turnitin database.

Will I have to upload all of my students' papers to Turnitin?

No, creating a Turnitin assignment allows your students to upload their own papers to Turnitin from their Blackboard account. Please see Turnitin Quickstart Guide: Creating an Assignment for more information on creating an assignment using Turnitin.

As a faculty member, how do I create an assignment in Turnitin?

Please see the Turnitin QuickStart Guide: Creating an Assignment for information on creating a Turnitin assignment.

When creating a Turnitin assignment – what do phrases like start date and submission type mean?

Please see the Blackboard Academic Integration Instructor Manual . There is a glossary of terms beginning on page 26.

Will I have to upload all of my students' papers to Turnitin?

No, creating a Turnitin assignment allows your students to upload their own papers to Turnitin from their Blackboard account. Please see Turnitin Quickstart Guide: Creating an Assignment for more information on creating an assignment using Turnitin.

When viewing the Turnitin Reports for my students' papers, I noticed the paper formatting and graphics have been removed. Why is that?

When a paper is submitted to Turnitin all formatting, images, graphics, graphs, charts, and drawings are removed from the paper so that the program can read it accurately. The instructor of the class can view the paper in the original format by downloading it from the assignment inbox.

In Turnitin, what is GradeMark?

Turnitin is a grading tool available in Turnitin. Texas Woman's University has access to the Grademark tool.

What are the advantages of Turnitin?

Turnitin was the first of its kind of plagiarism prevention system and is recognized worldwide as a valuable resource for educators and students. Faculty can use Turnitin to make the process of detecting plagiarism easier and more efficient. Students can use Turnitin to check their own papers to see if they have properly cited sources. In addition, Turnitin provides students and faculty with a variety of educational resources on preventing and avoiding plagiarism, writing research papers, and citing sources.

Who is eligible to use Turnitin?

All TWU faculty and staff currently teaching or supporting teaching activities.

How does Turnitin work?

Turnitin allows the student to upload a paper into the Turnitin database, and the software will then use algorithms to create “digital fingerprints” that can identify similar patterns in text. Then the paper is matched to billions of web pages, paper mill essays, and student papers submitted online. Finally, in an hour or less, Turnitin creates an “originality report” that records any passages from the paper that might not be authentic, and lists web sites and other resources that include previously submitted papers that have matched content to the passages.

What is plagiarism?

According to the TWU Code of Student Conduct in the TWU Student Handbook, plagiarism can be defined as “the use of any other person’s work (such work need not be copyrighted) and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own work offered in fulfillment of academic requirements.” In other words, plagiarism is the use of another’s original words or ideas as if they were your own.

On the Plagiarism.org site, there are links to Turnitin, iThenticate, and WriteCheck. Should I create accounts for these services?

Please note that Texas Woman's University only has a subscription to Turnitin. iThenticate and WriteCheck are separate services that we do not subscribe to, and these services do charge a fee.

Where can students learn more about avoiding plagiarism?

If a student has any questions about plagiarism or citing sources, he or she should not hesitate to talk to a faculty member, the library staff, or visit the TWU Writing Center. To learn more about plagiarism, view the Avoiding Plagiarism Tutorial.

How do students sign up for a Turnitin account?

At this time, your instructor must use Turnitin in order for you to have access. For more information, please see the Blackboard Academic integration student manual.

How do students upload papers to Turnitin?

To upload a paper into Turnitin, students will log in to Blackboard and click on Assignments and the View/Complete link for the Turnitin assignment. Then, they can either: a) copy and paste their paper into a text box and click submit or b) browse for a file and click submit. Students can submit their papers in Microsoft Word, plain text, RTF, PDF, or Postscript formats. For more information, please see the Blackboard Academic Integration Student Manual.

How long does it take for Turnitin to check an uploaded paper?

Turnitin will check a paper against the web and generate an originality report in an hour or less. When students resubmit papers, Turnitin will generate an originality report in 24 hours.

Is a paper that receives a high similarity rating necessarily plagiarized?

No. A high similarity rating does not mean that a student has plagiarized; it only indicates that the faculty member should review the paper for possible plagiarism. There are several reasons besides plagiarism that a paper would receive a high similarity rating. For instance, if a student includes many properly cited references in one paper, it might show a high similarity rating. In addition, if the student has previously submitted the paper to Turnitin prior to the final submission, it might show a high similarity rating.

Does Turnitin check against newspaper articles and books to ensure that students have not cut and pasted from them?

Yes. Most of the world’s newspapers are available on the Internet, making it easy for Turnitin to check papers against these sources. However, not all books are available on the Internet, but Turnitin is able to check papers against those books that reside on the Internet.

How do you keep from having too many matches for papers on general or common topics?

Turnitin’s database uses a very careful source analysis, which eliminates as many irrelevant matches as possible, while still noting suspect matching passages.

 

 

 

 

page last updated 2/8/2012 9:30 AM