What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a software that Davenport University uses to teach about and guard against plagiarism.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using other people’s words/drawings/charts or work and passing it off as your own.

Self-Plagiarism is using your previous writings and passing it off as your own new writing.

If you don’t add a citation to show where you got the words/drawings/charts (even citing your own previous work)…

…your instructor will assume you want them to think you wrote it for their assignment… and that is plagiarism.

How does Turnitin work?

In your Blackboard class, you will see an assignment title that has this logo and says “View/Complete”

You submit your paper there and Turnitin runs it against material…

1) on the Internet, 2) in journal databases, 3) in its own database of previously submitted papers from all over the world

From the results, it produces an “Originality Report” or “Similarity Report”

If your instructor allows you to see the report, you will see the percentage rating and associated color code Turnitin assigns to your paper in the Similarity column…

That is why it is known as a “Similarity Report”

0% (a valid result) 1-24% 25-49% 50-74% %

What does the percentage mean?

It is the amount of your paper which was not your original writing, but other peoples’ words... which is why it is also known as an “Originality Report”

This helps you and your instructor see how much is your writing and how much are quotes from others.

This is just one of the ways Turnitin can help.

Turnitin also has a grammar checker and a way for your instructor to leave detailed comments right on your paper (Grademark).