Turnitin (Plagiarism Checker)

Overview

Turnitin is a helpful tool for instructors to see what kind of resources students are using in their writing. It can help reveal where the content is coming from so that the student and the instructor can assess if it is properly cited. While the program will not be able to highlight if something is properly cited, it will highlight all matched source material for a quick visual overview.

The primary use of any plagiarism prevention software ought to be educational. Anti-plagiarism technology cannot prove plagiarism or acquit an author suspected of plagiarizing. Only the individual assessment of the instructor can make such a judgment.

Turnitin is an online plagiarism prevention resource that detects potential plagiarism by comparing submitted papers against three databases:

1. A copy of the publicly accessible Internet (more than 2 billion pages updated at a rate of 30-40 million pages per day).
2. Millions of published works (such as ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts, Business Dateline, and tens of thousands of electronic books).
3. Student papers previously submitted from schools using Turnitin.

For each paper submitted, the results of these comparisons are compiled for instructors in custom "Originality Reports." These reports may be available to students, depending on the instructor's settings for the assignment.

NOTE: If you want to allow students to submit a draft of an activity for review by Turnitin before their final submission, then we recommend you have two separate activities – one for the draft (with limited submissions) and then one for the final submission. The draft activity should be set to  “Do not store the submitted papers” within the Turnitin options (near the top of the box for Turnitin settings).

Select from the Turnitin Topics section for resources related to some of the most common things instructors new to Turnitin assignments in Canvas find most helpful.

Additional Resources

Below are some additional resources that you may find useful.

• Academic Integrity Tools (from Turnitin) Links to an external site.
• Student Guides for Using Turnitin in Canvas (from Turnitin) Links to an external site.
  • Detail steps for students to use Turnitin in Canvas, including interpreting results

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Need More Help?

Request support from the Academic Technology Services: servicedesk@csus.edu