a similarity report from turnitin shows where you have plagiarized course hero

by Taylor Borer 4 min read

The similarity score shows the percentage of plagiarized content in a student’s paper. Reality: The similarity score is just a percentage of material in the paper that matches sources in the Turnitin databases.

Full Answer

Does Turnitin detect plagiarism?

Turnitin detects plagiarism. Reality: Student papers are compared against content in the Turnitin database, and leaves the judgment up to the instructor. Instructors MUST look at the Similarity Report to determine if there is a problem. 2. Turnitin works the same in all situations and is not flexible.

How does Turnitin compare student papers?

Reality: Student papers are compared against content in the Turnitin database, and leaves the judgment up to the instructor. Instructors MUST look at the Similarity Report to determine if there is a problem. 2. Turnitin works the same in all situations and is not flexible.

What is the similarity score on Turnitin?

Reality: The similarity score is just a percentage of material in the paper that matches sources in the Turnitin databases. Text that is quoted and cited may appear as a match in the Similarity Report if quotes have not been excluded from the report; this offers a great opportunity to check for proper citation. 4.

How does Turnitin grade assignments?

Turnitin automatically evaluates and grades papers eliminating the need for instructors to grade them. Reality: Turnitin matches text similarity and does not grade papers for the instructors. It is up to the instructor and/or student to determine whether the assignment exhibits plagiarism. 15.

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What does it mean when Turnitin says 0 similarity?

A Turnitin similarity of 0% means that you did not copy anything from online sources word for word or directly. While it shows your work is origina...

Is a little plagiarism good? If so, why and how little is too little?

Well, it's true that a little plagiarism is good because it shows that you included ideas and arguments by other writers or credible sources. Havin...

How do I remove similarity from Turnitin?

Ideally, the best way to remove similarity from Turnitin score for your paper is to rewrite the affected content. You can read and understand the c...

Does Turnitin count References

Ideally, Turnitin does not count references because they are not part of the main content of a paper or an essay. However, this depends on the sett...

What is similarity report?

Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.

What does the color of the report icon mean?

The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:

Does Turnitin check for plagiarism?

Though we're known for scanning submissions for plagiarism, Turnitin actually does not check for plagiarism in your work. What we actually do is check your submissions against our database, and if there are instances where your writing is similar to, or matches against, one of our sources, we will flag this for your instructor to review. Our database includes billions of web pages: both current and archived content from the internet, a repository of works other students have submitted to Turnitin in the past, and a collection of documents, which comprises thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.

How to avoid plagiarism in a research paper?

The most effective way of avoiding plagiarism is by adding a page of cited works or reference pages at the very end of a research paper.

How to avoid plagiarism?

Citing is the most effective way to avoid plagiarism. Follow the formatting guidelines of the document such as MLA, APA, or Chicago used by your college. Citing a quote is different from citing paraphrased material.

What is the role of examiners or supervisors in determining the acceptable similarity index?

This is because determining the acceptable similarity index is the role of examiners or supervisors as well as the institutions’ prerogative. They decide if or if not, the presented document is plagiarized and how much plagiarism is committed.

What is unavoidable plagiarism?

The cases of unavoidable plagiarism include the names of books, government bodies, and organizations. When such are repeated many times in a paper, the paper can show a high score of plagiarism yet no copy-pasting was done.

What is a good plagiarism score?

A plagiarism score of between 1% and 10 is really good. In fact, we encourage writers to use external sources to back up their arguments, and this is the reason why good quality and well-researched papers will always have some low plagiarism.

How much plagiarism can a master thesis be?

On the other hand, a master’s thesis can be allowed up to 20% since the larger part of the paper is heavily dependant on existing authorities. If you take an example of an essay like literature, a plagiarism score of 5 % and below would be acceptable.

Why is a 0% similarity score not healthy?

In fact, a 0% score is not healthy for a research paper because it indicates that no sources were used to back up the arguments/points/findings presented.

What is similarity score in Turnitin?

A student has managed to acquire a copy of another student's paper. They submit this paper to Turnitin on 15th October and receive a similarity score of 25%. The student who originally wrote the paper submits it to Turnitin a week later, receiving a 100% similarity score. In this case, regenerating the Similarity Report ...

What is match in Turnitin?

Match - This is text that is very similar or the same as some text you have in your paper. Your matches are highlighted in Turnitin and the colors will correlate with the sources listed in your insight panel.

What is Similarity?

Turnitin does not check for plagiarism in a piece of work. Instead, we will check a student's work against our database, and if there are instances where a student's writing is similar to, or matches against, one of our sources, we will flag this for you to review. Our database includes billions of web pages: both current and archived content from the internet, a repository of works students have submitted to Turnitin in the past, and a collection of documents, which comprises thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.

What is similarity report?

Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.

What does the color of the report icon mean?

The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:

Why do students copy and paste in similarity report?

A student has copied and pasted a chunk of text into their paper, due to a lack of knowledge on the topic they are covering.

Can students submit papers to Turnitin?

A student may have submitted a paper to Turnitin in the past. If they had their name on that submission, it is entirely possible that, if you have not excluded small matches, their name is highlighted in their Similarity Report.

How many papers does Turnitin receive?

Reality: Turnitin receives over 200,000 papers daily, and no human reads the papers at Turnitin. All papers are processed by our software, servers, and databases.

Why can there be so many matches on Turnitin?

Reality: There can be many matches because of extensive duplications of material on the web. The source named may not be the exact source that the student used. 7. Once a paper has been submitted to Turnitin, it is in the database forever.

What is Turnitin 12.?

12. Turnitin compares a paper against everything ever written. Reality: There are definitely sources that are not in the Turnitin database, especially if that material is only available in print. However, the sources that students typically use are largely included in Turnitin's collection.

Why is Turnitin important?

Reality: Many students have stated that they like the fact that Turnitin helps maintain a level playing field. Turnitin protects students' work from unauthorized use and gives students who want to do their own work a good reason not to share their work with others.

What is similarity score?

Reality: The similarity score is just a percentage of material in the paper that matches sources in the Turnitin databases. Text that is quoted and cited may appear as a match in the Similarity Report if quotes have not been excluded from the report; this offers a great opportunity to check for proper citation.

What is Turnitin's expertise?

13. Turnitin has expertise in plagiarism and can render judgment on specific cases.

What is the likelihood that a 16 word match is just a coincidence?

Reality: The likelihood that a 16-word match is "just a coincidence" is less than 1 in a trillion. Turnitin also includes the ability to exclude "small sources" if the instructor wants to exclude common phrases.

Is the similarity index a plagiarism index?

It is important to realize that the Similarity Index is NOT a "plagiarism index" – there is no score that is inherently "good" or "bad". 0% does not necessarily mean that everything is OK with the student's paper and 75% does not necessarily mean that the student should flunk.

Does Turnitin help students?

No - Turnitin offers a tool that helps educators (and their students) make informed evaluations of student work rapidly and move on to the important task of discerning what their students need in the way of instruction, correction or judicial action.

Navigation

Click the black tab on the left-hand side of the screen to access the thumbnail bar, which allows you to navigate quickly from page to page (See Figure 3).

Similarity report

Click the Similarity layer (No. 5 in Figure 2 above, in red) to access your Similarity Report.

Feedback layer

Click the feedback layer (No. 3 in Figure 2 above, in blue) to view your instructor’s feedback for your paper.

e-rater feedback

If your instructor has enabled the e-rater for this paper, you will find purple comments alerting you to errors in grammar, mechanics, style and/or usage. Click these comments to access a description of the error and information on avoiding that error in your writing (see Figure 5).

Downloading your Turnitin reports

Click the Download button (No. 11 in Figure 2) to download the current view, a digital receipt or the originally submitted paper (See Figure 7).

What Is Similarity?

  • Turnitin does not check for plagiarism in a piece of work. Instead, we will check a student's work against our database, and if there are instances where a student's writing is similar to, or matches against, one of our sources, we will flag this for you to review. Our database includes billions of web pages: both current and archived content from ...
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What's The Difference Between A Match and A Source?

  • Match- This is text that is very similar or the same as some text you have in your paper. Your matches are highlighted in Turnitin and the colors will correlate with the sources listed in your insight panel. Source- The source is where a particular match has been found. This can be a web page, a student paper, or a published journal. Your sources are listed numerically in your insight …
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Similarity Score Ranges

  • Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assig…
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Scoring Scenarios

  • Example 1: A student may have submitted a paper to Turnitin in the past. If they had their name on that submission, it is entirely possible that, if you have not excluded small matches, their name is highlighted in their Similarity Report. An instructor can rectify this issue by excluding by word number. In most cases, excluding 5 words should safely exclude a student's name from being hi…
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