Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that can help students develop their writing and use of evidence. It generates an Originality Report showing where text may have been sourced from. While it provides a similarity percentage, this should not be considered alone - the detailed report must be interpreted. Students can submit assignments through Turnitin multiple times before the final submission deadline.

1. Uploading a Turnitin Assignment
The VLE @ GSA

2. Using Turnitin
• Turnitin is a text matching tool that can be useful in helping
you develop critical writing skills and your use of evidence.
• An Originality Report is generated that outlines where
particular excerpts of text may have come from.
• There are a number of things to be aware of in interpreting
the Originality Report, such as the assessment requirements,
inclusion of bibliographic information, etc.
• Whilst a similarity percentage is generated, this should not be
considered in isolation. It’s important and more meaningful
to interpret the findings of the Originality Report in detail.
• You can submit multiple times before the final submission.
However, each new upload will over-write the last version.

3. Submit your work through a
Turnitin Assignment link (look for
the icon). Click View/ Complete.

4. This will take you to the
Assignment Inbox. Click on
Submit to start the process.

5. As you have already logged on to the
VLE, your First name and Last name
should automatically appear.
Add a title for your submission.
Click here to see information
on file types and sizes
accepted.

6. As well as attaching a file from your
local computer you can browse
Dropbox and Google Drive.

7. Browse to find your file and
click Upload.

8. You will now see a preview of the
document you have submitted. Check
this carefully and click Submit.

9. You will receive confirmation (also
by email) that your submission is
complete.
Click Return to assignment list to
review your submission.

10. You can Resubmit or View your
existing submission here.

11. Return to upload link and click
View/ Complete.

12. On this page you will see your Similarity Index (a
percentage and coloured bar) and an option to
Resubmit. Click on your Similarity Index to access your
Originality Report.
< 24% 25 – 49% 25 – 49% > 75%
The coloured bar indicates how much text has been matched. Don’t worry
about this too much – it’s more important to make sense of the report.

13. What do the percentages mean?
• Generally under 15% indicates good use of resources, over
25% (yellow, orange or red) could indicate difficulties.
• Depends on remit of assessment and your use of evidence.
Quotation and references
• You can exclude quotes and bibliography when viewing your
work.
Paraphrasing
• Can help to pick up bits of texts that are not far enough away
from original to help develop your writing style.

14. If not already active, click on the
Originality button to show the
Originality Report pane.
This pane allows you to view a
digest of where text has come from,
what sources have been used and
how evidence has been
incorporated into an assessment.
Click on a Match to see its source and
incorporation.

15. The Match Breakdown helps to interpret
the Similarity Index. E.g. There is a fairly
large highlighted section here, but it is
properly referenced and clearly a quote.

16. To exclude bibliographic material or
quotations, click the filter icon at the
bottom right. You can then choose which
aspects you may wish to exclude. Then
click Apply Changes.

17. If there is a reference list this will now be
excluded from the Similarity Index.

18. You can save or print a copy of the
highlighted Originality Report by clicking
the printer icon.
Contact LThelp@gsa.ac.uk with any
queries.

19. Uploading a Turnitin Assignment
The VLE @ GSA