Turnitin is plagiarism detection software that allows educational institutions to submit student assignments and check them against its databases, which include internet sources, published works, and papers previously submitted to Turnitin. The document outlines how students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) will submit assignments to Turnitin to deter plagiarism. It provides details on how Turnitin checks submissions for potential plagiarism by comparing to its databases and generates originality reports for students and instructors.

1. Juliet Stoltenkamp, 19 Jan 2012

2.  Turnitin is an internet based plagiarism detection software.
 Educational institutions submit essays and written
assignments to the Turnitin website, which checks the
documents for plagiarism.
 Submissions are checked through:
•A current and extensive internet publications database
•Billions of commercial pages from books, newspapers,
and journals
•Millions of student papers in Turnitin’s repository
(added on for intellectual property)

3.  UWC students will submit their written assignments to
Turnitin, as a deterrent to plagiarism via the web
 Turnitin checks for possible plagiarism by comparing
submitted papers to several databases. It scans its own
database(s), and also has licensing agreements with large
academic proprietary databases.

4.  Web- based gateway to Tii  Tii used as a tool to
 Lecturers can create promote creative writing.
assignments and view  Students submit and get
class lists with student originality reports.
numbers with their  Students
originality reports peruse/navigate
 Students can log in and report; discuss
submit assignments and reports and identify
get originality reports. errors with
 One gateway: Link to Tii lecturer/tutor
server  Students rework
documents and

5.  Training currently undergoing for both lecturers and students
 Bookings are made through our ICT training team (via
lecturer)
 Tii is being used as a deterrent to plagiarism; not as the
benchmark for the affect/aftermath of plagiarism
 Lecturer training focuses on using the tool to promote
creative writing and enhance writing practices within UWC.
 ‘Just-in-time training’: Manuals (lecturer and student) which
can be directly accessed from
http://turnitin.uwc.ac.za/student

6.  Submitted documents- database search:
◦ Current and extensively archived copy of the publicly
accessible internet publications
◦ Commercial pages from books, newspapers, and journals
◦ Millions of student papers already submitted to Turnitin
◦ Massive proprietary database of all Turnitin (Tii) university
repositories
◦ Following, a report is generated.

7.  Report contents:
 Paper ID > unique
identification for each
submission> security
 Authors name
 Class in which
assignment was
submitted (created by
your lecturer)
 Similarity index >
Actual matches found
on document
 Overview of similar
matches >

8.  Source report
 Shows you similarity
matches in
descending order
 Click on link to see
actual source.
 Source number
enables easy
navigation- i.e. to
specific match
(source) found
 Colour differentiation –
easy navigation

9.  Source report
 Text matches within
submitted doc
 Words –no matches
are shown in grey
 Matches shown in a
specific color
 Even misquoted texts
appear as matches
within the similarity
index.

11.  Assignment inbox
 Shows you the reports of
the submitted assignments
 Color coded
 Green <25%
 Yellow25%> &<50%
 Orange 50%<&<75%
 Red>75%

12. Using Tii

13. Enter your
email address
Enter your password
received from turnitin
helpdesk if you are the
first time user.

14. Change your
password to
something you’ll
remember

15. HOW TO SUBMIT A PAPER
Click on the class
name

16. This page you can see the due date
for the assignment. Click on
submit/resubmit

17. Click drop down
arrow to select the
submission method
Enter submission
title
Then Click on Upload
Search for your file that
you want to upload.e.g.
from your flash drive,
hard drive depending
where you’ve saved it

18. This is the
preview of
what you are
submitting if
incorrect you
can click on
“Return to
upload page”
Then click on submit
if you’re certain that
the document is
correct.

19. If you see this page
you are done(YOU WILL
RECEIVE EMAIL AS WELL)

20. How to Read the Originality
Report
Click on the
class

21. Click here

22. Click here to
view the
report

23. New Originality report
You see as the document was submitted with all the
formatting, charts etc

24. To see which source a highlighted text matches look for the
source that has the same number and color indicator as
highlight.

25. If would like to see the text from the source in order to compare with student text
simple click on highlighted text and source comparison window will appear.