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Relevant to: students
This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.
Introduction
TurnItIn is the university's plagiarism detection tool, which allows you to review the Similarity Score and Similarity Report for your written work before you submit that work for a grade. The score will show how much of a submission was identified as a "match" to another's work, and in conjunction with consideration of the report, this can help you as a writer to make revisions for a stronger final draft.
If additional support with the writing process (eg. citations, paraphrasing, and quoting) or interpreting the report is needed, consult with Academic Support, which offers writing resources and tutoring options, including one-on-one tutors who can help parse the score and report.
This article will provide an overview of reading the Similarity Score in assignments and open forums, accessing the full Similarity Report, and navigating the Similarity Report. The article concludes with instructions on how to enroll in and use the Student Turnitin Portal.
Reading TurnItIn Similarity Reports in Brightspace Assignments
To read an originality report for an assignment
- Navigate to the assignments list by selecting "Course Menu" from the navbar, then "Assignments" from the drop-down menu.
- Please note: reports can take some time to appear, so you may need to refresh the web browser.
- For the assignment you wish to read the similarity report for, select "Completion Status".
- In the details of the assignment, a TurnItIn similarity percentage or a different icon will be shown:
- If the percentage is there, it means there is a similarity report ready. The score will be highlighted blue (for scores 0-20%), green (for scores 21-40%), yellow (for scores 41-60%), orange (for scores 61-80%), or red (for scores 81% or greater).
- If there is an image of a warning sign with an exclamation mark, it means the report is still pending.
- To open the report, select the Similarity score. A new window will open to view the TurnItIn Similarity Report, where you can interact with the TurnItIn tools and get a sense of what the assignment includes.
Interpreting the TurnItIn Similarity Report
When TurnItIn is scanning a submitted document, it is checking the submission against its database, and if there are instances where the writing is similar to, or matches against, one of their sources, the program will flag this for the instructor to review. The TurnItIn 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.
It is perfectly natural for an assignment to match against some of the TurnItIn database. If quotes and references are used correctly, there will be instances where TurnItIn will find a match and that is alright! The similarity score simply highlights any matching areas in a paper so the instructor can use this as an investigative tool to determine if the match is or is not acceptable.
Interpreting a Similarity Score
When viewing the submission in Brightspace, the color the Similarity Score is highlighted in indicates the similarity score of the paper. This score is based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is from 0% to 100%.
Possible Similarity Ranges
- 0% to 20%, highlighted in blue.
- 21% to 40%, highlighted in green.
- 41% to 60%, highlighted in yellow.
- 61% to 80%, highlighted in orange.
- 81% to 100%, highlighted in red.
Using the Student Turnitin Portal Plagiarism Checker
The Student Turnitin Portal Plagiarism Checker is intended for SUNY Empire students to be able to submit work to our TurnItIn platform to check their work for citation-based revision.
The Student Turnitin Portal is a course in Brightspace that also can be found using the Discover feature.
You can enroll in the 2024 to 2025 Academic Year Turnitin Portal by using the Self-Enroll Link.
For more information about using Discover to enroll in this course, review the Self-Enroll in a Course with Discover.
Uploading Documents to be Checked for Similarity
- Upon entering the Student Turnitin Portal, click on the Check my Documents" module.
- Scroll down to the Learning Activity Dropboxes submodule and click on one of the Assignments.
- At the bottom of the screen, click on the Upload button and locate the file to be reviewed.
- Please note: to review discussion post content, it is advised that students construct their post in a Word document. Upload that Word document to one of the mentioned Learning Activity Dropboxes to check the discussion post content for similarity.
- Click the Submit button.
Viewing Similarity Scores within the Student Turnitin Portal
- When in the Student Turnitin Portal, click Course Menu then select Assignments.
- On this page, select the appropriate link in the Completion Status column associated with the Assignment dropbox the file was submitted to.
- The Turnitin Similarity Report will appear to be reviewed.