Turnitin

Turnitin within Blackboard (Students)

General Information

Turnitin is an intellectual property verification tool. Papers submitted to Turnitin are checked against a comprehensive database of source materials. Originality reports are generated that list the results of the matching process, flagging text identified as closely matching other internet, article, or student resources. Turnitin can be configured to analyze or identify spelling, grammatical, usage, mechanics, and/or style errors.

SIUE also licenses two other components of the Turnitin suite: GradeMark, an online tool for grading papers, and PeerMark, an online tool for distributing student papers for peer review. 

Instructors can set up Turnitin assignments in their Blackboard courses to let students submit papers. The instructions below are intended to help students use this resource within Blackboard. Information is also available for using Turnitin outside of the Blackboard environment.

If Turnitin is utilized in a course, the instructor is encouraged to inform students via a statement included in the syllabus.  Students should remove their names and any other personally identifying information from their papers prior to submission to Turnitin.

Using Turnitin within Blackboard

Submitting a Turnitin Assignment - To submit a Turnitin assignment:

1. Complete the assignment and save the file in an acceptable format.
2. Navigate to the section of the Blackboard course where the Turnitin assignment has been created by the instructor (i.e. Assignments, Course Materials, etc.)
3. Click the >>View/Complete link.
4. Once the Turnitin page opens, read the user agreement, acknowledge you are at least 13 years of age, and click on the I agree--continue button.
5. Choose the "submission method," enter a "submission title," click the Browse button in the "browse for the file to upload" area to select the file on the local or external drive, and then click the upload button. An acknowledgement that the paper has been successfully uploaded will be generated. A new screen will open showing a preview of the paper. Click on the submit button on the "Step 2 of 2" screen to complete the submission process.
6. A confirmation screen will appear including a unique paper ID.

Students may be permitted one submission per Turnitin assignment or multiple submissions depending upon how the assignment is configured by the instructor. According to the Turnitin site, when multiple submissions are permitted, only one Originality Report will be processed in a 24 hour period; reports "for second or subsequent submissions will require a 24 hour delay before the Originality Report begins processing." Therefore, students should be careful to select the correct file before clicking on the Submit button when multiple submissions are allowed. Instructors may also set up a draft Turnitin assignment allowing students to submit their papers to check for possible plagiarism prior to their final paper submission. Once the final assignment is submitted, it will be stored in Turnitin global student paper repository. 

Viewing a Turnitin Originality Report

If the instructor has made the Originality Report accessible to students, they will be able to view it through the same link used to submit the Turnitin assignment by clicking on the Show details link and then the linked percentage figure under the "Originality" heading. Be aware that it might take some time for a report to be generated; it is not instantly available for review as soon as a paper is submitted. If a student’s paper has matching text in the Originality Report, it does not necessarily indicate plagiarism. Turnitin will flag quotes that the student has correctly referenced. Students need to review the report carefully and if the report was based on a draft, make the corrections before submitting the final assignment.   

Consult this tutorial for additional information: Turnitin Help Center Video: Viewing an Originality Report

Frequently Asked Questions

What resources are used by Turnitin to check for plagiarism?
The software checks all submitted papers against:

• Internet - comprehensive index of current and archived documents available for public access on the Internet
• Publications and newsletters - Cengage Academic OneFile, Emerald, ABC-CLIO, Sage e-Reference and CrossRef
• Student paper database - containing student papers submitted by students using Turnitin around the globe to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism

What file formats does Turnitin support?
Turnitin supports Microsoft Word (.doc & .docx), plain text (TXT), rich text (RTF), PDF, HTML, WordPerfect, PostScript. Files must be less than 20 MB. The maximum paper length is 400 pages.

How do I interpret a Turnitin Originality Report?
Consult this video for details on how to interpret the report.

How many Turnitin Originality Reports can be generated?
According to the Turnitin site, when multiple submissions are permitted, only one Originality Report will be processed in a 24 hour period; reports "for second or subsequent submissions will require a 24 hour delay before the Originality Report begins processing."

What are the technical requirements of Turnitin?
Turnitin runs a compatibility checker that will notify users of any issues. However, to make sure that Turnitin will correctly operate, check the Turnitin system requirements and supported web browsers. Both cookies and Javascript must be enabled.

Will there be times when I cannot access Turnitin?
View the Turnitin scheduled maintenance times to see when the system will be unavailable.

Additional Resources

For additional information on student usage of Turnitin, view the Turnitin training site or consult the following resources:

• Turnitin Blackboard Integration Student User Manual (PDF)

For more information about or additional help with Turnitin, contact Information Technology Services at (618) 650-5500 or via email at ftc_help@siue.edu.