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How to Read a Turnitin® Report
The Turnitin® tool offered through the Center for Writing Excellence can help students avoid plagiarism charges by identifying areas where quoted material has not been cited before the assignment has been submitted for a grade or posted in part of the online classroom. This document is intended as a guide to help students read a Turnitin® report and make the most of what it contains.
When you first open the report, you may find it organized in one of two formats:
Format A
Format B
Both versions cover the same material. If you prefer one or the other, it is easy to toggle between the two. If you are in Format A and would like Format B, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the Text-Only Report button at the bottom of the screen.
If you are in Format B and would like Format A, simply click on the Document Viewer button at the top left of the screen.
This document will use Format A.
Step One: Getting Started
First, look at the overall “Similar” percentage in the top right corner of the screen.
Common phrasing and titles can account for certain matches, so a result of 5% or less is usually not cause for concern. However, looking at Sam Student’s results, you see that he has a result of 53%. Since Turnitin ignores matches that are enclosed in quotation marks, this means that more than half of the paper matches to another source, and that material has not been properly cited. This is a problem, and you need to look closer to see what must be done.
Step Two: Analyzing Results
Once it has been established that the match percentage of the paper is too high and needs to be addressed, the Turnitin® report can help us determine what passages need our attention. If you look to the right side of the screen, you will see that the 53% has been broken down into what is called a “Match Overview.” This part of the report tells you how many different matches added up to that 53%.
As you can see, Sam Student’s report has three matches: accounting for 50%, 2%, and 1% of the result. Although the 50% is the most significant issue, look at number three first, which shows a 1% match.
The results are color-coded and numbered, so you can now scroll down the report to find number three, which is highlighted in purple.
By looking at number three’s highlighted passage, you can see that the match is accounted for by common wording. “Common wording” refers to short passages that many writers use because these phrases are simply the most efficient way to say something. In this case, many people writing about Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914 could be expected to use the phrase, “the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.” In this case, another short common phrase, “the events,” also matched. But there is no cohesive quote here, just some coincidental matching that account for only 1% of the complete paper. So you can safely ignore this match.
Step Three: Identifying Potential Plagiarism
Now, look at the match you cannot ignore: 50%. Although it is possible for short matches of 1 and 2% to result from common phrasing, it is effectively impossible to have a 50% match from a single source be coincidental. The 50% match in this report represents material that was copied but not properly cited. Sam Student would have to correct this problem and insert the proper quotation marks, or it is very likely he would be charged with plagiarism.
Step Four: Correcting the Problem
Once you have determined that one or more of your matches must be corrected, there are several things you must consider. Ideally, you have kept a list of your research sources. You can then use that information to enclose the copied material in quotation marks and include the necessary in-text and reference page. However, there is a second issue to consider. Many instructors limit the percentage of a paper that can be directly quoted, and you need to check to see if your instructor has any such limitations. Otherwise, you could fix the plagiarism only to find yourself in trouble with your instructor for a lack of original content.
Assume that a lengthy quote is acceptable for this assignment. However, for some reason, you forgot to keep a list of your sources and are not sure where you got this passage from.
If you look at the Match Overview, you see that Turnitin® has identified the source as www.oppapers.com. Given that, it might seem as though you could simply cite www.oppapers.com. However, that is exactly what you should not do. To understand why, it helps to have a general idea of how Turnitin identifies matches.
When a student runs a paper through Turnitin®, the paper is compared to a variety of databases, as well as the Internet, in a search for a match. When it finds a match, it simply stops looking. So there could be dozens of matches, and www.oppapers.com was simply the first one Turnitin® found. Why is that a problem? Oppapers.com and other sites like it are marketed as study aid websites. Among other services, these sites may provide access to sample essays for a fee. Although the essays are intended as comparison models, unscrupulous students may submit one of these essays as their own, which is plagiarism. Given this issue, very few instructors will accept material from a study aid website as a legitimate source, and some may simply not credit any material taken from these sources, even if they are cited properly. Further, since many of these sites have hundreds of contributors, it is impossible for site owners to moderate content fully, which makes it very possible for the essays on these cites to contain material plagiarized from other sources.
What should Sam Student do? Fortunately, there is often a very simple solution. In the vast majority of cases, when students copy material in this quantity and forget to include citations, the material was drawn from the course textbook. Sam Student can simply go back to the relevant course readings, and he should find the copied passages, which he can then properly cite.
If that does not work and Sam is unable to find the source, he may need to rewrite that portion of his essay, locating new sources and remembering to cite them as he includes them.
Step Five: Instructor Turnitin® Reports
In most cases, if you use Turnitin® and properly cite any material found as a significant match, you will avoid committing plagiarism. However, in certain cases, students may submit an assignment that produces less than 5% matching material, only to be told by the instructor that Turnitin® produced a much higher match. How does this happen?
When instructors submit papers to Turnitin®, they receive results that not only compare the contents of the paper to the Internet and public databases, but also to a database of essays submitted by other University of Phoenix students in previous courses. This service is not available to students since it would violate students’ right to privacy.
But how can a paper match to another student paper if Sam Student did not copy from another student? Assuming no deliberate cheating took place, the answer is simple: both students copied the material from the same location. This location is most likely the textbook. Textbooks are not automatically entered into Turnitin®, so course material only makes it into the databases when it is used by another student. Some of those student essays find their way onto study aid websites, but most do not. As a result, they are not noticed until they are compared to another student’s essay. Some students erroneously believe that they do not need to cite material from the textbook, but this is not true. You must cite everything that is neither your original idea nor common knowledge.
You can avoid these surprises by being particularly careful about copying material from your text and inserting citations as you write.
Final Note
You will get the most out of your Turnitin® reports if you also take the time to familiarize yourself with proper citation guidelines and plagiarism rules. If you have not already, you may wish to review the Avoiding Plagiarism Tutorial (https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/grammar/plagiarism.asp).
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