What is Turnitin and how do I access it?
Last Updated: 17.Jan.2024 Views: 2814

Turnitin is the software that the University subscribes to for plagiarism detection analysis. All summative assignments, including final year undergraduate projects and dissertations and all postgraduate dissertations (or similar), are automatically sent to Turnitin when you submit your work on Canvas.

For practice purposes, many students have access to the ‘Turnitin: Developing Referencing skills’ course - or a Faculty-specific equivalent of this - which you will see on your Dashboard in Canvas. This course (screenshot below) will give you the opportunity to upload your draft work to Turnitin multiple times over the academic year, in order to help with developing academic writing skills and identifying plagiarism and referencing issues. This upload area is formative and the work would not normally be stored in the Turnitin repository. However, if earlier drafts of your work are stored and your originality report matches to them, this will not usually be classed as a plagiarism offence. Always speak to your tutor for advice if this happens to you.
 

If you can’t see the Canvas course, you should check within your individual modules to see if there is a practice upload link within the Assignments area. Not all courses have provided Turnitin access to students, so if you are in any doubt please check with your tutor.

Please note: the only access the University provides to Turnitin is via Canvas. It is not possible for you to register independently to use the web version on turnitinuk.com - so if you are being asked for a 'Class ID' you are in the wrong place.

Originality Reports

When you put through a practice Turnitin submission, you will be provided with an ‘Originality Report’ with percentage scores for how much your work matches other sources. This report is usually available within 24 hours, although it can take longer to come through at peak assessment times. 

For further advice about Originality Reports, please see our linked FAQ - How do I interpret my Turnitin Originality Report?

 

image of front page of 'turnitin' course in Canvas

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