What is Turnitin®UK?

Turnitin®UK is an electronic, "text-matching" service used by most Universities and Colleges in the UK. It is a piece of software that can help to develop academic writing skills, most particularly in terms of referencing and citing the work of others. Turnitin also offers an online marking and feedback facility - Turnitin GradeMark.

At Anglia Ruskin we use Turnitin®UK with students principally as a formative learning tool. Turnitin offers you the opportunity to submit draft written work so that you can:

• check that you have referenced and cited sources appropriately;
• check that the work you are preparing to submit is your own;
• seek tutorial advice on how to improve your work.

After you have submitted written work, and after a period of time, Turnitin®UK will create a report on how your work matches other text based items on the Turnitin®UK database which includes electronic books and journals, papers, websites and other student papers submitted to Turnitin®UK. The report is called an 'Originality Report', and your tutor will be able to help you understand what the originality report for your work means.

Turnitin®UK should be used as part of your development of good academic practice. Our Guidance to being honest in your work [PDF] is available under the Key documents for students section.

We are also using Turnitin GradeMark in a number of e-submission pilots across the university.

Important information

You should be aware that in submitting work to Turnitin for text matching, or as part of an e-submission pilot, you are agreeing with Turnitin®UK that it can be electronically checked for matches with existing sources and that an Originality Report can be generated.

The final submission you make to any Turnitin assignment will be kept on the Turnitin®UK database. Work held on the Turnitin®UK database may be used for the purpose of detecting the future plagiarism of your own work and or in any investigation of suspected academic offence.

Originality Reports - generated by you or a member of staff - may be used to assist in the identification of plagiarised work submitted for summative assessment. An Originality Report will never be advanced as the sole reason for suspecting that a piece of work is plagiarised, nor may an Originality Report be advanced as the sole defence against an accusation of plagiarism.

Turnitin®UK has a Privacy Pledge and a Usage Policy. We would suggest that you familiarise yourself with the contents of these.

Using Turnitin®UK

To submit to Turnitin®UK you need a Turnitin Account and the details of a Turnitin Class and Assignment. A Class is a discrete group of students and may be, for example, all first years, all students on your module, all students taking part in a GradeMark pilot, or all students in your tutor group. Within the Class, your class tutor will have created one or more assignments. You will be able to submit your work to an assignment in this Class.

Once you have a Turnitin®UK account you will be able to join any other class for which a member of academic staff has given you the Class ID and the Class Password, or which has been uploaded to your account automatically. You can join multiple classes, and submit work to multiple class assignments.

Obtaining a Turnitin®UK Account

Turnitin GradeMark e-submission Pilot Accounts ONLY

• If you are part of a GradeMark e-submission pilot, a Turnitin account will be created for you, and the account details - log in and password - will be sent to your student email address.
• If you already have a Turnitin account, the two accounts will merge so long as the account details - name and email address - are identical. When you log into your account, your class and assignment will be visible to you.

Turnitin text matching service Accounts - NOT GradeMark e-submission

• If you are not part of the GradeMark e-submission pilot, and do not have a Turnitin account, you can create one yourself, so long as you have a Class ID and Class Password from a member of Faculty staff, the VLE or the module guide.
• Log onto the Turnitin®UK website and create a Turnitin®UK account as a 'new user', using your Anglia email address and creating your own Turnitin®UK account password.
• Use the Class ID and Class Password to join the Class. This will appear in your Turnitin®UK account.

Submit your work to Turnitin®UK for e-Submission to GradeMark, or for Text Matching (Originality Checking)

• Log onto the Turnitin®UK website and your Turnitin account.
• Click on a Class in your account where you will find the details of the assignment to which you wish to submit your work.
• Next to the assignment title there is a 'submit' icon, click on this, then:
  • Click on the 'file upload' option;
  • Browse and upload your paper (direct from a desktop, from a disc or memory stick);
  • Check the 'preview' of your uploaded paper - are you satisfied with it?
  • If so, click submit; you will receive a digital receipt of your submission.
• If you are not satisfied with the 'preview' of your paper and want to stop the submission process at this point, click return to upload page.

Further help

• Turnitin Student Guide [PDF]
• GradeMark Quick Start Guide to e-Submission [PDF]
• Quick Start Guide to Viewing an Originality Report [PDF]

If you experience any further problems, first see if you can find the answer on our FAQ sheet. If you are still experiencing problems, for problems related to IT access please contact the Library IT HelpDesk. For problems related to the GradeMark pilots, interpretation of the Originality Report and lost or forgotten Class IDs and Class Passwords, please contact your tutor.