UTSA Academic Innovation

Getting Started with Turnitin (Students)

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Overview

Turnitin is a powerful tool designed to help you strengthen your academic writing and uphold academic integrity. It checks your work for text matches against a vast database of online content, scholarly publications, and previously submitted student papers, generating a "Similarity Report." This guide will help you understand how Turnitin works and how to utilize its features to enhance your papers, ensuring proper citation and paraphrasing practices.

Key Features of Turnitin

  • Similarity Report: Turnitin provides a detailed report highlighting any sections of your paper that match existing sources. This helps you identify areas where you might need to rephrase, cite, or quote more effectively. It's a learning opportunity to refine your academic writing skills.
  • Identifies Potential Unintentional Plagiarism: By showing you where your text overlaps with other sources, Turnitin can help you catch accidental instances of plagiarism, such as forgotten citations or insufficient paraphrasing, before you submit your final assignment.
  • Promotes Proper Citation and Referencing: The Similarity Report encourages you to review your citations and bibliography, ensuring that all sources are correctly attributed according to academic standards.
  • Learning Tool, Not Just a Plagiarism Detector: While it identifies similarities, Turnitin is primarily a tool to help you learn about academic integrity. It enables you to understand how to integrate research and effectively demonstrate your original thoughts.
  • Instructor Feedback Integration: Many instructors use Turnitin's feedback tools to provide comments and grades directly within the platform, allowing for a streamlined feedback process alongside the Similarity Report. 

Support

For support - Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. - email [email protected]u or call 210-458-4520. 

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