Saybrook's Writing Services provides free and unlimited access to Turnitin. Using this resource, you may submit your paper and receive a Turnitin score to determine if the assignment needs revision prior to submitting a final draft. Using the Turnitin Trial Submission will provide the opportunity to avoid any unintentional plagiarism. Additionally, some professors require a specific score from Turnitin for written assignments. Consult with your instructor about course-specific Turnitin requirements.
To access the Turnitin Trial Submission, use the following instructions:
If you encounter any issues while generating a Turnitin report, please contact us at writingservices@saybrook.edu. Additionally, if you would like support in understanding your report or revising your paper to improve your score, you may schedule an appointment with a staff member from the Center for Writing and Academic Success here: https://saybrook.mywconline.com/
Turnitin is ultimately a computer algorithm that finds similarities between your document and other documents in its system. That is all it is doing—finding patterns. This may yield some issues that students often ask about.
1. My reference entries are being flagged in the report. Is this accurate?
As mentioned above, Turnitin has found a pattern. Believe it or not, it is actually a good thing that Turnitin is marking your reference entries because it simply means that you have used the same source as someone else and both of you have cited it using the same formatting. This indicates that you have likely formatted your APA-style entry correctly. Consult with your instructor about how to resolve this if necessary.
2. I have accurately cited my direct quotes, but they are still being flagged. How do I resolve this?
All this means is that you have quoted something and the settings are not quite right. Depending on the settings of the assignment, direct quotes may be flagged. If this is the case, your instructor may prefer that you use paraphrased material rather than directly quoting the original source. Check out our page “Paraphrasing & Quoting Sources" for more information on how to paraphrase material and when it is appropriate to use direct quotes.
3. The title of my document is flagged as being plagiarized. What do I do?
This happens a lot. Once again, Turnitin has found a pattern…someone else has written a document with your title already. Generally speaking, this is not a point of concern, but if you need to lower your score, try making your title more specific or more creative. For example, a paper titled “Dogs" would probably yield a lot of matching results whereas “The Benefits of Being a Dog Owner" or “Dogs…Can't Live Without Them!" might be less likely to yield a similarity score.