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Turnitin - Student

Understand the similarity report

What is it?

The Similarity Report provides you with an overall score of how much of your submission is similar to other works. It also provides information on what text it detected as being similar and the source (if this is publicly available).

Remember, this does not mean that this work is plagiarised. Consider your use of quotations, citations, bibliographic material,and standard phrases in your subject area, when reviewing your report.  Contact your module lead if you have any concerns.

What should I know?

 

Overall similarity

There is no fixed "acceptable" number for a similarity report.

You are likely to have some similarity in your work with others, for example: 

  • You have quoted material - this will be the same as the original - and other students may have cited the same work, especially if it's a core text, or critical paper in your subject area. 
  • Bibliography - you are expected to use a standard referencing style, and to use academic texts. You probably are not the first person to city this particular item. 
  • Some subject areas have standard phrases that your instructor would expect to see, for example, if writing up reports of experiments. 
  • If you have a cover sheet, or it's a worksheet, it may pick up these as being similar to the rest of your class.

 

How to find your report

Step 1: In your module, select the assignment you wish to view and click Launch.

Step 2: Click either the Paper Title or Similarity. This will take you to the similarity report. 

 

Step 3: Once you have your paper open, look on the right-hand side of the page for a red tab. The number at the top is the percentage of your paper that has been found to be similar to other work. Click on that number

Step 4: This shows the overall Similarity Score and the list of sources that match your submission, listed from greatest to least. The colours in this list match the colours highlighted in the your writing. In your submission, there are flags with numbers that correlate to the list on the right-hand side.

Screenshot of similarity report

 

Step 5: To view the original source for a highlighted item, click on the link in the menu, and a pop-up will appear, containg more details. 

Note: Any item that says "Submitted to" is an item that you can't see any further details about. This is because it is student work.

 

What can I do with the information in my report?

The information in your Similarity Report should help you make decisions about how to improve your writing, whether that is in later drafts of the same assignment or on future assignments. If you have the opportunity to revise your writing based on your Similarity Score, consider the following: 

  • Choose only the most significant quotes or parts of quotes to include from your sources.
  • Summarise, paraphrase or explain an idea in your own words rather than quoting it directly (you still need to cite your source if you do this!).
  • Cite all of your evidence using the appropriate citation style 

Speak to your lecturers, academic librarian, or Academic Skills team if you have questions about your referencing. 

We have also created a longer version of the video to help you understand your similarity report. Some staff use this version in class to help you understand what the report is telling you.