Plagiarism Assessment Service
Turnitin.com

• What is Turnitin?
• Faculty: context of using Turnitin at EMU
• Faculty: informing students about the use of Turnitin
• Limitations of Turnitin
• Faculty: getting started with Turnitin
• Students: getting started with Turnitin
• Resources and help at EMU

What is Turnitin?

To help promote awareness of and the practice of academic integrity, Eastern Michigan University has subscribed to Turnitin.com, a web-based service that compares submitted student text against a database of millions previously published documents, including those on the public Internet, the proprietary collection of the ProQuest company, as well as every student paper ever submitted to Turnitin.com, including previously submitted EMU papers. When similarities between student text and an existing document are found, Turnitin highlights those similarities in an annotated document, displaying both the student text and the original source(s). Detection of similarities does NOT mean plagiarism has occurred as the overlapping text might be properly referenced and cited. The service is managed by the Library and supported by Student Judicial Services and the Faculty Development Center.

Context of Using the Turnitin.com at EMU

It is recommended that the Turnitin.com service be used as a tool that can facilitate learning to write with external sources. The most appropriate use of Turnitin.com is as a teaching tool, i.e. for students to check and improve their own drafts (the text-overlap reports also go to the instructor) before submitting final drafts. Instructors who use the service in any way in their classes should communicate to their students:

1. What constitutes plagiarism in their area of study. This includes not only a clear definition of plagiarism but also examples of acceptable and unacceptable practice (See Plagiarism: Understanding, Detecting, Avoiding);
2. A clear statement of the consequences of plagiarism including different levels of sanctions. (See EMU Student Judicial Services Promoting Academic Integrity: A Guide for Faculty .)

For purposes of fairness and equal application, EMU strongly recommends that any instructor who desires to use the service provide it as an alternative to required work that supports learning to integrate external sources, e.g., an instructor might offer students a choice from the following options: (1) submit a short reflection paper on research methodology in addition to a final paper, (2) submit a draft bibliography prior to submission of the final paper, (3) submit the cover page and first cited page of each reference source to be photocopied and submitted with the final paper, or (4) as an alternative to one of the three required options above, consent to use the Turnitin.com service.

The University of Texas at Austin provides helpful web pages that provide "strategies for implementing the writing process in course and assignment design". Here are some web sites with suggestions for designing effective writing assignments:

• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Maryland University College

Here is a writing assignment design activity from an EMU Writing Across the Curriculum workshop (PDF).

Informing Students About the Use of Turnitin.com

Instructors should include the following statement in their syllabus:

Turnitin.com is a web-based service that compares submitted student text against a database of millions of previously published documents, including those on the public Internet, a proprietary collection of published articles, as well as every student paper ever submitted to Turnitin.com, including previously submitted EMU papers. When similarities between student text and an existing document are found, Turnitin highlights those similarities in an annotated document, displaying both the student text and the original source(s). Detection of similarities does NOT mean plagiarism has occured as the overlapping text might be properly referenced and cited. In this course I may submit your assignments or you may be asked to submit assignments to Turnitin.com for textual similarity review.

Some Limitations of Turnitin.com

• While Turnitin identifies textual overlap, it does not catch other types of academic dishonesty, e.g., invented bibliographic citations and "factual" content fabricated from the writer's imagination;
• While Turnitin includes content from ProQuest's proprietary databases, it does NOT include the digital content from all the other online services subscribed to by the EMU library (unless another Turnitin client submitted the text as their own);
• Turnitin does not catch copying from print sources (unless another Turnitin client has already digitized and submitted the text as their own).

Faculty: Getting Started with Turnitin.com

To register for an individual TurnItIn account as an Eastern Michigan University Faculty Member:

1. Complete the linked MS Word document and deliver a SIGNED copy of the form to Keith Stanger, EMU Library, Room 100-G. [keith@stanger.com ; (734)487-0020 x2136]
2. After the account is processed a confirmation of your order will be delivered to you via email, with links to online training materials.

Turnitin offers this short Instructor Quickstart, which you can read online and/or print, as well as a short online Instructor Quickstart Video. A video explaining the features of the Originality Report that is generated after papers are compared with the Turnitin database is also available.

A more complete Instructor User Guide is available in the Adobe PDF format.

Turnitin.com offers research resources for students and faculty. For faculty, Turnitin.com offers:

• Suggestions for integrating plagiarism education into lesson plans
• Tips for creating assignments that discourage plagiarism and encourage original thinking
• Information on the causes of plagiarism today
• Help with identifying different types of plagiarism, in particular plagiarism from the Internet
• Printable handouts for students on plagiarism, proper citation, and paper writing

Students: Getting Started With Turnitin.com

1. Obtain from your instructor a Turnitin.com Class ID and Enrollment Password
2. Connect to http://www.turnitin.com/ and click on the link "create a user profile" in the upper right corner. Follow the online directions.

Turnitin offers this short Student Quickstart, which you can read online and/or print, as well as a short online Student Quickstart Video. A video explaining the features of the Originality Report that is generated after papers are compared with the Turnitin database is also available.

A more complete Student User Guide is available in the Adobe PDF format.

Research resouces for students include:

• Plagiarism defined, in easy-to-understand terms
• Tips on how to avoid both Internet-based and conventional plagiarism
• Guidelines for proper citation, and links to help with specific citation styles
• Suggestions for developing good research and writing skills
• Answers to frequently asked questions, including explanations for often misunderstood concepts like fair use, public domain, and copyright laws
• Definitions for important research-related terms

Turnitin.com Help and Resources at EMU

Hands on Training Workshops for Faculty

Contact librarians:

Keith Stanger
keith@stanger.com
(734)487-0020 x2136
Library, Room 100g

EMU Syllabus/Assignment Design Support

Faculty Development Center
Karen Busch
kbusch@emich.edu
(734)487-0020 x2114
Library, Room 109d

EMU Writing Resources

First-Year Writing
Linda Adler-Kassner, Director
linda.adler-kassner@emich.edu
(734)487-0148
Pray-Harrold, Room 603D

EMU Student Judicial Services

Student Judicial Services Office
Jesus Hernandez
jhernande@emich.edu
(734)487-2157
King Hall, Room 204