Turnitin Frequently Asked
Questions
What is Turnitin.com?
Turnitin.com is a Web-based plagiarism detection service available
to ACC faculty and staff who are currently teaching or support teaching
activities at ACC.
TurnItIn.com has a database of over a million papers submitted
to them, a digitized version of the Gutenberg Collection of Literary
Classics, and papers pulled from the Internet and various "paper
mills," (i.e., services that sell term papers).
The parent organization of TurnItIn.com is Plagiarism.org. This excellent site has a lot of helpful tips on preventing plagiarism.
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Who is Eligible to Use Turnitin.com?
All ACC faculty and staff currently teaching or supporting teaching
activities.
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Are student papers kept confidential?
Yes. The ACC license with Turnitin.com specifies a privacy pledge
in accordance with FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act. The U.S. Department of Education's FERPA Regulations give the
requirements on the confidentiality of student records and information.
If you are concerned about student privacy, it is always a good
idea to use aliases for actual student names when submitting papers
for review by Turnitin.com. We recommend you use aliases to ensure
that student privacy is protected.
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What is plagiarism?
According to the ACC Student Code of Conduct in the ACC Student
Handbook, under Part I, Code of Conduct, Student Rights and Responsibilities,
Part I, Responsibilities: (http://204.151.43.55/studentsvcs/studentlife/handbook/handbook.pdf),
the following behavior is prohibited: In short, plagiarism is the
use of another's original words or ideas as if they were your
own.
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What are the consequences of
plagiarism for ACC students?
Plagiarism is an act of academic dishonesty, which threatens the
academic integrity of ACC. If a faculty member suspects a student
of plagiarism, he or she can choose to deal with the student within
the context of the course, by requiring a revision, giving the student
a failing grade, or several other disciplinary options. The faculty
member can choose to file a complaint with the College, which can
result in a hearing concerning the matter. If the student is found
guilty of plagiarism, the student may be subject to a variety of
sanctions, including the issuance of a warning, disciplinary probation,
disciplinary suspension, and expulsion.
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As a faculty member, what should
I do if I believe a student has plagiarized?
Faculty members do have options when they think a student has plagiarized.
The faculty member can choose to deal with a student within the
confines of the course by holding a conference with the student
in which the faculty member presents the evidence of plagiarism
and the student has the chance to explain or rebut the accusation.
The faculty member can also choose to file a complaint with the
Dean of Students or designee, which can result in a resolution through
mediation or a hearing.
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As a student, where can
I learn more about plagiarism?
If a student has any questions about plagiarism or citing sources,
he or she should not hesitate to talk to a faculty member, the library
staff, or visit the ACC Writing Center.
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As a student, what should
I do if I have been accused of plagiarism?
Whether you are guilty or innocent, you should be aware of your
rights and responsibilities as a student and the judicial process.
It would be valuable for you to read the ACC Student Code of Conduct
in the ACC Student Handbook (http://204.151.43.55/studentsvcs/studentlife/handbook/handbook.pdf)
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If I submit a paper
for one class and then submit the same paper again for another class,
is this plagiarism?
This is not plagiarism, but it is recycling work, which is a lower
academic standard. This does not mean that you will never use the
same ideas in subsequent courses, but you should put forth the effort
to produce novel work for each of your classes. Each course is unique
in its learning objectives and method of instruction, and it is
not likely that one paper will fulfill the expectations of both
faculty members. In addition, even though you are not violating
ACC's Student Code of Conduct, you may be violating the standards
set by a college, department, or faculty member.
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How does Turnitin work?
Turnitin allows the student or educator to upload a paper into
the Turnitin database, and the software will then use algorithms
to create “digital fingerprints” that can identify similar
patterns in text. Then the paper is matched to billions of web pages,
paper mill essays, and student papers submitted online. Finally,
in an hour or less, Turnitin creates an “originality report”
that records any passages from the paper that might not be authentic,
and lists web sites and other resources that include previously
submitted papers that have matched content to the passages.
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What are the advantages of Turnitin?
Turnitin was the first of its kind of plagiarism prevention system
and is recognized worldwide as a valuable resource for educators
and students. Faculty can use Turnitin to make the process of detecting
plagiarism easier and more efficient. Students can use Turnitin
to check their own papers to see if they have properly cited sources.
In addition, Turnitin provides students and faculty with a variety
of educational resources on preventing and avoiding plagiarism,
writing research papers, and citing sources.
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As a faculty member, how do
I sign up for a Turnitin account?
Contact the ACC Turnitin administrator, Ed Sadowski, to create
an account for you.
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If I am a student, how do I
sign up for a Turnitin account?
Your instructor must give you a class ID number and a class enrollment
password. Then, you visit www.turnitin.com to create a user profile
and use the class ID and enrollment password to enroll.
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How long does it take for Turnitin
to check an uploaded paper?
Turnitin will check a paper against the Web and generate an originality
report in an hour or less.
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How are papers uploaded to Turnitin?
To upload a paper into Turnitin, students or faculty log into their
Turnitin accounts and find the appropriate classes. Then, they can
either: (a) copy and paste their paper into a text box and click
submit or (b) browse for a file and click submit. Faculty and students
can submit their papers in Microsoft Word, plain text, RTF, PDF,
or Postscript formats.
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Is a paper that receives a
high similarity rating necessarily plagiarized?
No. A high similarity rating does not mean that a student has plagiarized;
it only indicates that the faculty member should review the paper
for possible plagiarism. There are several reasons besides plagiarism
that a paper would receive a high similarity rating. For instance,
if a student includes many properly cited references in one paper,
it might show a high similarity rating. In addition, if the student
has previously submitted the paper to Turnitin prior to the final
submission, it might show a high similarity rating.
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Does Turnitin check against
newspaper articles and books to ensure that students have not cut
and pasted from them?
Yes. Most of the world's newspapers are available on the
Internet, making it easy for Turnitin to check papers against these
sources. However, not all books are available on the Internet, but
Turnitin is able to check papers against those books that reside
on the Internet.
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How do you keep from having
too many matches for papers on general or common topics?
Turnitin's database uses a very careful source analysis,
which eliminates as many irrelevant matches as possible, while still
noting suspect matching passages.
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I forgot the enrollment password
I created for my class. Is there a way I can look that up?
After you log in to Turnitin, you should see a box with a line
for each of your classes. At the far right of the line for each
class is a green button under the heading "update." If
you click on the green button you will see the class name and enrollment
password. You can change the password here as well if you wish.
Is there a manual or video
that will give me more information about using Turnitin?
Yes, for complete information about using Turnitin, there are user
manuals and training videos for faculty and students that can be
downloaded from http://www.turnitin.com/static/training.html.
(Adapted from the University of Alabama in Huntsville)
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