Turnitin Guide for Students

Click on a section in the table of contents for quick access.

About Turnitin ......................................................................................................................... 1

Part One: Similarity Reports..................................................................................................... 1
How to Access a Similarity Report..............................................................................................1
How to View and Interpret a Similarity Report ..........................................................................3
Part Two: Turnitin Feedback .................................................................................................... 7
How to Find and View Turnitin Feedback ..................................................................................7
Feedback Option One.................................................................................................................9
Feedback Option Two ............................................................................................................. 11

About Turnitin

Written work in this course will be submitted for a textual similarity review through Turnitin. This review
generates a similarity report inside a feedback studio you can use to see where the text you wrote has
also been used. Instructors can also leave feedback in Turnitin for you to view in the feedback studio.

Submitted written work will also be included as source documents in Turnitin’s reference database to
help detect plagiarism of such papers. To learn more, review Turnitin’s usage policy and SNHU’s
academic integrity policy.

Part One: Similarity Reports

How to Access a Similarity Report

1. Select Assignments from the Course Menu dropdown in Brightspace.

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2. Locate the specific assignment you’d like to review, then click the Submission, File link from the
Completion Status column.

3. The Submission History view will open. To open the Turnitin feedback studio with the similarity
report for your assignment submission, click the box with the percentage value in it from the
Turnitin Similarity column.

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 4. The Turnitin feedback studio will open with the similarity report for that assignment.

How to View and Interpret a Similarity Report

There are three main parts of a Turnitin similarity report:

• Match Overview
• Match Breakdown
• Source Details

1. Match Overview: The match overview gives you a breakdown of all the matches that have been
found on a paper, ordered by highest similarity match to lowest. To open the match overview,
click the red numerical similarity score from the similarity toolbar.

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a. Note: The percentage shown does not necessarily mean that your paper was
plagiarized, though the higher the percentage, the higher the likelihood of plagiarism.
Since Turnitin identifies textual matches, text from appropriately cited material such as
in-text quotations or text in References sections might be included in the percentage
score.

b. For more information about similarity reports, access the “Viewing the Similarity
Report” article in the Help section of the feedback studio.

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2. Match Breakdown: To access the match breakdown for a source, click the arrow to the right of
each similarity percentage.

a. When viewing the match breakdown, you will see other papers and websites where the
text you wrote was also used.

b. Note: These sources may not be the exact sources that you used, as many papers and
reference materials exist in multiple places. Turnitin will find the first instance of a
match. Regardless of the source, if your text matches, it should be cited appropriately.

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 c. For more information about matches and sources in Turnitin, access the “Interpreting
Similarity Report” article in the Help section of the feedback studio.

3. Source Details: To view source details, click on a source in the Match Overview (number 1). When
viewing source details, you may see exact or close matches to the text in your paper (2). A source
box will appear on the paper, revealing where in the source the text has been identified (3).

a. A book icon in the top right-hand corner of the box will appear if you are able to read
the full source material. You will be able to see the source material unless it is from
another student’s paper. You are unable to see other students’ papers.

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 b. For more information, access the “Viewing the Similarity Report” article in the Help
section of the feedback studio.

Part Two: Turnitin Feedback

How to Find and View Turnitin Feedback

First, to determine if an assignment has been graded and has feedback of any kind, follow these steps:

1. Select Assignments from the Course Menu dropdown in Brightspace.

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 2. From the Assignments page, locate the specific assignment you’d like to review. If an
assignment has been graded, you’ll see the word “Feedback” in the Evaluation Status column.

3. If an assignment has not been graded, the Evaluation Status column will be empty.

If your instructor has left inline feedback in Turnitin, it can be accessed in one of two ways. See below
for Feedback Option One or Feedback Option Two.

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Feedback Option One

1. Select Assignments from the Course Menu dropdown in Brightspace.

2. Locate the specific assignment you’d like to review, then click the Submission, File link from the
Completion Status column.

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3. The Submission History view will open. Click the View Turnitin Online Grading link in the Inline
Feedback column.

Note: This link will appear only if your instructor has left feedback in Turnitin.

4. The feedback studio will open. You will see your instructor’s inline comments as well as
feedback in comment bubbles.

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Feedback Option Two

1. Select Assignments from the Course Menu dropdown in Brightspace.

2. From the Assignments page, locate the specific assignment you’d like to review. Then click Read
or Unread in the Evaluation Status column.

3. This will open the rubric feedback.

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4. Scroll to the bottom of the window, below the rubric. Click the View Turnitin Online Grading
link in the Inline Feedback column.

Note: This link will only appear if your instructor has left feedback in Turnitin.

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5. The feedback studio will open. You will see your instructor’s inline comments as well as
feedback in comment bubbles.

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