Give yourself a plagiarism checkup

—resources for the savvy student

The savvy student does a “spell check” before turning in a paper to catch errors. It’s edu-
cational too, helping to teach you how to spell better. So why not do a plagiarism check
on your paper also?
A plagiarism check will help you see where you didn’t properly give credit to the sources
of your information. Did you leave out quotation marks to identify direct quotes? Did you
fail to properly paraphrase (put in your own words) the information you are using? Did
you accurately identify (cite) the sources of the information and ideas you are using?
First, are you clear about what plagiarism is? Plagiarism can cause you to fail your
course and even more—deliberate plagiarism is a serious academic offense. Go to
Plagiarism.org to learn about plagiarism and how to prevent it.
If you don’t have access to Turnitin, use these sites to do a plagiarism check: the free
Plagiarism Checker (dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker) and Plagium.com, or the
inexpensive WriteCheck.com

Working with Turnitin

Does your class have you enrolled in Turnitin, the plagiarism
detection service? If so, see the resources on the checklist
handout to help you understand and interpret the Turnitin
Originality Reports. Does your instructor give you the opportunity to view your Originality
Reports as a draft prior to a final revision? If not, suggest to your instructor to provide that
option (in fact, not all instructors are aware that a first draft Originality Report can be done,
and that students can even upload and generate the Reports themselves).
What does my Turnitin™ Originality Report mean?
A checklist for self-evaluation
Prepared by Ed Sadowski, Arapahoe Community College Library, adapted from Edinburgh Napier University. 11.18.10

Use this to evaluate and to get an understanding of what the Originality Report means. Doing
this at the “draft” stage gives you a chance to take further action to revise your work in
response to the Report.

Check the following, as appropriate:

STEP ONE
The Similarity Index is below 5%___ above 5%___

If your Similarity Index is below 5%, you need to take no further action—your Report is accept-
able.

If your Similarity Index is above 5%, there may be issues with your work. Proceed to Step 2.

STEP TWO
You have nothing to worry about if the colored text in the Report is mostly made up of the title
of your paper. ___

Excluding the title should bring the Similarity Index to below 5%. If this doesn’t explain the
Report, proceed to Step Three.

STEP THREE
You probably have nothing to worry about if the colored text in the Report is made up of any
combination of the following:

references___ short sentences or fragments from a variety of sources___ cited quotes___

However, if this is not the case, you may need help with correct referencing or paraphrasing.

Proceed to Step Four if Steps Two/Three do not explain the majority of colored text in your
Report.

STEP FOUR
Your Report is probably borderline if the majority of the colored text is in paragraphs with a few
words changed from the original___ and from a variety of sources___
If you have checked off any of these, it is likely you have trouble with paraphrasing.
If Steps 2-4 do not account for your report, proceed to Step Five.

STEP FIVE
Your Report shows your work was probably plagiarized if any of the following apply:
The colored text, excluding titles, cited quotes and references, makes up a significant portion of
your paper.___
There are more than three paragraphs in any one color.___
The majority of the text in any one color is unchanged.___

Resources to help the student with Turnitin

> turnitin.com/static/community (includes video, articles, student manual)
> umuc.edu/library/tutorials/turnitin/originalityreports.shtml video: Reading and
Understanding Turnitin Originality Reports
> Plagiarism.org (Turnitin’s portal for plagiarism information)

Some frequently asked questions:

What percentages in the Originality Report are “safe”?
There are no clear-cut rules, with some variation of percentages to be expected within an acceptable
range. Turnitin only identifies and tabulates matches, many of which are normal and legitimate, and the
instructor has to interpret these matches to determine which ones indicate problems that should not oc-
cur. Approximate rules of thumb are as follows. Zero percent would indicate the student has not done
enough reading or referencing of other sources. Excluding cited quotes and references, matches under
five percent is a safe level. Under 15 percent is probably acceptable, or borderline. Continuous blocks of
uncited matching text indicate problems. Over 25 percent is probably too high (yellow, orange, red indi-
ces).

Isn’t it normal to have matches that are not really plagiarism, and what kinds of matches are
considered acceptable? Yes, matching of text in itself is not an indication of plagiarism, as legitimate
matches are normal, and requires interpretation. The following are “normal” and therefore acceptable
matches. The title of the submitted paper, or parts of the title. Cited quotations and student-generated
references (bibliography). (Quotations and references can be automatically excluded in the Originality
Report operation.) Proper nouns (names of people, places, things). Commonly used jargon and terminol-
ogy. Common phrases, causing matches of parts of sentences.

What kinds of matches are considered “red flags”? Matches consisting of sentences, or large parts
of sentences, within paragraphs, or entire paragraphs, that are not within quotations are problematic.
Even when this text is cited, it means the student is inadequately paraphrasing the source (the informa-
tion is not properly rendered in the student’s own words). (For paraphrasing help:
plagiarism.org/plag_article_how_to_paraphrase_properly.html)