Turnitin is an online plagiarism-detection resource for educators and students concerned with developing quality writing and research skills. The system detects plagiarism by comparing submitted papers against three databases:
- A copy of the publicly accessible Internet (more than 2 billion pages updated at a rate of 30-40 million pages per day).
- Millions of published works (such as ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts, Business Dateline, and tens of thousands of electronic books).
- Student papers previously submitted from schools using Turnitin.com.
For each paper submitted, the results of these comparisons are compiled for faculty in custom "Originality Reports."
Even though a student paper may receive a high similarity rating in an Originality Report, it does not necessarily mean the paper is plagiarized. There are a number of perfectly legitimate reasons for a paper receiving a high similarity rating. For example, a research paper on the Bill of Rights which quotes extensively from the U. S. Constitution and is properly cited would nonetheless be flagged as being similar to content in the Turnitin databases. It is up to the faculty to review the Turnitin Originality Report to determine if the similar text is legitimate or reflects plagiarism.
There are two options for using Turnitin at Cal State L.A.:
- Create Turnitin assignments within Moodle. This approach leverages your Moodle login credentials and you do not need to request a separate Turnitin account id and password. Click here to download the Moodle Instruction Guide for Turnitin or contact mymoodle support for assistance.
- Use the Turnitin website to manage student-submitted assignments. You and your students will need to create profiles on the Turnitin website. To do this:
- Instructors must read "Recommendations for Faculty Using Turnitin.com at CSULA."
- Use the Turinitin account request form to request a Turnitin account id and password information from CETL. This can take up to 3 business days.
- Upon receipt of an account ID and password, instructors create a user profile at http://www.turnitin.com using the Turnitin account id and password information you received from CETL.
We encourage all faculty to read "Recommendations for Faculty Using Turnitin.com at CSULA" before using Turnitin in your course.
Turnitin Links
- Turnitin FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions
Turnitin Additional Resources
Turnitin's training page offers a number of Flash Video Tutorials and downloadable PDF User Manuals and Quickstart Guides
Contact Us
Have questions or need assistance?
Help in the Lab: Fine Arts 138 (Map), Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Help via telephone: 323-343-6594
Help via email: myMoodle@calstatela.edu
Contact the CETL Staff