Overview
This page gives an introduction to Turnitin, followed by links to step-by-step guidance on submitting your work and collecting your marks and feedback.
To enlarge images, click them.
On this page:
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is one of the online assessment platforms at UCL. Although its origins are in helping to identity plagiarism, it is also used by tutors to grade work and provide feedback.
Turnitin can be used for:
Online submission of work.
Feedback on work
Similarity Reports - how your work matches other texts, including web pages, journal articles, books and other students' work. This can help you with quoting, paraphrasing and referencing, and avoiding unintentional plagiarism.
Peer assessment exercises using the Peermark tool.
Your tutors will inform you on how Turn will be used within your course.
A word about plagiarism
All Turnitin does is find matches - so it cannot tell whether or not a piece of work is plagiarised. However, a high Similarity score can highlight where you need to work on your academic writing.
Although Turnitin has a large database of sources, it may not find every match of text that occurs on the web and in books and journals - so Turnitin may not be the only tool used by UCL to check for plagiarism and difficulties with academic writing.
If you want to, you can obtain a confidential Similarity Report on your draft work by submitting it to the Turnitin assignment at UCL's Plagiarism and Academic Writing Moodle space.
For further information see UCL's plagiarism guidelines.
Elsewhere in our guidance for students we explain in more detail what the Turnitin Similarity score means.
Your work on Turnitin
Turnitin must adhere to UK Data Protection law. Using Turnitin depends on your consent for your personal data to be held on Turnitin's server, and for your work to be stored in the Turnitin database for checking against the work of future students. By submitting via Turnitin, you give this consent.
Students can access information about plagiarism and submit work to Turnitin confidentially, at the Plagiarism and Academic Writing Moodle course.
See our FAQs about Turnitin at UCL.
You access Turnitin via Moodle
Your Turnitin assignment page looks like the numbered screenshot below.
Due Date is the deadline.
Post Date is the date on which feedback and marks will become available - put this in your diary and check your feedback as soon as it becomes available.
Carefully note the instructions for your assignment.
When you are ready to submit click the Submit Paper icon.
Once submitted, you will receive an online receipt and a digital receipt via email.
How to submit work and collect marks and feedback
Turnitin FAQs
To see the most common list of queries and frequently asked questions, please click here.
Find out more
Information for students about plagiarism including using Turnitin is given in the Current Students website.
Turnitin is supported within UCL by the Digital Education team who are happy to advise on any of the above.