Turnitin, including Draft Coach, is a web-based service that identifies passages in documents that match passages in other sources, such as websites, articles in scholarly journals, and other student papers. Turnitin generates a Similarity Report which highlights passages of matching text.
All OSU users, including students, have access to Turnitin Draft Coach through their OSU Microsoft account. Additionally, instructors can enable Turnitin on Canvas assignments. Turnitin originality reports are especially effective in helping students diagnose problematic passages in their own papers and in helping guide revision of early drafts. By providing clearly marked reports that identify passages that match other sources, originality reports guide students through a careful step by step analysis of their own work. Review Turnitin Guides or OSU Turnitin documentation for more information.
If you plan to store student submission in either the institutional Turnitin repository or Turnitin's standard repository, consider adding the following statement to your course syllabus.
"Your instructor may ask you to submit one or more of your writing assignments to the Canvas-Turnitin plagiarism prevention service. Your assignment will be checked for potential plagiarism against Internet sources, academic journal articles and the papers of other students. Turnitin generates a report that highlights any potentially unoriginal text in your paper. Papers that you submit through Turnitin for this class or any class will be added to the OSU Turnitin database and may be checked against other OSU paper submissions. You will retain all rights to your written work."
Does Turnitin detect plagiarism?
Turnitin does not state outright whether or not plagiarism has occurred. Plagiarism is a large category that includes many different behaviors, ranging from poorly paraphrasing a cited source to purchasing a paper and submitting it as one’s own work. While no software can make a blanket statement about whether a paper contains plagiarism, Turnitin does provide originality reports that show which passages from submitted papers match other sources. To make a determination about whether a paper contains plagiarized material, analysis is required. Originality reports make analysis easier and more convenient.
If you believe a student has intentionally plagiarized work in their submission, please refer to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. You may also wish to consult with your department head.