When it comes to checking for academic plagiarism, Turnitin is one of the leading web-based plagiarism checkers. It is used by schools at all levels to detect possible instances of academic plagiarism. But how exactly does it work, and is it the best plagiarism checker for your needs? We take a closer look in our in-depth Turnitin plagiarism checker review.
Turnitin is a web-based plagiarism checker used by academic institutions to check for student plagiarism. It works by comparing submitted documents to its large database of published works, research papers, and other student papers, looking for text similarities.
When a check is complete, Turnitin issues an Originality Check where any matching text is highlighted. It also provides a percentage that indicates the degree of which the two passages are similar.
Turnitin’s plagiarism checker offers a number of features that make it an attractive web-based plagiarism tool, including:
Originality Check: At the core of Turnitin’s features is its Originality Check, where it compares submitted documents to others in its extensive database and resorts back with a percentage where the submitted text matches another paper or document. It also allows the user to revise the highlighted texts from within the tool.
Similarity Reports: Similar to an Originality Check a Similarity Report highlights similar text along with a percentage that indicates how similar it is to other content in the database.
Feedback Studio: The Feedback Study allows educators to add comments and feedback on student papers.
Peer Review: Instructors can set up peer reviews which allow students to give each other feedback on their papers.
Grading Tools: Instructors can include rubrics, assign grades, provide feedback, and leave custom comments with a wide range of grading tools built into the system.
Learning Management System Integration: Turnitin works with a variety of LMS (learning management systems) to allow for plagiarism checking within a familiar environment.
The first step in successfully using Turnitin Plagiarism Checker is to create an account on the Turnitin website as a student. You’ll need to add information including the name of the assignment, due date, and details for submission.
You can then upload your document directly to the platform. Turnitin accepts Microsoft Word, PDF, and plain text files.
Once the file is uploaded, Turnitin then runs the originality report. It highlights any matches found across its comprehensive database. Depending on the size and the number of matches, it may take a few moments to complete the plagiarism check.
You should then review the originality report to determine if there are any areas where you may have inadvertently plagiarized. You can click on each section of highlighted text to see the source and optionally correct it.
If you are an instructor, you can use the Feedback Studio to add comments as well as highlight specific passages within the document. You can also optionally grade the assignment using Turnitin’s grading rubric and other tools.
Like any plagiarism checker, Turnitin has its pros and cons. Carefully consider both the benefits and drawbacks of this online tool before you decide:
High level of accuracy – Turnitin draws from numerous academic and professional databases with a high degree of accuracy. It also compares other student papers that have been uploaded to its system, helping to eliminate the chance that a student would claim someone else’s work or pay to have their essay written by someone else.
Helps students avoid plagiarism – Proper plagiarism-checking tools help students avoid plagiarism while gaining the confidence to express their ideas more ethically and adequately.
Offers a platform for private feedback – Feedback tools help students and instructors alike to improve and better understand the requirements of the assignment.
Intuitive and easy to use – The platform is incredibly user-friendly and easy to work with, even for beginners.
Works with existing learning management systems – Turnitin works with a number of popular LMS programs, making it easy to add a plagiarism checker to your existing workflow.
False positive detection – In some cases the software flags text as plagiarized when it isn’t, which can cost you time in reviewing each falsely flagged text to determine if it truly is plagiarism.
Limited language support – Turnitin is limited to English-language texts which can limit how useful it is to students who are writing in a foreign language.
Expensive compared to alternatives – Turnitin has a high cost compared to other plagiarism checkers.
Privacy concerns – When students upload their documents, they are sent to a third-party server for processing, which has created some controversy in terms of privacy.
Paraphrase detection is weak – Turnitin may not accurately flag paraphrasing or when content is reworded, leaving some areas of plagiarism undetected.
There are a variety of alternatives to Turnitin Plagiarism Checker, most notably:
Grammarly – A popular grammar checker with a built-in plagiarism checker, Grammarly provides writing suggestions that help students improve the quality of their text in addition to a detailed plagiarism report.
Copyscape – An online plagiarism checker that specializes in website content, Copyscape alerts website owners if their content has been found elsewhere on the web.
Unicheck – Another academic plagiarism checker that works with a variety of LMS programs, Unicheck scans nearly 100 billion current and archived web pages to find instances of plagiarism.
Originality.AI – An online tool that checks for plagiarism as well as AI-written content, Originality uses artificial intelligence to detect the hallmarks of content that have been written by ChatGPT and other online writing programs.
Originality.AI is a unique plagiarism scanner and AI detector that looks for the telltale signs of AI-written and plagiarized content to determine if third-party tools were used to create content. It works for both academic use but is primarily designed for web publishers and content marketers.
Originality.AI can scan both entire websites and individual content pieces and is fully scalable through a robust team management module, making it an invaluable tool for content and marketing agencies.
Turnitin is designed primarily for academia, whereas Originality.AI is designed for web professionals and agencies. Turnitin is generally limited to academic journals, research papers, and other student documents, whereas Originality.AI leverages artificial intelligence to check for plagiarism and AI writing.
Unlike Turnitin, Originality.AI allows for unlimited scans that can optionally check for AI writing, plagiarism, or both. With the ability to add and manage unlimited team members, it’s a cost-effective way to check documents at scale, and with pricing as low as 1 cent per 100 words per scan, it’s an affordable way to guarantee the quality of your content whether it’s one piece or one thousand.
Originality.AI uses AI to detect the key signs that a work has been produced by AI. Oftentimes, AI-written content can be identified through the use of its “filler” and repetitiveness, in addition to information that’s factually incorrect or only begins to scratch the surface of a given presentation.
Originality.AI has been trained on a variety of AI models including all recent versions of ChatGPT and can detect AI-written content with a 99%+ accuracy rate. What’s more, Originality.AI is constantly being updated to stay on the cutting edge of AI developments.
Try Originality.AI now risk-free with a low price of just 1 cent per 100 words per scan. With features like automatic credit refill, you never have to worry about running out of credits and can gain the confidence that work submitted for you or your clients is engaging, interesting, plagiarism-free, and authentically human.