Faculty

How to Use Turnitin

Request an account

Visit the "Request a Turnitin account" page.
Once your account request is processed you will receive an email confirming that your Turnitin account has been activated. It will contain an account ID and join password.

Getting started

To fully understand how to use the Turnitin software read the complete overview contained on this page. There are also quickstart guides available:

Create your user profile

Connect to www.turnitin.com
Input your email address and the password you were sent
Set up your personal password as prompted.
Click on the class set up wizard to continue the process of setting up a class and an assignment.

Set up your class

When you create a user profile you can use the class wizard to set up a class.
If you chose to set up a class later, connect to www.turnitin.com , input your email and personal password in the form at top right of the screen. Submit.
This is your personal homepage. Click on the add a class link
Enter a class name and an enrollment password. Note these. Your students will need to use them if you want them to submit their own papers.
By default students will not have access to their own originality reports. If you want them to be able to see their own reports select yes in the pull down.
Click submit to add the class to your homepage.

Set up an assignment

Use your email address and personal password to access Turnitin, then click on the class name.
Click the create a new assignment link.
Enter an assignment title and choose a start and due date for the assignment. Students can submit papers to the assignment between these dates.
Click submit to add the assignment to your class homepage.

Submitting papers

Either the instructor or the students can submit papers. Papers must be in one of these electronic formats: Word, WordPerfect, RTF, PDF, PostScript, HTML, plaintext (txt), Excel, PowerPoint.

Instructor submissions

Go to the class homepage and click the icon in the submit column for the assignment.
Enter the papers title and the author’s name (or pseudonym) on the paper submission page.
To select a paper click the browse button and locate the paper on your computer.
Click the submit button to upload the paper.
Confirm that the submission is correct, then click the yes, submit button.

Student submissions

Students must be enrolled in your class to submit their papers individually.
For students to enroll themselves provide them with the class ID and enrollment password. (You can access these by clicking the stats icon next to the name of your class on your homepage).
Students can use the student class enrollment wizard to get set up and start submitting papers. Inform them about Turnitin's "Student Quickstart". (PDF document)
If you chose to enroll your students yourself you can click the upload student list link and submit a list in a text, MS Word or MS Excel file (in this format: Joe,Brown,joe.brown@wmich.edu)
To enroll students individually click the students tab on the class bar.
Click the add student link, then enter the students name and click submit.

Viewing and interpreting reports

Each assignment has an inbox that contains submitted papers and originality reports.
Click on the report icon to view a paper’s originality report (Grayed out report icons indicate the report has not yet been generated).
The color of the report icon indicates the amount of matching text: blue (<20 matching words; green 0-24% matching text; yellow 25-49% matching text; orange 50-74% matching text; red 75-100% matching text)
Originality reports are exact copies of the submitted papers with matching text indicated; links are provided to sources.
Instructors need to use care in examining and interpreting reports. Matching text does NOT automatically mean plagiarism has occurred as the overlapping text may be correctly cited and referenced. Click on ‘exclude quoted’ to remove all text in quotes from analysis.
Papers and reports remain accessible via the Turnitin site for at least 180 days after the expiry date you set for your class unless you choose to delete them. Papers can be downloaded to your computer by clicking on the file icon.

Turnitin's Originality Report Intro Video

Turnitin's "Originality Report Intro Video" delves into the report's many features.

More Detailed Instructions

Instructions for faculty:

Turnitin's "Instructor Quickstart" (PDF)
Turnitin's "Instructor Training Video"
Turnitin's "Instructor User Guide" (PDF)

Instructions for students:

Turnitin's "Student Quickstart" (PDF)
Turnitin's "Student Video"
Turnitin's "Student User Guide" (PDF)