Learning to write in the appropriate way for University requires you to learn new values and conventions. Some of these values and conventions apply to how and why we reference other peoples’ work within our own writing.
This is not always easy for a new student to understand and LJMU is committed to helping you learn to write at the appropriate level for University. The Turnitin Originality Report is part of this learning process and will help you and your tutor to identify possible mistakes early.
What is an Originality Report?
Your report has been created by matching your essay with other sources on the web, journals and text submitted by students from other institutions. The report includes your original submission highlighting other sources which match against your text. Percentages are shown for each match.
If you have used quotation marks and referenced text correctly - matches are not picked up by the report. This report will help you identify incorrectly referenced material so that you can learn how to reference this properly. It is important that you do not misrepresent other peoples work as your own.
Identifying Unintentional Mistakes
When gathering research for your assignment it is possible that you may forget where you gathered a particular quote or piece of information from. This system may be able to identify the possible source. This may be useful if that source is from the web or a journal. If it matches with a piece of student work, it maybe because you have both referenced the same work, or you have used a previously submitted piece of work. You cannot directly access links with other students work, this is in order to protect their work.
In this case you may need to go back to your research to identify the source properly. (see Harvard referencing guide)
The text matching will identify small sections of text where matching occurs. This means that in some cases it may report that it has found many matches, but this DOES NOT mean that you will be accused of plagiarism from these sources. Some commonly used phrases particular to your discipline will naturally find matches with other sources (e.g. ‘physical activity is beneficial to health’).
Paraphrasing without acknowledgement
The report may identify sections of text which have indirect similarity. This will mean that only a few words match and some are different. When quoting from others work, and paraphrasing it or re-writing it slightly differently, does not make that work your own, you still need to provide a reference for it.
Collusion
The report might show that a significant part of the assignment is matching or similar to the work of another student on the course or in another institution. Using another students’ work or sharing work for an assignment, unless specifically indicated is against academic principles.
Don’t panic
You may identify one or several matches against your work, it is important to discuss these with your personal tutor. This will give you time to identify any issues before the final submission. This is not a net to catch you with, but a way of helping you to understand the academic writing process.