Ask an average college student about their thoughts
regarding the Turnitin plagiarism check system and you will definitely hear
negative comments. The purpose of this guide is to tell you about how to beat
Turnitin and stay safe without being accused of plagiarism or getting into the
trap of this system. We shall study the list of things that seem to work well
and will tell you about what must be avoided as you try to cheat Turnitin.
What is TurnItIn?
You might have already heard about Turnitin before. This
plagiarism detection software has been around since 1997. One of the reasons
why it seems so popular is that it implements clever text-matching. It aims to
educate students on how to cite and reference various sources without falling
into the trap of cheating. In practice, it does way more than check academic
integrity. It is an AI-powered system that is quite controversial.
In simple terms, Turnitin compares your submitted document
against an endless archive of various documents found online, encrypted and
open data, a repository of all the papers that have been submitted before, and
the selection of periodicals, journals, books, blogs, and various digital and
print publications. Once done, it creates a special "Originality
Report", which can be seen both by students and college professors. It is
hard to say for certain that it is helpful. It identifies the text bits where a
student has taken something from another source. In practice, it will only show
you the matches that have been based on those papers that have been submitted
before.
What is your Originality Index?
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To put it simply, imagine a situation when a fellow student
from your course uploads his or her part of the team project that also includes
the prompt that you all have to include. By doing so, this student will submit
the first original version, which will make your submission
"plagiarized". While this is a simple example, it shows that this
system does not detect plagiarism per se but only helps to match a
particular text with a student's assignment based on what text it could find.
Therefore, it is vital for lecturers and students to realize that Turnitin
cannot be considered as the final report of someone's academic integrity and
honesty.
According to numerous reports encountered online, the
software does not always work correctly. It tends to provide false positives or
refuses to accept certain submissions. It is also unclear whether using
Turnitin is ethical. This software is used to teach students about academic
dishonesty, yet the universities still turn to a solution that does not really
work or show that a person has written something unique.
Just think about engineering papers where students have to
provide standards by explaining them word-by-word to maintain the safety
standards. As it does not care about our sources or references, it will just
find a similar part online and generate a negative report. Moreover, using
Turnitin also means that students are forced to upload and share their intellectual
property, which becomes stored in the database without the student's consent.
How Does Turnitin Work?
While it is not a precise recommendation for colleges and
universities in the United States, a lecturer may choose to implement Turnitin
for a particular essay or a course assignment. As a rule, if you have to use
it, it will be mentioned in your campus area online. It means that when you
submit your paper, it is usually automatically added to the Turnitin
text-matching database. Here is what happens next:
- Turnitin
matches the text that you have written in your assignment and compares it
with the endless list of student submissions.
- As
the next step, it checks your paper against a special archive of Internet
documents, stored data, and an archive of periodicals, journals, and
publications. It must be noted that it is not the same as just browsing
through Google or Bing.
- Finally,
it creates an "Originality Report". You can save and share it
with your college professor who will see it as well.
You should remember that this system will only show you the
list of matches with the links, which is why it does not work as a classic
plagiarism software that would detect something that has been discovered online
and has no source.
Turnitin also stores a special record of all that has been
submitted to its central database. It is done with a clear purpose: to let all
the assignments that are checked in the future to be checked against what has
been sent in the past. If you're aiming to avoid these matches, using an AI essay writer
could help you create content that is distinct enough to pass through Turnitin
without issue. It is said that while Turnitin retains a copy of every paper
that has been verified, it does not reveal these papers to any third parties.
However, this subject is controversial.
It makes it quite difficult not to see the papers where the
matched parts appear, meaning that someone else's original paper is still
disclosed even if there is unintentional plagiarism and you did not try
learning how to fool Turnitin.
It must be noted that Turnitin does not accept files that
are password protected. It also does not check Microsoft Works files or MS Word
2007 files with macros-enabled elements. The same relates to Open Office text
files that have been created and download from Google Docs online. It also
includes files created by Open Office. The other forbidden formats include
Apple Pages, spreadsheets created outside of MS Excel, PDF, and any text files
that contain visual effects.
How Accurate is Turnitin? Is it Effective to Detect Plagiarism?
Unfortunately, it is safe to claim that Turnitin is not
always accurate and does not represent the most efficient way to detect
plagiarism. It must be added that while it scans through an enormous database
of previously submitted academic papers, getting good results does not mean
that everything is fine. Likewise, negative reports do not mean that a student
has plagiarized the paper.
According to the Turnitin website, it is not a plagiarism
index software. There is no score of being "good" or "bad".
The report only provides you with the matches that have been encountered online
or via various databases. Therefore, all accuracy aspects are purely subjective
and will always differ from person to person who checks the paper and sees
whether it matters or not.
The true problem lies in the list of these similarities when
people use quotes or turn to certain parts of engineering or nursing standards
where the case study can be used as a reference or an example. Without a doubt,
such issues must be approached by college professors who will see whether a
plagiarism issue takes place. Since the system does not detect plagiarism per
se, it is impossible to say that it is accurate or not. It only helps educators
and students to make informed decisions regarding similarities encountered
online. Still, even that does not mean that a text that has been fully copied
from some source will be detected as we are still dealing with an automatic
software solution. It leads to an important question of how to beat Turnitin
and still keep your results good in 2023 where the amount of papers submitted
is even greater than ever before.
Does Turnitin Detect Self-Plagiarism? What are Plagiarism Risks?
Let us imagine a situation when a writer uses his or her
portion of text again and publishes it partially or entirely in a new paper.
Fortunately, such aspects can only be identified by college professors who may
know the student's past works and see that it has already been used or
repeated. Regardless if it has been done intentionally or purely by accident as
a reference, Turnitin does not detect self-plagiarism, yet there are ways how
to reduce similarity on Turnitin. It means that if you upload your paper that
has not been submitted before with the elements from your past assignments, it
will not detect it. However, if you copy something that is already available
online or represents a part of the database, it will detect it right away with
a high similarity percentage report.
It is vital to remember that using your ideas from the past
is still considered a self-plagiarism unless you have it discussed with your
college professor or the university in question. Things may get even worse if
you have already published the paper and used certain parts again without
notifying the publisher and everyone in question.
The problem is seen differently when one thinks about
Turnitin’s policy of storing the papers in a global database or in those cases
when something has been uploaded by accident. Since it is impossible to receive
your paper back right away or have it deleted, it poses certain copyright and
plagiarism risks. Fortunately, you can place a request with the company for a
particular document, yet it will take about two weeks to review the issue,
which is not always acceptable.
Note: Regardless if you are using the
system or not, knowing how to beat Turnitin will not keep you safe from
plagiarism if you are not honest with your academic activities.
The Tricks On How to Cheat Turnitin
As a way to help you stay safe, we have compiled a list of
different tricks that will not work as you try to cheat Turnitin as well as the
methods and recommendations that will help you to keep the similarity rate at
acceptable levels.
Methods That Won't Work
Even though you will encounter the methods provided below as
safe elsewhere, our team of experts guarantees that these hacks will not work
and may only place you in trouble as the final Similarity Report will reveal
all the tricks. Do not forget that Turnitin has been around for decades and it
is a commercial product that has been adjusted to detect all the specific
changes and modifications to any document that has been submitted.
- The
Good Old Thesaurus Method. Unfortunately, it will not work as
replacing some words in a quote with synonyms will not get you by. It is
one of the strongest points of this AI detection software. It does not
mean that you should avoid paraphrasing altogether as it is an acceptable
method that helps to achieve success as you are brainstorming ways how to
bypass Turnitin trouble.
- Swapping
The Letters. It is an old trick of replacing some letters to fool the
system by using special symbols or foreign language letters. It is good to
know that Turnitin has a system that recognizes such characters and will
always reveal this trick to you and to your college professor.
- Word
Macros Won't Work. It will either not accept your file or will strip
it by checking the original text "as-is". Even adding special
fonts and symbols will not trick the system as it all will be reflected in
your similarity report file with all the methods that you have tried.
Surely enough, you would not want your college professor to see it.
- Adding
Images for Paper Length Increase. Such papers will be flagged and
reported right away as those that do not have a sufficient word count. The
tricking of the system in this way is still vague. It also represents a
dangerous method that is both unethical and plain dull. The similarity
report will always display the final word count.
- White
Text Trick. It will not work if you choose "invisible"
fonts. It will be detected because of unusual word length or words that
are not part of the various dictionaries. Even though this method remains
one of the most popular among students in 2023, it is also the most
dangerous Turnitin hack as the system detector has been updated to detect
this issue. Moreover, it will always be highlighted as you receive the final
report.
Most importantly, remember that phrases in quotation marks
are automatically excluded unless the system is tuned otherwise by your
professor. The general rule is to avoid doing anything that you would not like
to be seen. The system will detect every unusual modification and the list of
special symbols that you have used for beating Turnitin. Therefore, the purpose
of our guide here is to let you know how this system works and what things to
avoid to stay safe from trouble.
Some Hacks That Could Work
- Paraphrasing.
If it is done in a clever way, it is one of the best ways that work,
especially if you construct the sentences differently and add more of your
own. Of course, it is always risky but a legal way to trick Turnitin.
- Use
Clever Quoting. Remember that the use of quotes in your paper must be
done in a careful way with quotation marks and references. Even if the
system might not “catch” it or place it in the safe list, it does not mean
that your college professor will not see it.
- Adjust
Your Writing Style. You should always find the golden medium between
your ideas or anything that you would like to quote. If you have to write
about a nursing theorist and you are just paraphrasing something that you
have read in the book, the safest method would be to adjust your style by
using several quotes and using your thoughts and analysis by telling about
the facts and how they make you feel or why they are important.
- Use
Transition Words. As a way to increase your chances of tricking
TurnItIn, use various transition constructions like “therefore”, “as a
rule”, “in the majority of cases”, or “according to the latest research
conducted”. It will help to add some variation to your writing.
- Add
More Explanatory Content. This part is a bit tricky because you will
have to think over alternatives to the most common phrases that you are
using. For example, when you are talking about some court study, think
about how you could explain things in simpler terms and add some
explanation. While some legal phrases are obligatory, add more explanation
to trick the system.
- Use
Synonyms. This aspect is quite creative! When you are planning to use
“great” or “excellent”, think about using “exemplary research” or
“exceptional quality contribution” to make your text more unique.
Most importantly, one should not try to cheat Turnitin
because the way to handle the system right is by checking your quotes and the
parts that make you feel concerned. Of course, no student would like to receive
a negative report from the system, yet it does not mean that you are in trouble
unless you have copied the entire text from another source!
How Can I Check My Paper for Plagiarism Before Submitting it to Turnitin?
We all know that sometimes we just cannot avoid Turnitin
when our university requires it. That is why we all need an additional way to
check our college papers. The safest and most reliable plagiarism detection
tool you can use without limitations is Online Plagiarism Checker. It does not
store your information anywhere and lets you check your writing as much as
necessary without having to register or learn how to cheat Turnitin 2023 style!
A fully reliable and accessible way to stay safe!
FAQ
- How
do I avoid high similarity on Turnitin?
The most obvious answer to this question would be to write
in your own words if at all possible and avoid so-called "mosaic
plagiarism" when you only change the order of words slightly. The risks
are still high to get a similarity detected. Next, always use correct quotes by
turning to quotation marks. It is recommended to limit your use of quotes to
keep the right balance. This way you do not have to learn how to plagiarize
without getting caught by Turnitin. Even then it does not guarantee your safety
with the system.
- What
is the acceptable percentage for Turnitin?
Even though your university may have different rules, the
acceptable percentage for Turnitin is considered anything that is 5% and below.
However, anything starting above 10% is considered unsafe, yet it does not mean
that the paper is plagiarized. In certain cases, you may encounter specific
rules that will accept papers with 15% similarity detected. Remember that this
percentage is not plagiarism and your professor is free to check things
manually!
- Сan
Turnitin detect paraphrasing?
In basic terms, it can detect paraphrasing if it is done
with little change to the original text. It uses machine text recognition
algorithms, which helps it to compare the similarity index. While it will not
always work, it is safe to say that it detects paraphrasing that takes place in
a single sentence. You can trick Turnitin by breaking your sentences into
several smaller ones.
- Can
Turnitin detect PDF?
No, it does not check or scan PDF files. They are considered
files with images or visual data in them. Since it is not possible to scan or
highlight such documents, it is not accepted.
- What
do the colors mean on Turnitin?
The colors are encountered in your report file and show the
similarity score of your documents. When the color is blue, it means that it
has no matching text. Green stands for one word to 24% matching text. Yellow
color means 25-49% matching text, orange means 50-74% matching text, and red
stands for the cases when you have 75-100% matching text.
- How
long does it take for Turnitin to work?
In the majority of cases, it takes about fifteen minutes to
generate a full similarity report after you submit your file. Sometimes,
however, it can take up to 24 hours to generate your report if you are dealing
with the high academic season.
- Can
I submit a paper on Turnitin twice?
Once you have submitted your paper, you must wait for 24
hours before you are allowed to resubmit your document in case you have made
some editing or brought certain changes.