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Turnitin: A staff guide to interpreting the Similarity Report

Introduction.

This guide describes what a similarity report shows and how to interpret matches highlighted on a student’s assignment submitted to Turnitin.

The similarity report is an effective way to:

• Check that online sources in an assignment have been properly cited and the text has not simply been copied without appropriate referencing.
• Help students as a formative learning tool around referencing and that you can use with your students to improve their skills.
• Identify collusion between students on their course and potentially from other institutions who use Turnitin in the UK.
• Ensure a level of equality and parity when checking the similarity of students’ work against the vast range of possible online sources.
• Deter students from plagiarising and encourage good academic practice.

It’s important to know that a simliarity match does not always means plagiarism . You will need to apply your academic judgment by understanding how the report works and what it shows.

The similarity report is best used in conjunction with other methods to prevent and detect plagiarism and as part of a co-ordinated approach to maintaining the academic integrity of students’ written work.

Turnitin guide:  Setting reasonable expectations for the Turnitin Similarity Score

How to interpret the Similarity Report

The similarity index percentage.

An overall percentage score (with colour code) is shown next to a student’s name under the Similarity column in the Assignment Inbox. This shows the total amount of matched text as a proportion of the assignment.

This ‘at a glance’ guide should not be used as a measure of plagiarism. Even a 1% score could potentially be plagiarised.

There is no ideal percentage to look for . Students’ work is bound to contain some words from other sources. The percentage will vary depending on the type and length of assignment and the requirements of the work involved .

Individual matches need to be investigated by opening the student’s paper and viewing the match overview and breakdown panel.

What does the Similarity Index percentage indicate?

A 100% match means the assignment has no original work . It has most probably been submitted previously to Turnitin . This can happen if the student is making a re-submission of their work and the file had already been submitted to the Turnitin database. It could be a student error and they submitted to another assignment area by mistake. It can also indicate collusion or copying an essay from another student, either in their class, from a previous year or another institution.

Types of frequently found ‘acceptable’ matched text.

There are certain types of matched text that Turnitin will find, which can be safely excluded or ignored with discretion. These matches will be included in the overall similarity score for a similarity report and be highlighted as a matches on a student’s paper.

These include:

• Quotations: Properly referenced quotations can be ignored. These can be excluded using the filter.
• References and Bibliography: Other students will have used the same references at some point and these will show up.
• Matching formats: e.g. the same essay title.
• Tables and Charts showing shared or copied data or statistics.
• Appendices may also have a large amount of matching text as other students may well have used the same sources.
• Small matches that form common phrases in a sentence or subject terminology will be detected. These can be removed using the small match filter.
• Paraphrasing text from a source will be highlighted even where words in the phrase have been changed.  If the source has been cited, it remains the academic judgment of the tutor to decide if the text has been suitably paraphrased.

Examples of common match patterns found on assignments.

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Turnitin Percentage: What Is The Acceptable Percentage?

Perhaps you just ran your assignment through Turnitin to check for plagiarism and the result indicates a certain percentage but you don’t even know what that means, then you should read this article.

Whether you’re writing an essay or thesis, it is important to know the acceptable Turnitin percentage or similarity index. This is to avoid getting your work rejected or getting a low grade.

Turnitin percentage tells you the amount of matching or similar text present in your work on a scale of 0 to 100% (0 being the least and 100% being the highest).

In short, it detects if you copied someone’s work closely or verbatim. However, there’s more to plagiarism than matching text.

What is the acceptable Turnitin percentage?

While there is no universally specified Turnitin percentage , a similarity index of 10% and below is okay and widely accepted . However, different universities and colleges have their own reference and citation guidelines.

The acceptable Turnitin percentage also varies by course of study. For instance, law students may be allowed 40% to 60% of references for certain assignments because certain legislations or case materials cannot be rephrased without changing their entire meaning.

If we also consider the type of paper, the acceptable percentage for essays like literature is 5% and below. Acceptable publication manuscripts must be within 5-7% of referencing also.

What does the Similarity Index percentage indicate?

Is plagiarism good?

Although plagiarism is unethical, having a decent amount of matching text in your work proves that it is well-researched and links to other sources. So, yes, the right amount of plagiarism is good.

So, a similarity index of 1% to 10% is okay except in unavoidable cases when the names of books, government bodies, and organizations may increase the score significantly.

Difference between similarity and plagiarism

To be clear, Turnitin doesn’t scan for plagiarism, rather it scans for matching text. Plagiarism is actually determined by your instructor.

Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work and passing them as your own and that depends on many factors of which the similarity index is one.

A good research paper shouldn’t contain more than 45 references. Systematic reviews could have as many as 49 references but a good case study doesn’t need more than 29 references.

What causes plagiarism?

Since a high Turnitin percentage doesn’t necessarily translate into plagiarism, what factors then determine plagiarism?

1. Not crediting the source

2. paraphrasing too closely.

Another thing that can contribute to plagiarism is by using almost the same word as the source, even after referencing the source.

3. Using statistics without reference

4. using images without citing the sources.

As surprising as it may seem, attaching an image you got online in your work without citing the author counts as plagiarism. Any image downloaded online has a creator who deserves credit for their work.

5. Copying or buying someone else’s paper

6. padding your bibliography or reference list.

This means compiling a fake list of bibliography or references to show that you have researched when you haven’t. As a result, the paper will highlight a lot of bibliographies or references not related to the work.

Students could be charged with gross academic misconduct which could lead to serious consequences. So, it’s important that you painstakingly highlight a bibliography that pertains to your work.

What Turnitin percentage is too high?

What does a turnitin percentage of 100% mean, what does a 50% turnitin score mean, is a 1% turnitin score good.

However, a score of 1% may be suspectable, because it may mean that you didn’t reference all your source and a good research paper should have at least a 5% similar index.

Final Thoughts

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The free plagiarism checker, in partnership with Turnitin, will give you a heads-up if your writing is similar to the content in our database.

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The Sources Overview shows you the top five sources that match your writing. You can see the domain, database, and the number of matching words for each source. It’s important to cite these sources!

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The premium plagiarism checker provides you with an accurate similarity score that tells you what percentage of your paper is not original.

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Compare your writing to the original text side by side

Use the comparison feature to see how similar your writing is to the original without leaving the plagiarism checker report.

Check for self-plagiarism by uploading previous assignments

Upload previous assignments or a classmate’s paper to catch (self-)plagiarism that is otherwise difficult to detect by regular plagiarism checkers.

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Writing issues are corrected automatically when you upload a Word document. To review the corrections, you can download a Word document with Track Changes.

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Submit your assignments with confidence.

Detect plagiarism using software similar to what most universities use.

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You don't need a plagiarism checker, right?

You would never copy-and-paste someone else’s work, you’re great at paraphrasing, and you always keep a tidy list of your sources handy.

But what about accidental plagiarism ? It’s more common than you think! Maybe you paraphrased a little too closely, or forgot that last citation or set of quotation marks.

Even if you did it by accident, plagiarism is still a serious offense. You may fail your course, or be placed on academic probation. The risks just aren’t worth it.

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Scribbr is committed to protecting academic integrity. Our plagiarism checker, AI Detector , Citation Generator , proofreading services , paraphrasing tool , grammar checker , summarize , and free Knowledge Base content are designed to help students produce quality academic papers.

We make every effort to prevent our software from being used for fraudulent or manipulative purposes.

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Frequently asked questions

Extensive testing proves that Scribbr’s plagiarism checker is one of the most accurate plagiarism checkers on the market in 2022.

The software detects everything from exact word matches to synonym swapping. It also has access to a full range of source types, including open- and restricted-access journal articles, theses and dissertations, websites, PDFs, and news articles.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

Your document will be compared to the world’s largest and fastest-growing content database , containing over:

• 99.3 billion current and historical webpages.
• 8 million publications from more than 1,700 publishers such as Springer, IEEE, Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, and Taylor & Francis.

Note: Scribbr does not have access to Turnitin’s global database with student papers. Only your university can add and compare submissions to this database.

Generating your (free or premium) plagiarism report takes between 1 and 10 minutes, depending on the document size.

In that time, your document is compared to the world’s largest content database, with over 99 billion webpages and 8 million publications.

The free report tells you if your text contains potential plagiarism and other writing issues. The premium report gives you the resources you need to review issues in detail and resolve them.

At the moment we do not offer a monthly subscription for the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. This means you won’t be charged on a recurring basis – you only pay for what you use. We believe this provides you with the flexibility to use our service as frequently or infrequently as you need, without being tied to a contract or recurring fee structure.

You can find an overview of the prices per document here:

Please note that we can’t give refunds if you bought the plagiarism check thinking it was a subscription service as communication around this policy is clear throughout the order process.

Your writing stays private. Your submissions to Scribbr are not published in any public database, so no other plagiarism checker (including those used by universities) will see them.

Scribbr’s plagiarism checker offers complete support for 20 languages, including English, Spanish, German, Arabic, and Dutch.

The add-on AI Detector and AI Proofreader are only available in English.

The complete list of supported languages:

If your university uses Turnitin, the result will be very similar to what you see at Scribbr.

The only possible difference is that your university may compare your submission to a private database containing previously submitted student papers. Scribbr does not have access to these private databases (and neither do other plagiarism checkers).

To cater to this, we have the Self-Plagiarism Checker at Scribbr. Just upload any document you used and start the check. You can repeat this as often as you like with all your sources. With your Plagiarism Check order, you get a free pass to use the Self-Plagiarism Checker. Simply upload them to your similarity report and let us do the rest!

FAQs: Turnitin FAQs

What is a good similarity report score.

First of all, there is no perfect  Turnitin  similarity score. No two papers are the same, and therefore, no two Similarity Reports will tell the same story. The Similarity Report is a powerful resource, solely created for human interpretation.

Saying this, having too high a similarity score, while not meaning a student has plagiarised, may mean a student is relying too much on direct quotes or secondary sources. As a guide, somewhere between 15-20% might be considered a good score to aim for. If your score is a lot higher than this it is important to look at your Similarity Report in detail not just the overall score.

Your Similarity Report will show you the breakdown of your percentage. You may have a high similarity score but it may be made up of small percentages from many sources which is just good academic writing. Similarly, you may have a relatively low score but if this is made up of just one or two sources this could be a problem. It is more important to examine the Similarity Report than to just look at the overall score.

Suggested FAQs

• What does the colour on my Similarity Report mean?
• How do I interpret my Similarity Report?
• How do I exclude small sources from my Similarity Report score?
• How do I exclude quotes and bibliography from my Similarity Report score?
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Note : If you encounter technical difficulties with Moodle or Turnitin when submitting an assignment, this must be logged with the IT Support Hub .

Interpreting the Similarity Report

What is similarity.

Turnitin does not check for plagiarism in a piece of work. Instead, we will check a student's work against our database, and if there are instances where a student's writing is similar to, or matches against, one of our sources, we will flag this for you to review. Our database includes billions of web pages: both current and archived content from the internet, a repository of works students have submitted to Turnitin in the past, and a collection of documents, which comprises thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.

It is perfectly natural for an assignment to match against some of our database. If a student has used quotes and has referenced correctly, there will be instances where we will find a match. The similarity score simply highlights any potential problem areas in a student's paper. Instructors can use this as a tool within their review process to make their own determination if any academic misconduct has occurred.

What's the difference between a match and a source?

Match - This is text that is very similar or the same as some text you have in your paper. Your matches are highlighted in Turnitin and the colors will correlate with the sources listed in your insight panel.

Source - The source is where a particular match has been found. This can be a web page, a student paper, or a published journal. Your sources are listed numerically in your insight panel and it is possible to have multiple matches for each source. Selecting one of your sources will reveal information like how many matches were found for that particular source and where each match was found on that web page, student paper, or journal.

Similarity Score Ranges

Similarity Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.

Overwritten or resubmitted papers may not generate a new Similarity Report for a full 24 hours. This delay is automatic and allows resubmissions to correctly generate without matching to the previous draft.

The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:

• Blue: No matching text
• Green: One word to 24% matching text
• Yellow: 25-49% matching text
• Orange: 50-74% matching text
• Red: 75-100% matching text

How does Turnitin detect student collusion?

Collusion is typically identified when a student's work matches with another student's submission on the same assignment or to previously submitted papers. Consider the following scenario:

Eric acquired a copy of his classmate Jane's paper. Eric submits Jane's paper as his own and receives a similarity score of 25%. Jane, who originally wrote the paper, submits her work a few days later and receives a 100% similarity score.Turnitin can identify that collusion has taken place in this scenario by running a final similarity check against all submitted assignments after the due date, thereby ensuring that every student is subject to the same level of scrutiny, regardless of when they submitted their assignments.

To enable collusion checking, papers must be set to be added to the standard paper repository or your institution’s paper repository, and Similarity Reports must be set to generate “immediately (can overwrite reports until due date)” or “on the due date."

Other scoring scenarios

Example 1: A student may have submitted a paper to Turnitin in the past. If they had their name on that submission, it is entirely possible that, if you have not excluded small matches, their name is highlighted in their Similarity Report.

An instructor can rectify this issue by excluding by word number. In most cases, excluding 10 words should safely exclude a student's name from being highlighted in their Similarity Report.

Example 2 : A student may have used Turnitin to submit drafts of the same paper, meaning their final draft has resulted in a score of 100%.

As the instructor is likely aware that their student has submitted multiple times, they can rectify this issue by excluding the student's previous submissions from the Similarity Report.

Example 3 : A student has copied and pasted a chunk of text into their paper, due to a lack of knowledge on the topic they are covering. Their similarity score is 20%. In comparison, another student who has a firm basis of knowledge for the same assignment and knows enough to gather information from several sources to quote and reference correctly has a similarity score of 22%. Both students will be shown to have matches against our database. However, one of these students copied directly from a website, whereas the other provided properly sourced quotes.

Instructors can opt to exclude quotes from the Similarity Report to lower similarity scores where applicable.

Example 4 : A student has managed to acquire a copy of another student's paper. They submit this paper to Turnitin on 15th October and receive a similarity score of 25%. The student who originally wrote the paper submits it to Turnitin a week later, receiving a 100% similarity score.

In this case, regenerating the Similarity Report of the student who plagiarized will immediately identify collusion allowing you to follow institutional regulation.

Example 4 : A student has submitted a qualitative study to Turnitin, including a significant number of quotes and an extensive bibliography, as required for the topic of the paper. The student's similarity score is 53%; this exceeds the acceptable score set by their institution.

This issue could have been avoided if quotes and bibliography had been excluded from the Similarity Report.

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Turnitin: Building Academic Integrity Against Plagiarism to Underpin Innovation

• First Online: 11 June 2020

Cite this chapter

• Marwan El-Muwalla 4 &
• Adnan Badran 4  

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Plagiarism is considered one of the most sensitive issues in academia. Indeed, the increase in the number of research projects conducted worldwide has made awareness of scientific honesty and knowledge of the culture of non-plagiarism a topic of utmost importance for educational institutions and fundamental to underpinning successful innovation and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, cases of plagiarism are still recorded, intentionally or unintentionally. To this end, multiple software systems, such as Turnitin are used to detect plagiarism. Although the use of this software has become common practice in educational institutions, there are conflicting views associated with the benefits accrued from its implementation. This chapter reviews some of the supporting and opposing views associated with the use of this software, and considers how this medium can encourage scientific research of demonstrable integrity and facilitate its publication and potential exploitation.

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El-Muwalla, M., Badran, A. (2020). Turnitin: Building Academic Integrity Against Plagiarism to Underpin Innovation. In: Badran, A., Baydoun, E., Hillman, J. (eds) Higher Education in the Arab World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37834-9_11

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Viewing Turnitin Report Results

If you enabled the Turnitin feature in your class assignment, you can view the Originality reports for your students.  Reports often take 10-20 minutes after submission to appear, but can take up to 24 hours depending on the size of the document and whether the student is a new user.

Instructions

Log into Courses and click on the tab for your course.

• Click the Assignments tool in the left tool menu.

• The report is available to view when grading the assignment by clicking the student's name in the above step.

• Example: Hidden quotation marks could impact the amount of quoted material recognized in a document.
• Example: Some characters in different alphabets look the exact same to the naked eye (e.g. Latin: o; Greek: ο). While Turnitin's service will automatically swap out such characters for the similarity report, any effort to do so will be logged here.
• Overall Similarity: By default, this tab reveals an overall similarity percentage discerned from the source(s) with the highest degree (%) of match. Clicking the matched source tab will reveal options for viewing the full source.
• Document Details: This tab reveals important metadata about the submission, including the author's name, submission timestamp, assignment, class, etc. This tab also reveals analyses on the font(s) and spelling(s) in the document.
• AI: This tab opens in a new window and displays the percentage of the document that is determined, with 98% certainty, to be AI generated. Turnitin will NOT highligh content that is likely to AI generated, but rather highlights content that it can determine with a very high degree of certainty to be AI written.  View the AI Writing FAQ document to learn more about how Turnitin determines this percentage.

Additional Details

• In the "Overall Similarity" tab, instructors also have the option to click the "Sources Overview" dropdown to view a list of all sources that show any degree of match, including overlapping sources.  You can also click the gear icon to exclude quoted text, a bibliography section, citations, or small matches below a certain number of words as defined by you.  Be sure to click "Done" to update the current report.
• The icons immediately below the report allow you to zoom in, zoom out, or print/download the report to a file on your computer.
• Add a Turnitin assignment

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Muhammad Talha

1 Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The institutional integrity constitutes the bases of scientific activity. The frequent incidences of similarity, plagiarism, and retraction cases created the space for frequent use of similarity and plagiarism detecting tools. Turnitin is software that identifies the matched material by checking the electronically submitted documents against its database of academic publications, internet, and previously submitted documents. Turnitin provides a “similarity index,” which does not mean plagiarism. The prevalence of plagiarism could not reduce tremendously in the presence of many paid and un-paid plagiarism detecting tools because of the assortment of reasons such as poor research and citation skills, language problems, underdeveloped academic skills, etc., This paper may provide an adequate feedback to the students, researchers, and faculty members in understanding the difference between similarity index and plagiarism.

Introduction

The mechanism of broadcasting the scientific knowledge has experienced paradigm shift. Research publications have become an essential component of an academic promotion, research grants, innovative ideas, institutional growth, and eventually the economic and country development. Because of the lack of knowledge of similarity and plagiarism and for achieving an additional professional targets scientific misconduct has been slinked in the academic institutes. The research misconduct defined as “fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in writing, reviewing, or in reporting the research results.”[ 1 ] Academic plagiarism is increasing globally, which is a serious threat on academic integrity. Institutional pressure to publish, inappropriate training in principled scientific writing, ignorance, misunderstanding, and lack of constitutional controls and clear policies to deal with scientific misconduct in academics have led to increase research misconduct.[ 2 ]

In 1997, an internet based tool called “Turnitin” was established by iParadigms LLC. The Turnitin parent company “iParadigms LLC” also recognized a similar software service for books, newspaper editors, and magazine called “iThenticate.” The other similar types of tools included “Turnitin Suite” “GradeMark,” and “PeerMark.” The popularity of Turnitin has been expanded in academic institutions throughout the world. Turnitin tool checks the contents of any documents for its association with original contents. It identifies the similarities to existing sources of the original contents of the documents. Its prime role is to evade the plagiarism and improve the integrity of the academic institutions.

High morals are equally important in medical and other disciplines. In biomedical research, ethics are very important where the element human is involved.[ 3 ] Similarly, in other disciplines such as natural Sciences[ 4 ] and Arts and Humanities, principled issues are addressed in terms of plagiarism. Plagiarism derives from the Latin word “plagiarius” that refers to abducting or kidnapping. Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another under own name,[ 5 ] whereas citing the titles of papers will be detected as a similarity such as book titles or bibliographies, references and quotes, common phrases and constructs, etc. Some well-known kinds of plagiarism are briefly defined in the Table 1 .[ 6 ]

Types of plagiarism

The researchers and students frequently visit the various search engines as research tools and think cutting and pasting as an easy way of conducting the research.[ 7 , 8 ] Knowingly or unknowingly, they do misconduct that ultimately damage the integrity of the individuals and institutions. In general, plagiarism is not intentional or deliberate cheating, e.g., it can be because of certain reasons such as lack of interest in the subject, lack of research skills, fear of failing, procrastination, and/or poor referencing skills.[ 9 , 10 ] Chaudhuri[ 11 ] defines the plagiarism as “an unfair use of somebody else's work without giving credit for it. It is necessary to cite and acknowledge the sources even if those ideas are paraphrased and re-written with different words.” The newly entered students to higher education are often faced with such problems because of unawareness about academic culture, environment, and dignity. Therefore, it creates a space between skills of the individuals and expectations of the institutions.[ 12 ] The possible reasons of plagiarism are elaborated in the Table 2 .

Why do researchers plagiarise?

The present paper highlights the pros and cons of an educational resource which is “electronic text matching tool” and the most widely used tool, Turnitin. The Gill Rowell dismisses the myth that Turnitin is a “plagiarism detection software and clarifies the contribution that Turnitin can and cannot make to the detection and prevention of plagiarism.” In this study, we explore the misconception which is calling Turnitin “a plagiarism detection software.” It will be quiet sensible to recall it as “a text-matching tool” that electronically checks the similar text of submitted material against web contents, its database of academic publication and earlier submitted documents.[ 13 ]

Plagiarism detection is an academic judgment, which is depending on plenty of factors, and only expert academicians can do this job. Turnitin or other similar software's produce “Originality Reports,” which is then interpreted by a person on the basis of the importance of the findings. Before creating the originality reports, bibliography, quoted material, and small matches (words or percentage) should be excluded. The interpretation of originality reports can be tricky depending on the expertise of the team member. For instance, it is not wise to simply rely on the percentage of similarity index 38%, human intervention is must to rule out the facts by thorough inspection of each single matching. For example, is it extracted from one source or gathered many small portions from different sources? Is it 38% extracted from methodology or discussion section? It is also relevant to see that all the matching portions are correctly cited to display the source.[ 13 ] Sometimes Turnitin matches your own (same) paper and shows the similarity index more than 90%; in this case, you have to analyze the originality report thoroughly by checking each and every single matched source. If it is verified that the matched source is your own paper itself, then this paper should be excluded from the originality report using given options. It is wise to select “no repository” option in “edit assignment settings” before creating new originality reports to avoid this problem. Using this option will not save the papers submitted to Turnitin database. The Table 3 presents various features of originality report, whereas Table 4 illustrates the color scheme with respect to percentages of similarity index.

Originality report

Interpreting results according to the originality report

Safe percentages

There are no sharply defined rules as all work will perhaps carry certain words from other sources. The percentage varies from university to university, however, a considerable percentage would be anything above 25% (Yellow, Orange, and Red). It is essential to understand that the “Similarity Index” is NOT a “plagiarism index”; there is no percentage that is characteristically “good” or “bad.” However, 0% (an authentic result) does not essentially mean that all is “OK” with the paper, and 75% (high similarity text) does not certainly mean that the researcher should flunk. Academic judgment (human intervention) is must to evaluate the originality report and to rule out the true plagiarism, if persists. The originality reports are solely tools to uncover potential sources of plagiarism or text, which could have been erroneously cited. There are a large number of uses for the Turnitin tool. Students frequently practice it to check the papers for missing citations, and faculties use the Turnitin to check the plagiarism in students' assignments, master/PhD theses, manuscripts, etc. If plagiarism suspected, better to discuss with concerned student, researcher, or faculty member first because researcher could be the victim of someone. Be a smart enough to look at the report and decide what is going on here? A hotchpotch of tips to avoid plagiarism is described in the Table 5 .

Ten tips to avoid the plagiarism using the Turnitin tool

It is essential to understand the difference between two elements – Similarity and Plagiarism. An example is incorporated to understand this dilemma. It is obvious from the Figure 1 that there are many words, abbreviations, names of the tests, diseases etc., one cannot change or paraphrase them and has to write the sentence/s as it is. In this case, the Turnitin shows 64% similarity index, which does not mean plagiarism. It means that 64% of your work is matched with already published work, this may include billions of pages available on internet, which does not qualify as plagiarism.

Example of an originality report presenting the similarity index

Clanton[ 14 ] argues that unless academic dishonesty is reasonably suspected, it is ethically problematic to necessitate submission through plagiarism detection services such as Turnitin because of multiple reasons. The plagiarism detection tools cannot identify each and every occurrence of plagiarism because their databases are not complete,[ 15 , 16 ] but these tools are increasing their capability for detecting and deterring plagiarism.

Scientific integrity is the main concern of the global research community. That is why many plagiarism prevention tools are introduced for the ease of researchers to check the originality of their work before publishing the document(s). Many ethical committees and code of ethics have been introduced to avoid plagiarism and deal with misconduct cases at institutional levels. Various universities and research institutes have established their rules and regulations to avoid the plagiarism and misconduct issues. Plagiarism prevention is essential to appropriately admit to the contributions and scientific inventions introduced by other persons. Honoring and crediting individual work who really deserve rather than misleading the persons who read it to wrongly consider that the work belongs to another individual. Therefore, it is pertinent for students, researchers, and faculty members to comprehend that the Turnitin is not a plagiarism detection tool, but it is a text matching tool that provides the similarity of the document/s with already published work, which is the foremost purpose of this paper. To avoid misconducts and its consequences, one should acknowledge the work of other persons appropriately by properly referencing and citing it.

Author's contributions

SAM: Writing and reviewing the manuscript, MT: Conceived, literature search, and writing and reviewing a draft.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the College of Medicine Research Centre (CMRC) and Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for supporting the work.

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Acceptable Turnitin percentage: Interpret Originality Report

acceptable Turnitin percentage and similarity score

Before we unravel the acceptable Turnitin Percentage and learn how to interpret Turnitin’s originality report, it is important first to understand what it is and how it works to produce the similarity score. First of all, Turnitin is an online program that checks papers and essays for originality and detects plagiarism.

Our essay-writing experts advise that Turnitin is the best plagiarism scanner out there. And for sure, it will help prevent plagiarism. This is because it will pinpoint any citation mistakes and copy and paste incidents into your paper. But how?

Basically, Turnitin works by detecting any text overlaps between your submitted papers and its huge database, ranging from previously submitted works by students , websites, articles, books, and all other archives that are at its disposal.

The Acceptable Turnitin Percentage for the Similarity Score

The acceptable Turnitin percentage is anything below 25% in the similarity report. A Turnitin plagiarism score of 25% and below shows that your paper is original. It also shows that your work is underpinned by enough sources, especially when well-cited and referenced.

Any Turnitin percentage beyond 25% is just too much, especially if not referenced.

To understand this, it is important to note that Turnitin similarity reports, also called originality reports, indicate the similarity between work submitted for checking and the content in the Turnitin database.

Turnitin database includes all previously checked work, all pages available on the internet, and other sources.

You are provided with a similarity report only if there is matching content between your work and the content on the database.

It only takes Turnitin about five minutes after submission to generate the similarity reports. Any re-submitted work may take up to a day.

It should be noted that similarity reports should not be used to determine the level of plagiarism. The reports should help in the identification of potential plagiarism sources. The best method to prove plagiarism is by comparing the submitted work with the content of the suspected sources.

Acceptable Turnitin Similarity Report and Color

As will be explained in the next section, the similarity report icons come in different colors. Each color indicates the similarity score based on the matching content detected. The score usually ranges from 0% to 100%.

Blue represents zero instances of matching work, green represents 1% to 24% of matching text found, yellow represents 25% to 49% of matching work, orange represents 50% to 74% of similarity, and red represents 75% to 100% of matching texts found.

Similarity percentages are recorded on the top right of the document provided. There is no clear set of guidelines or rules that determine the acceptability of any Turnitin percentage.

Academicians argue that any type of work must include some words that are similar to different sources. We covered this in an article about what is detected by Turnitin and what it does not. Check it out. Therefore, a similarity report with less than 15% matching text can represent plagiarism-free work.

However, if the matching texts that amount to 15% are continuous, the work can be considered plagiarized despite the acceptable overall Turnitin percentage. Most instructors require work minimal plagiarized work possible. This means that 15% and below percentage is not applicable everywhere.

How to Read and Interpret Turnitin Scores

Though the percentage in Turnitin’s originality score does not necessarily indicate plagiarism, ideally, each percentage translates to a certain degree of matches between the text in your paper and other material from Turnitin’s database. The percentage ranges from 0% to 100%, with 100% indicating the most matches and 0% indicating the least matches.

Below 5% means that your paper is very okay when it comes to matches.

Below 24% means that your paper is still acceptable. Scores between 25% and 49% mean your paper needs to be revised and resubmitted.

Scores between 50% and 74% mean that your paper requires a lot of revision because it indicates that there is possible plagiarism.

A score of more than 75% indicates that your paper is unacceptable and should be rewritten (not revised). This is because it shows that you have plagiarized your paper.

On top of the percentage scores presented in the originality report, you will notice that they are accompanied by different colors. Each color carries its meaning; the next section will help you understand it.

How do Turnitin Percentage and Scores Work?

You may wonder how you will read and interpret the similarity reports now that you have understood what Turnitin detects. This is because the papers that have been submitted through Turnitin will be returned through an Originality Report.

You must be well versed with the readings to understand the percentage (%) scores and the colors used to mean. Therefore, let’s delve into the details.

As noted, Turnitin will match your submitted papers with millions of other texts from their database. After submitting your paper, you will receive an Originality Report containing a percentage that represents the volume of text within your paper that matches other texts from Turnitin’s database.

You should note here that there is a significant difference between plagiarism and what Turnitin detects as text matches or the similarity index. Therefore, do not be alarmed when Turnitin highlights matching text in your papers.

This is because it flags any material it regards as matching, and this does not mean that it is plagiarized. You may have properly cited or quoted text, but still, the material matches other text from its database. Anyway, let’s continue.

So far, we have noted that the percentage match does not definitively show that your work is plagiarized. You may submit your paper and receive an originality score of, let’s say, 40%. This score can be acceptable as long as you have cited your work appropriately.

On the other hand, you may receive an originality report with a percentage of less than 5% after you have submitted your paper. This may paradoxically mean that your work is supported by inappropriate and insufficient references and sources.

Turnitin Colors and what they mean

Five basic colors are used by Turnitin to represent the extent to which your paper contains matches Turnitin’s database. According to the universities using the scanner, the Turnitin colors are orange, red, yellow, green, and blue.

The red color indicates a score of between 75% and 100%, while the orange color indicates a score between 50% and 74%. When your paper contains those colors, you should consider thoroughly revising or rewriting it. They are not good indicators.

On the other hand, yellow indicates a score of between 25% and 49%, while green indicates a score of between 0% and 24%. As aforementioned, yellow should prompt you to revise your paper appropriately to reduce the similarity index.

Green is the acceptable Turnitin color in most cases. However, some instructors may require you to reduce the similarity index to below 5% to accept your paper.

Finally, blue indicates that your paper has less than 20 matching words from Turnitin’s database. This is a perfect score.

From those Turnitin colors and highlights, students should try as much as possible to maintain scores below 25% and, if possible, below 5%. Your instructor may consider giving you bonus points for reducing the similarity index and evading plagiarism.

Now that we have understood what Turnitin does and what originality reports mean, how can you plagiarize without getting caught by Turnitin? Let’s tackle that in the next section.

What Turnitin Similarity Percentage is too much?

An essay with a similarity report of over 25 per cent can be said to be highly plagiarized. Represented by yellow, orange, and red colors, these percentages indicate too much similarity in work.

The requirements of the essay and the student’s work determine whether a paper is plagiarized.

The percentage of matches found in a piece of work depends on the assignment’s settings that are set by instructors.

For accurate overall percentages, the default setting excludes quoted words, references, and small matches of up to five words.

To determine plagiarism, one must go beyond the similarity percentage provided and look into the original report in detail. Read our guide on how to cheat Turnitin to learn how you can reduce such bad plagiarism scores.

All said and done; the bottom line comes to the instructor. He is the one who will determine if your paper is plagiarized or not, whether your Turnitin percentage is at the acceptable similarity score or not.

However, it is advisable to always keep your Turnitin similarity score at 25% and below. This is because lower scores show that your paper is original and you have not copied much from other sources.

It also advisable that you always cite your sources and reference them well using the referencing style your professor requires. This is all about referencing and quotes, using APA, MLA and Havard styles.

What percentage is bad on Turnitin

Any percentage above 20% indicates that there are cases of similarity in the submitted work. Various institutions have varying acceptable similarity percentages. Types of academic output also determine acceptable similarity percentages. Therefore, A 20% similarity score on a Master’s paper is acceptable because most information is derived from existing authorities. Publications, on the other hand, should not have more than the acceptable score or level.

Turnitin similarity of 30, is it bad? Is 20%similarity bad?

A report with a similarity percentage of more than 20% or 30% is considered bad. Though the percentage varies from institution to institution, the content of any work that is copied from web pages is considered plagiarism. This is why it is important to compare the sources of information indicated on the similarity report with what is in the submitted paper. Such comparison is good and is part of your knowledge on how to use Turnitin well, and you should take time to understand it.

What is a good similarity score?

There is no good similarity score if plagiarism can be identified. Normally a percentage ranging from 0 to 5 is considered acceptable by many institutions. It is important to note that a low percentage may indicate insufficient sources on the Turnitin database to check your work. Plagiarism may be present but it cannot be detected.

When is a Turnitin percentage of 40 good or bad?

When your work is referenced and presented properly, a 40% similarity score is acceptable. Turnitin does not detect well-cited work as not plagiarised. This, however, depends on the instructors. Instructors should determine whether the cited contented flagged as plagiarised is correctly cited. This means that if the writer did not cite well, then he or she will not escape plagiarism.

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One size does not fit all: Interpreting Turnitin's AI writing score

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As a former educator, I recall those times when–much like my secondary English Language Arts students–I wanted a simple right or wrong answer to questions. Sadly, these types of responses are rare in spite of their comforting nature. Generative AI writing tools and usage of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator have one thing in common: there is no one “right” approach. An “appropriate” approach may be a more accurate term as determining generative AI parameters may vary greatly from one assignment to another, or from one student to another. Determining the significance of the AI writing score for and with your students is a key step in helping students navigate the world of generative AI writing tools.

The unknown is always frightening and overwhelming. Let's start with what IS known and use that as a framework for understanding the new.

How does the AI writing indicator compare to the Similarity Score?

Linking new ideas to existing knowledge is a strong strategy, so let’s begin with the Turnitin Similarity Score, already familiar to many educators. While there are some significant differences between the two scores, the need for nuance and context is a common element. Veteran Turnitin users know that setting an arbitrary percentage for the Similarity Score without considering the assignment or student lessens the likelihood that this information will be used to inform a meaningful conversation about the student’s writing.

Perhaps the most significant difference between these two percentages is how they are determined. While Turnitin’s Similarity Score is an exact match to a large body of content for similarity checking , the AI writing score indicates the percentage of text in a document that was likely generated by an AI tool ( See #9 of AI detection results and interpretation ). This difference makes some uncomfortable because the AI writing score is a seeming gray area, but shifting that perspective is necessary to harness the power of this information.

The fact that an exact match isn’t identified does not make the information less valuable. In fact, it makes little difference when used as intended: as a single data point that informs the educator’s understanding of the student’s thinking and work. The educator’s own knowledge of the student and their work is as crucial to understanding the AI writing score as the percentage itself. In and of itself, the score cannot stand alone;it is arbitrary and less meaningful without an educator’s sense of the assignment, the student, and overall context.

We at Turnitin encourage educators to take a similar approach to the AI writing score as we recommend for interpreting the Similarity Score. Ideally, this is step one of a conversation that takes place in the formative space , rather than being used as a summative or punitive measure. When the “score”--Similarity or AI writing–is looked upon as the starting point for a dialogue rather than a definitive statement about a student’s work, then these conversations take on vigorous purpose as an opportunity for learning.

To that end, our team of veteran educators developed a helpful resource to support educators and academic decision makers who are looking to understand the similarities and differences between Turnitin's Similarity Score and Turnitin's AI writing indicator. Below, you'll find a downloadable infographic that spells out how each tool can and should be used to responsibly support original student work.

The case for not setting a single AI writing score for a course

While some might argue that a “one score fits all” approach is fair, a closer look at assignment and student dynamics makes this patently untrue. In the interests of fairness and equity, educators should consider multiple factors when reviewing student writing:

• Genre of the assignment . When reviewing a creative or personal narrative, a lower AI writing score would be more expected as original thinking that is personal to the student is expected. When reviewing a research-based piece of writing, a lower AI writing score might indicate a lack of cited evidence to back up the student’s claims, whereas a higher score might indicate a more appropriate level of evidence to back up the student’s claims, or it may reveal some intended or unintended misconduct. A conversation with the student during a review of the work can help the educator determine what happened, why, and what next steps might be.
• Length of an assignment . When reviewing a briefer essay versus a longer research paper, the issue of false positives may need to be considered. Submissions with fewer than 300 words have a greater likelihood of presenting a false positive. But again, while guidelines may be appropriate when considering the impact of the AI writing score, the AI writing indicator isn’t what determines that impact. Only the educator who is familiar with both the assignment parameters and the student can determine how weighty an impact that could and should be.
• Guidelines for usage of AI writing tools . Some assignments may specify that the use of generative AI writing tools is unsanctioned or that they can only be used in certain ways, and these are important factors to consider as well when speaking to students about their work.
• Student needs . While the above mentioned variables would remain similar for an assignment, the greatest variable that must be factored into this decision-making is the student. Not penalizing students with exceptionalities for using tools that are documented to address their particular circumstances is paramount. A student who is an English language learner might be permitted to use a translation tool powered by AI that flags some or all of the submitted work as AI-generated. Not considering that this might unfairly penalize the student while also potentially violating the terms of their allowable accommodations.

While this is not an exhaustive list of exceptionalities or other factors that might impact an educator’s judgment about a student’s AI writing score, the educator’s knowledge of the student and the application of that knowledge is essential to making a fair and reasonable determination. As always, when there is any doubt as to whether academic misconduct has occurred, erring on the side of caution is best.

What factors influence whether the AI writing score merits a conversation?

As with any tool, the success of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator largely depends on how it’s used. When educators look at the AI writing score and utilize it as a single data point rather than a definitive response, then it is being used as intended. No tool can replace the educator’s judgment combined with other data points to determine whether such a conversation is needed.

As education leaders approach these important decisions with vigilance and care, it's important to consider different reasons scores may vary and how they might be addressed. Let's discuss a possible way to demonstrate the thinking and decision-making process in the next section.

Why is an AI writing score of __ ok for Student A, but not appropriate for Student B or Student C?

Because educators know their students, their work, and any special circumstances or needs, this knowledge supersedes an arbitrary score except as a possible starting point.

Assume that I have been building relationships with these students all semester. For the sake of this example assignment, the use of AI was allowable as a brainstorming tool and to help with writing a thesis statement if needed. These guidelines, including the expectation that AI tools and other resources be cited, were communicated with the rest of the parameters when introducing the assignment. Although this is not my first conversation about writing with these students, it is the first one about the AI writing indicator and score, and so I want to prepare for the conversation so that all participants leave the conversation satisfied with the outcome.

Let’s take a look at some of my students: Student A, Student B, and Student C. Each has unique characteristics that factored into the decision to have a deeper conversation. My expectation was that there would be some variance in scores, but that they would also fall along certain expected levels. This was true for most students, but not these three, who received notably higher AI writing scores on the assignment.

In the table below, three student profiles are coupled with the specific concern that gives greater context to their AI writing score. The potential solution column outlines my thought-process as an educator or decision-maker, offering potential next steps with that student’s profile and particular concern in mind.

As highlighted above in the “Potential solution” column, a conversation is needed with all three students in order for clarification and perhaps to suggest some adjustments. While I would not expect that all students will have the exact same score or even fall within a range of scores, the main point of these conversations is to focus on writing and to ensure that the students are supported when using generative AI writing tools so that their writing showcases their own original thinking.

How can educators use the AI writing indicator to facilitate good writing instruction?

Acknowledging that the tools are there and sharing when/why/how generative AI writing tools can be used as an aid (never a substitute!) is important to students’ writing journeys. It seems obvious that AI writing tools are here to stay. Regardless of whether this innovation is positive or negative in everyone’s mind, it seems likely that generative AI will be used by students post-secondary-school, whether they go to university or into trade or some other aspect of the workforce.

Students use AI writing tools for a variety of reasons, but when the discussion is focused on solutions rather than misuse, then the opportunity for learning is centered. The idea of intentional misuse or not becomes less important than learning how to “fix” it. Helping students manage time more efficiently vs copying and pasting an entire essay; teaching in-text citations vs just inserting another writer’s or bot’s words; teaching paraphrasing vs … there are as many reasons students use generative AI writing tools as there are students and–just as importantly–solutions that maintain the student’s academic integrity.

When the AI writing score is used to inform conversations about student writing in the formative space, then these conversations become part of the process and support that students often need to improve their writing . The score is a good starting point for discussing how to use these tools while still maintaining the integrity of their work. Talking to students about their process and figuring out together how to respond to the challenges presented by writing when generative AI seems easier is important to helping students improve their writing.

In sum: Interpreting Turnitin’s AI writing score

Turnitin’s AI writing indicator provides a percentage and a report with highlighted text that indicates the text was likely generated using AI writing tools… and that’s really it. What it is not is a magic button that provides definitive answers in isolation. More important than any tool is the educator who sees the score and makes decisions balancing this information with their personal knowledge of their students, their work, and institutional policy.

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Acceptable Turnitin Similarity: How much is too much Percentage

Acceptable Turnitin Similarity

The question of acceptable Turnitin similarity and how much percentage is too much arises when your paper contains copied content. Any student needs to know the best Turnitin similarity index, especially when you want to escape any issues with your professor.

First and foremost, let us know what Turnitin is. It is an online tool used for checking plagiarism in submitted documents and displays what percentage of plagiarism your assignment has. All this is processed and presented as a report with percentages.

This is really where our focus question arises from. In this post, we delve into this issue in detail.

Turnitin Similarity how Much is too Much

The Turnitin similarity of 20% and above is too much because it illustrates that a fifth of your paper’s content was copied and not original.

However, this varies with universities due to different referencing and citation guidelines. But with no universally specified similarity score, the widely acceptable Turnitin percentage is less than 10%

For example, a doctorate original dissertation reference should be less than 10% to consider the literature review in which direct quotes that are quoted properly from an expert’s subject matter will most likely occur.

However, in the case of a dissertation, you will be requested to synthesize material, after which you generate your information so that the content is primarily original.

On the other hand, a master’s thesis can be allowed up to 20% since the larger part of the paper is heavily dependent on existing authorities.

If you take an example of an essay like literature, a plagiarism score of 5 % and below would be acceptable.

When writing a publication manuscript, there should be a very little amount of plagiarism, like 5-7%, apart from the few quotations with proper citations. However, it should be noted that all is not about a low score.

While having a 0% score is ideal, sometimes there are scores due to unavoidable content or phrases. Therefore, many people still want to know which Turnitin score is safe for them to submit their assignments.

Turnitin Similarity varies from one University to Another

The acceptable plagiarism score varies from university to university because of the differences in the plagiarism policies they use to administer their testing procedures.

Some universities are more strict than others because they adopt different citation and referencing rules.

This is because determining the acceptable similarity index is the role of examiners or supervisors and the institutions’ prerogative. They decide if or if not, the presented document is plagiarized and how much plagiarism is committed.

The reason is that Turnitin highlights all the matching materials in a paper. Just like SafeAssign, Turnitin flags off all matching content. However, you can cheat Turnitin and SafeAssign by cleverly uploading your task or paraphrasing content to avoid a plagiarism score.

Why a Little Plagiarism is Good

A little plagiarism is good because it indicates that a paper is well-researched and contains external information from other writers and sources. It is impossible to write a paper with external sources and fail to have a few matching tests to give low scores on the scanner.

A plagiarism score of between 1% and 10 is really good. In fact, we encourage writers to use external sources to back up their arguments, which is why good quality and well-researched papers will always have some low plagiarism.

For this reason, some scholars argue that little plagiarism is healthy. However, if plagiarism goes beyond 25, it is bad and should be corrected.

While some educational institutions allow up to 40% for well-referenced papers, we do not allow anything above 15% as a matter of precaution. We only allow anything higher in cases where it is unavoidable.

The cases of unavoidable plagiarism include the names of books, government bodies, and organizations.

When such are repeated many times in a paper, the paper can show a high score of plagiarism yet no copy-pasting was done.

What Percentage of Turnitin is bad?

A Turnitin similarity score is considered bad if it is beyond 30% on the originality report and the matching content is not cited and referenced.

While the exact bad score varies with different universities, anything beyond 49 is generally considered unacceptable since it shows that you copied too much from the internet or other sources.

The Turnitin score tells how much you have copied. If you have a report you deem bad, you must remove the plagiarism. Supposing you are writing an essay, a term paper, a research paper, a thesis, or a report, you can apply two ways in which to reduce the plagiarism score;

• One is paraphrasing the source content; however, this approach could omit some important details since you are trying to avoid plagiarism. You need to paraphrase well and retain the points.
• Two is by summarizing in your own words the source material; this will make your professor happy since you understood the source and wrote the paper in your own words; hence you will have 0% plagiarism because summarizing is all your own words.

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The Acceptable Percentage for Turnitin

The widely acceptable Turnitin percentage is 15% and below. However, there is no universally specified similarity score because plagiarism policies vary with institutions.

Some universities accept Turnitin scores of 10%, others entertain as high as 45% if the sources are well cited.

No matter the accepted score, anything above 20% is just too much plagiarism and shows a lot of copying.

Turnitin has no acceptable plagiarism percentage; however, this could vary with your university’s guidelines. If your university’s guidelines and assessment file states 100% original, it must be 100% original — no buts or ifs.

In case the plagiarism report reads above 10% similarity. Your paper will get grades with negative scores for plagiarism if your school’s acceptable percentage for Turnitin is 10%.

However, if your professor permits a range of 5% plagiarism against the norms of the university, then you will be fine with your assignment.

What contributes to the Acceptable Percentage of Plagiarism?

For very strict institutions, a single plagiarized sentence will result in being charged with violating the academic integrity policy of your school.

The percentage rating given by Turnitin is simply a guide for the score of similar content copied from other sources.

It enables the professors to determine how much of the student’s work is original.

However, a custom essay with a low percentage of plagiarism on a paper is still unacceptable, and an essay with a high percentage could be Ok.

This is determined if the high percentage is a result of the wrong settings of Turnitin in such a way that properly quoted material is flagged as plagiarized mistakenly.

References also contribute to a good and acceptable similarity score. It is worth noting that the Turnitin percentage is always 0 when no external sources are used as references.

However, whenever you use sources, you will always have a low similarity score of either 5% or less than 10% utmost. In fact, a 0% score is not healthy for a research paper because it indicates that no sources were used to back up the arguments/points/findings presented

Why is your Turnitin Similarity Index too high?

Turnitin highlights the similarities of your content to other sources; it doesn’t determine if your paper is plagiarized; that is the assessor’s prerogative.

The assessor determines if the similar text is attributed accurately and quoted correctly. The context is very important; however, Turnitin doesn’t account for context.

 In many cases, a high similarity index is usually due to either or a combination of the following:

1. Not Crediting the Source

 You are copying every word from some other source without including the original words inside the quotation marks and including a citation about the source of the original text. Although you put the ideas from a particular source in your own words, you have to credit the source.

2. Paraphrasing too Closely, Although you Credit the Source

You can’t take ideas from some other text, even if you put them into your words, and fail to cite the source. However, there is another kind of plagiarism when you paraphrase someone else’s work.

When you put ideas and words in a different order from the original text and mix your original words, you will still plagiarize, although you cite the source.

3. Using Statistics without Crediting the Source

Statistics, charts, or tables inside a text are the property of whoever created them. And from this fact, you must credit the original creator in your text.

There is an oratorical advantage when you cite the source because an author has reached statistics that support your claims in your paper, strengthening your argument.

4. Using Photographs/ Images without Citing Sources

The practice is similar to identifying a figure or a table. If you take someone else’s photograph and place it in your text, and write a description, to make it apply to your paper and show a point you will be arguing without acknowledging the source is plagiarism.

Even when you have taken a photograph, it is advisable to cite yourself since you are the creator, and the source will be clear to all readers.

5. Copying or Buying Someone else’s Paper

It is obvious that hiring someone to write your essay is plagiarism, and copying someone else’s work is equally bad. This raises the safety issue when buying essays or from someone else. This can also happen by contracting essay-writing services to do your assignment

Copying some parts of a paper or the whole paper from old lab reports or old papers essay bank is a good example of this type of plagiarism.

6. Padding a reference list or bibliography to show that you have researched when you haven’t

Academic misconduct that mostly happens when students don’t complete their assignments and leave them till the last moment, especially when their professors have requested that they include various articles and books in their reference list.

If you face this problem, you can easily learn to put your paper in APA for free or ask our editors for some help.

How to Reduce Similarity on Turnitin for your Essay

In most cases, it’s impossible to reduce plagiarism alerts on Turnitin. However, you can decrease it by following these steps to make sure your essay is free of plagiarism:

1. Paraphrase your Content

If you have found information that suits your research paper, read and understand it, then put it in your own words.

Ensure you do not write the above two words consecutively from the text you found.

In case you write the above four words in a row, it is advisable to use quotation marks.

2. Cite your Sources

Citing is the most effective way to avoid plagiarism. Follow the formatting guidelines of the document, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago, used by your college. Citing a quote is different from citing paraphrased material.

This practice involves adding a page number or adding a paragraph number when writing web content. To ensure a better score, get someone to format the paper for you if you do not know these referencing styles,

3. Properly use Quotation Marks

You must use quotation marks when you write a quote exactly as it appears from the source. No one likes to be misquoted. A scholar must be able to paraphrase most material effectively.

The process takes time, but the efforts are rewarding. Quoting should be done well to be free of plagiarism allegations.

4. Referencing your sources

The most effective way to avoid plagiarism is by adding a page of cited works or reference pages at the end of a research paper.

Also the page should also meet the formatting guidelines of referencing used by your college.

Difference between Similarity and Plagiarism

There is a difference between similarity and plagiarism. The teacher defines plagiarism as making a judgment that someone copied. Similarity, on the other hand, is the matching of content with another, as shown by the scanner’s report

Scanners like Turnitin and SafeAssign cannot scan for plagiarism; they only scan for similarity. It is from the similarity report that a professor can judge whether there is plagiarism or not.

Those two are different, and a similarity score does not imply plagiarism. Sometimes, you can get a false positive, where Turnitin says you plagiarized but didn’t , which needs the intervention of your teacher.

In most cases, some systems can have errors occasionally and scan the references. If the match is on the references, that is not considered plagiarism.

Final Take: Avoid Plagiarism at all cost

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that detects the plagiarized content in your paper. It is always advisable for students to stay away from plagiarism by following the steps given in this write-up.

To avoid issues with your instructor, it is important that you know the acceptable percentage for Turnitin. This will help you know how much plagiarism is allowed for your essay in your institution.

However, if you are not confident that you will write an original paper, you can contact us to help with your essay and guarantee an original paper. NO PLAGIARISM HERE.

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FAQs on Acceptable Plagiarism Percentage

What does it mean when turnitin says 0 similarity.

A Turnitin similarity of 0% means that you did not copy anything from online sources word for word or directly. While it shows your work is original, it may also indicate your prowess in paraphrasing.

You might have copied but paraphrased to cheat Turnitin. As it is recommended by academic writing experts, it is ideal to have a 0% plagiarized paper if you want to score higher. However,

Is a little plagiarism good? If so, why and how little is too little?

A little plagiarism is good because it shows you included ideas and arguments from other writers or credible sources. A 0 score may indicate a lack of resourced content since a little plagiarism shows that you researched well. However, it should be noted that what is liked is a little plagiarism but not a lot. Anything less than 5-10% is good if well referenced and cited using the right referencing formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago. A little is good but not too much.

How do I remove similarity from Turnitin?

Ideally, the best way to remove similarity from the Turnitin score for your paper is to rewrite the affected content. You can read and understand the content, then write from your mind.

The other best way is to paraphrase the affected areas. Be sure to cite and reference the sources of your content properly.

Does Turnitin count References

Ideally, Turnitin does not count references because they are not part of the main content of a paper or an essay. However, this depends on your faculty/university’s settings for the plagiarism scanning system. In most cases, most universities do not allow the scanning of references. Therefore, this should not be a worry for you. Either way, references should not worry you because they are good for a paper and do not constitute plagiarism. In reality, references do not comprise the plagiarism report, even if scanned and highlighted for matching.

Watch this video to learn more about this.

Jessica Kasen is experienced in academic writing and academic assistance. She is well versed in academia and has a master’s degree in education. Kasen consults with us in helping students improve their grades. She also oversights the quality of work done by our writers.

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• Plagiarism in Research

Q: My orginal research got 100% similarity on Turnitin. What should I do?

I (with another two authors) carried out an original research paper. On 17th September 2023, I checked its similarly on turnitin and it was 13%. Then I submitted it to journal X and got rejected, again submitted it to journal Y and rejected. Then I was busy for a long time (few months). Therefore, I could not have time to submit it another journal. However, last month February 2024, I submitted it and it went under review and still under review after first revision. Today when I working another file checking, I have checked that file also but unfortunately I have got 63% similarly.

Asked by Md Nazmul Hasan Dipu on 17 Apr, 2024

Hello and thanks for reaching out. I admit that I found it a bit difficult to understand your question, but I hope I can provide some clarity and insights that will help you resolve the issue you are facing.

Your question in the title mentions 100% similarity. However, you mention that the initial file showed 13%, similarity, and after the first revision, the file showed 63% similarity (I assumed that you were referring to that file and not the other one you are working on). It is surprising that the same file would show such varied similarity values, but I assume that extensive changes might have been made at the revision stage.

Now, let me explain how Turnitin and other similarity checking/plagiarism detection tools work. Users upload their written work to Turnitin, which compares the submitted work against a vast database of academic materials and identifies similarities between the submitted work and the content in its database. After the comparison, Turnitin generates report that highlights any passages that match content in its database and provides a similarity score (expressed as a percentage). The similarity percentage represents the proportion of the document that matches other sources in the database.

How to interpret Turnitin’s report

The interpretation of the similarity score varies depending on the context. In academic settings, similarity scores below a certain threshold (e.g., 10–20%) may be considered acceptable, as they may reflect common phrases, quotations, or properly cited material. Higher similarity scores may indicate potential plagiarism or insufficient citation. You would have noticed some (if not all) of the following colors in your report. They indicate different levels of text matching.

Blue: No matching text

Green: One word to 24% matching text

Yellow: 25–49% matching text

Orange: 50–74% matching text

Red: 75–100% matching text

What to do when you get a high similarity percentage

1. Carefully review the report to identify the sources of similarity: Ensure that any quoted or paraphrased material is properly cited and attributed to the original source. Revise your work to include proper citations, paraphrase or rewrite passages, or remove content that excessively matches existing sources.

2. Seek guidance: If you are unsure about the extent or nature of the similarities, please consult all the coauthors to check that proper citation practices were followed. You may seek guidance from your supervisor or mentor for any next steps that might be needed.

3. Explain in a cover letter: If you believe that the high similarity score is due to legitimate reasons (e.g., common terminology in your field, widely accepted methodologies/protocols, or self-plagiarism from your previous papers), you may provide an explanation in a cover letter to the journal editor, clarifying the circumstances.

In your case, as your paper is under revision, you will have to wait till you get a response from the editorial office. If it is accepted with minor or major revisions, be sure to follow steps 1 and 2 mentioned above. If the paper is rejected on the grounds of high similarity, you may try step 3. If that does not work, be sure that you address the sources of similarity before submitting to a new journal again.

Understanding journal policies regarding Turnitin reports

Many journals require authors to submit Turnitin reports. Journal policies regarding these reports and similarity percentages vary. Some journals may have specific thresholds for acceptable similarity scores, while others may evaluate each case individually, considering the nature and context of the similarities. A high similarity score does not automatically constitute plagiarism; the score highlights any matching areas in your paper so that the editor/reviewer can use this information to further investigate the reasons and decide if the match is acceptable or not. Therefore, high similarity percentages may trigger further scrutiny by editors and peer reviewers, but they do not necessarily lead to outright rejection.

Finally, I’d like to mention that your goal should not be to simply reduce the similarity score, but rather to ensure academic integrity in your work , i.e., understanding and respecting the original work of others and contributing your own original ideas.

Answered by Editage Insights on 30 Apr, 2024

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Check for unintentional plagiarism

Easily check your paper for missing citations and accidental plagiarism with the EasyBib plagiarism checker. The EasyBib plagiarism checker:

• Scans your paper against billions of sources.
• Identifies text that may be flagged for plagiarism.
• Provides you with a plagiarism score.

You can submit your paper at any hour of the day and quickly receive a plagiarism report.

What is the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Most basic plagiarism checkers review your work and calculate a percentage, meaning how much of your writing is indicative of original work. But, the EasyBib plagiarism checker goes way beyond a simple percentage. Any text that could be categorized as potential plagiarism is highlighted, allowing you time to review each warning and determine how to adjust it or how to cite it correctly.

You’ll even see the sources against which your writing is compared and the actual word for word breakdown. If you determine that a warning is unnecessary, you can waive the plagiarism check suggestion.

Plagiarism is unethical because it doesn’t credit those who created the original work; it violates intellectual property and serves to benefit the perpetrator. It is a severe enough academic offense, that many faculty members use their own plagiarism checking tool for their students’ work. With the EasyBib Plagiarism checker, you can stay one step ahead of your professors and catch citation mistakes and accidental plagiarism before you submit your work for grading.

Why use a plagiarism checker? 

Imagine – it’s finals week and the final research paper of the semester is due in two days. You, being quite familiar with this high-stakes situation, hit the books, and pull together a ten-page, last-minute masterpiece using articles and materials from dozens of different sources.

However, in those late, coffee-fueled hours, are you fully confident that you correctly cited all the different sources you used? Are you sure you didn’t accidentally forget any? Are you confident that your teacher’s plagiarism tool will give your paper a 0% plagiarism score?

That’s where the EasyBib plagiarism checker comes in to save the day. One quick check can help you address all the above questions and put your mind at ease.

What exactly is plagiarism? 

Plagiarism has a number of possible definitions; it involves more than just copying someone else’s work. Improper citing, patchworking, and paraphrasing could all lead to plagiarism in one of your college assignments. Below are some common examples of accidental plagiarism that commonly occur.

Quoting or paraphrasing without citations

Not including in-text citations is another common type of accidental plagiarism. Quoting is taking verbatim text from a source. Paraphrasing is when you’re using another source to take the same idea but put it in your own words. In both cases, it’s important to always cite where those ideas are coming from. The EasyBib plagiarism checker can help alert you to when you need to accurately cite the sources you used.

Patchwork plagiarism

When writing a paper, you’re often sifting through multiple sources and tabs from different search engines. It’s easy to accidentally string together pieces of sentences and phrases into your own paragraphs. You may change a few words here and there, but it’s similar to the original text. Even though it’s accidental, it is still considered plagiarism. It’s important to clearly state when you’re using someone else’s words and work.

Improper citations

Depending on the class, professor, subject, or teacher, there are multiple correct citation styles and preferences. Some examples of common style guides that are followed for citations include MLA, APA, and Chicago style. When citing resources, it’s important to cite them accurately. Incorrect citations could make it impossible for a reader to track down a source and it’s considered plagiarism. There are EasyBib citation tools to help you do this.

Don’t fall victim to plagiarism pitfalls. Most of the time, you don’t even mean to commit plagiarism; rather, you’ve read so many sources from different search engines that it gets difficult to determine an original thought or well-stated fact versus someone else’s work. Or worse, you assume a statement is common knowledge, when in fact, it should be attributed to another author.

When in doubt, cite your source!

Time for a quick plagiarism quiz! 

Which of the following requires a citation?

• A chart or graph from another source
• A paraphrase of an original source
• Several sources’ ideas summarized into your own paragraph
• A direct quote
• All of the above

If you guessed option E than you’d be correct. Correct punctuation and citation of another individual’s ideas, quotes, and graphics are a pillar of good academic writing.

What if you copy your own previous writing?

Resubmitting your own original work for another class’s assignment is a form of self-plagiarism, so don’t cut corners in your writing. Draft an original piece for each class or ask your professor if you can incorporate your previous research.

What features are available with the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Along with providing warnings and sources for possible plagiarism, the EasyBib  plagiarism checker works alongside the other EasyBib tools, including a grammar checker  and a spell checker . You’ll receive personalized feedback on your thesis and writing structure too!

The  plagiarism checker compares your writing sample with billions of available sources online so that it detects plagiarism at every level. You’ll be notified of which phrases are too similar to current research and literature, prompting a possible rewrite or additional citation. You’ll also get feedback on your paper’s inconsistencies, such as changes in text, formatting, or style. These small details could suggest possible plagiarism within your assignment.

And speaking of citations, there are also  EasyBib citation tools  available. They help you quickly build your bibliography and avoid accidental plagiarism. Make sure you know which citation format your professor prefers!

Great! How do I start? 

Simply copy and paste or upload your essay into the checker at the top of this page. You’ll receive the first five grammar suggestions for free! To try the plagiarism checker for free, start your EasyBib Plus three-day free trial.* If you love the product and decide to opt for premium services, you’ll have access to unlimited writing suggestions and personalized feedback.

The EasyBib plagiarism checker is conveniently available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You can cancel anytime.  Check your paper for free today!.

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Visit www.easybib.com for more information on helpful EasyBib writing and citing tools.

For informational guides and on writing and citing, visit the EasyBib guides homepage .

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This is weighted average of all matches in your text. For example, if half of your paper is 100% plagiarized, your score would be 50%

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Proper citation style.

Avoid plagiarism by always listing the source and formatting it correctly when you are note-taking. Take care of the proper formatting and citation style when using content from outside sources.

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Online Plagiarism Checker For Students

Writing an academic paper can be challenging when you’re not sure if it’s original enough to pass a plagiarism check. Of course, students take information from various sites before writing their own text. Sometimes, it just so happens that certain parts are very similar to your resources, making your professor think that you’ve just copied work from somewhere. That’s why it’s crucial for any modern college or university student to ensure that their work has 100% original content to maintain academic integrity.

Luckily, a free plagiarism checker online can solve this issue quickly and easily. Many professional writing services use a plagiarism checker for research paper. However, students sometimes forget that they should too. But with so many options that pop up when you ask Google to “check my paper for plagiarism”, how do you choose the right one for detection? We’ve got the solution in the form of PapersOwl’s free plagiarism checker tool! Our simple tool makes it convenient to check any writing task without having to spend a dime. It works quickly and highly accurately, ensuring that you get the top grade you deserve. So, if you want to check plagiarism online before turning your task in, head over to our website and get started!

Accurate Check for Plagiarism with Percentage

Many students wishing to produce original content aren’t quite sure how to get an exact percentage of plagiarised text in their work. This percentage is important since many universities have a certain limit of non-unique words you can have in your essay for it to be considered okay. If your plagiarism search doesn’t give you the exact percentage, you can’t be sure if your assignment will go through or not.

When using a free plagiarism tool, it’s essential to have this data provided to you. Only when you have it can you decide which parts to change and which ones to chuck out to achieve your desired results. Plagiarized content is a big issue in modern educational institutions, so getting reliable and trustworthy results is vital. This is the most essential requirement when you check plagiarism.

PapersOwl’s plagiarism detection tool gives you all the information you need to fix plagiarized content. Whether you’ve fallen victim to accidental plagiarism or have tried to make your life easier by copying some text from different sources, you’ll get an accurate percentage with our plagiarism checker online. If you’re wondering how to check paper for plagiarism, it’s nothing complicated at all! Simply visit our site, paste your whole essay into the relevant text box or upload the text file, click on Check For Plagiarism, and you’ll get accurate plagiarism results in a matter of seconds. You’ll see the problematic parts with plagiarism detected highlighted, with links to where similar content exists. Our service with plagiarism detector will also give you the option to check my paper for plagiarism and then to hire a professional writer to fix your task quickly if you’re busy with other things!

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A lot of students make the mistake of considering their papers automatically free from plagiarism. After all, they’ve written it themselves, so how could it be problematic? What they don’t realize is that it’s very easy to borrow some information mistakenly. Turning such a paper in can cause multiple problems, as your professor might think you haven’t done the work at all.

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We tested a new ChatGPT-detector for teachers. It flagged an innocent student.

Five high school students helped our tech columnist test a ChatGPT detector coming from Turnitin to 2.1 million teachers. It missed enough to get someone in trouble.

High school senior Lucy Goetz got the highest possible grade on an original essay she wrote about socialism. So imagine her surprise when I told her that a new kind of educational software I’ve been testing claimed she got help from artificial intelligence.

A new AI-writing detector from Turnitin — whose software is already used by 2.1 million teachers to spot plagiarism — flagged the end of her essay as likely being generated by ChatGPT .

“Say what?” says Goetz, who swears she didn’t use the AI writing tool to cheat. “I’m glad I have good relationships with my teachers.”

After months of sounding the alarm about students using AI apps that can churn out essays and assignments, teachers are getting AI technology of their own. On April 4, Turnitin is activating the software I tested for some 10,700 secondary and higher-educational institutions, assigning “generated by AI” scores and sentence-by-sentence analysis to student work. It joins a handful of other free detectors already online. For many teachers I’ve been hearing from, AI detection offers a weapon to deter a 21st-century form of cheating.

But AI alone won’t solve the problem AI created. The flag on a portion of Goetz’s essay was an outlier, but shows detectors can sometimes get it wrong — with potentially disastrous consequences for students. Detectors are being introduced before they’ve been widely vetted, yet AI tech is moving so fast, any tool is likely already out of date.

It’s a pivotal moment for educators: Ignore AI and cheating could go rampant. Yet even Turnitin’s executives tell me that treating AI purely as the enemy of education makes about as much sense in the long run as trying to ban calculators.

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Ahead of Turnitin’s launch this week, the company says 2 percent of customers have asked it not to display the AI writing score on student work. That includes a "significant majority” of universities in the United Kingdom, according to UCISA , a professional body for digital educators.

To see what’s at stake, I asked Turnitin for early access to its software. Five high school students, including Goetz, volunteered to help me test it by creating 16 samples of real, AI-fabricated and mixed-source essays to run past Turnitin’s detector.

The result? It got over half of them at least partly wrong. Turnitin accurately identified six of the 16 — but failed on three, including a flag on 8 percent of Goetz’s original essay. And I’d give it only partial credit on the remaining seven, where it was directionally correct but misidentified some portion of ChatGPT-generated or mixed-source writing.

Turnitin claims its detector is 98 percent accurate overall. And it says situations such as what happened with Goetz’s essay, known as a false positive, happen less than 1 percent of the time, according to its own tests.

Turnitin also says its scores should be treated as an indication, not an accusation . Still, will millions of teachers understand they should treat AI scores as anything other than fact? After my conversations with the company, it added a caution flag to its score that reads, “Percentage may not indicate cheating. Review required.”

“Our job is to create directionally correct information for the teacher to prompt a conversation,” Turnitin chief product officer Annie Chechitelli tells me. “I’m confident enough to put it out in the market, as long as we’re continuing to educate educators on how to use the data.” She says the company will keep adjusting its software based on feedback and new AI advancements.

The question is whether that will be enough. “The fact that the Turnitin system for flagging AI text doesn’t work all the time is concerning,” says Rebecca Dell, who teaches Goetz’s AP English class in Concord, Calif. “I’m not sure how schools will be able to definitively use the checker as ‘evidence’ of students using unoriginal work.”

Unlike accusations of plagiarism, AI cheating has no source document to reference as proof. “This leaves the door open for teacher bias to creep in,” says Dell.

For students, that makes the prospect of being accused of AI cheating especially scary. “There is no way to prove that you didn’t cheat unless your teacher knows your writing style, or trusts you as a student,” says Goetz.

Why detecting AI is so hard

Spotting AI writing sounds deceptively simple. When a colleague recently asked me if I could detect the difference between real and ChatGPT-generated emails, I didn’t perform very well.

Detecting AI writing with software involves statistics. And statistically speaking, the thing that makes AI distinct from humans is that it’s “extremely consistently average,” says Eric Wang, Turnitin’s vice president of AI.

Systems such as ChatGPT work like a sophisticated version of auto-complete, looking for the most probable word to write next. “That’s actually the reason why it reads so naturally: AI writing is the most probable subset of human writing,” he says.

Turnitin’s detector “identifies when writing is too consistently average,” Wang says.

The challenge is that sometimes a human writer may actually look consistently average.

On economics, math and lab reports, students tend to hew to set styles, meaning they’re more likely to be misidentified as AI writing, says Wang. That’s likely why Turnitin erroneously flagged Goetz’s essay, which veered into economics. (“My teachers have always been fairly impressed with my writing,” says Goetz.)

Wang says Turnitin worked to tune its systems to err on the side of requiring higher confidence before flagging a sentence as AI. I saw that develop in real time: I first tested Goetz’s essay in late January, and the software identified much more of it — about 50 percent — as being AI generated. Turnitin ran my samples through its system again in late March, and that time only flagged 8 percent of Goetz’s essay as AI-generated.

But tightening up the software’s tolerance came with a cost: Across the second test of my samples, Turnitin missed more actual AI writing. “We’re really emphasizing student safety,” says Chechitelli.

Say hello to your new tutor: It’s ChatGPT

Turnitin does perform better than other public AI detectors I tested. One introduced in February by OpenAI, the company that invented ChatGPT, got eight of our 16 test samples wrong. (Independent tests of other detectors have declared they “ fail spectacularly .”)

Turnitin’s detector faces other important technical limitations, too. In the six samples it got completely right, they were all clearly 100 percent student work or produced by ChatGPT. But when I tested it with essays from mixed AI and human sources, it often misidentified the individual sentences or missed the human part entirely. And it couldn’t spot the ChatGPT in papers we ran through Quillbot, a paraphrasing program that remixes sentences.

What’s more, Turnitin’s detector may already be behind the state of the AI art. My student helpers created samples with ChatGPT, but since they did the writing, the app has gotten a software update called GPT-4 with more creative and stylistic capabilities. Google also introduced a new AI bot called Bard . Wang says addressing them is on his road map.

Some AI experts say any detection efforts are at best setting up an arms race between cheaters and detectors. “I don’t think a detector is long-term reliable,” says Jim Fan, an AI scientist at Nvidia who used to work at OpenAI and Google.

“The AI will get better, and will write in ways more and more like humans. It is pretty safe to say that all of these little quirks of language models will be reduced over time,” he says.

Is detecting AI a good idea?

Given the potential — even at 1 percent — of being wrong, why release an AI detector into software that will touch so many students?

“Teachers want deterrence,” says Chechitelli. They’re extremely worried about AI and helping them see the scale of the actual problem will “bring down the temperature.”

Some educators worry it will actually raise the temperature.

Mitchel Sollenberger, the associate provost for digital education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is among the officials who asked Turnitin not to activate AI detection for his campus at its initial launch.

He has specific concerns about how false positives on the roughly 20,000 student papers his faculty run through Turnitin each semester could lead to baseless academic-integrity investigations. “Faculty shouldn’t have to be expert in a third-party software system — they shouldn’t necessarily have to understand every nuance,” he says.

Ian Linkletter, who serves as emerging technology and open-education librarian at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, says the push for AI detectors reminds him of the debate about AI exam proctoring during pandemic virtual learning.

“I am worried they’re marketing it as a precision product, but they’re using dodgy language about how it shouldn’t be used to make decisions,” he says. “They’re working at an accelerated pace not because there is any desperation to get the product out but because they’re terrified their existing product is becoming obsolete.”

Said Chechitelli: “We are committed to transparency with the community and have been clear about the need to continue iterating on the user experience as we learn more from students and educators.

Deborah Green, CEO of UCISA in the U.K., tells me she understands and appreciates Turnitin’s motives for the detector. “What we need is time to satisfy ourselves as to the accuracy, the reliability and particularly the suitability of any tool of this nature.”

It’s not clear how the idea of an AI detector fits into where AI is headed in education . “In some academic disciplines, AI tools are already being used in the classroom and in assessment,” says Green. “The emerging view in many U.K. universities is that with AI already being used in many professions and areas of business, students actually need to develop the critical thinking skills and competencies to use and apply AI well.”

There’s a lot more subtlety to how students might use AI than a detector can flag today.

My student tests included a sample of an original student essay written in Spanish, then translated into English with ChatGPT. In that case, what should count: the ideas or the words? What if the student was struggling with English as a second language? (In our test, Turnitin’s detector appeared to miss the AI writing, and flagged none of it.)

Would it be more or less acceptable if a student asked ChatGPT to outline all the ideas for an assignment, and then wrote the actual words themselves?

“That’s the most interesting and most important conversation to be having in the next six months to a year — and one we’ve been having with instructors ourselves,” says Chechitelli.

“We really feel strongly that visibility, transparency and integrity are the foundations of the conversations we want to have next around how this technology is going to be used,” says Wang.

For Dell, the California teacher, the foundation of AI in the classroom is an open conversation with her students.

When ChatGPT first started making headlines in December, Dell focused an entire lesson with Goetz’s English class on what ChatGPT is, and isn’t good for. She asked it to write an essay for an English prompt her students had already completed themselves, and then the class analyzed the AI’s performance.

The AI wasn’t very good.

“Part of convincing kids not to cheat is making them understand what we ask them to do is important for them,” said Dell.

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