Turnitin: Basics

What Turnitin Does 
When students submit assignments, they go through a similarity checking software called Turnitin. The role of Turnitin is to look for patterns in a student assignment and to compare it with other assignments, websites or scholarship. Examples of the type of academic misconduct Turnitin can indicate are: 

• Copying a large chunk of text from a book and then pasting in your assignment (including the strategic rearranging of words).
• Borrowing large sections of a student assignment from a different academic institution.
• Passing off website content as your own.

NB: A high similarity score when using Turnitin does not always mean academic misconduct has occurred. There needs to be some investigation to get a better sense of what has gone on.