Please note: beginning Spring 2025 quarter the Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing detection tool will be disabled in the UC San Diego Extended Studies instance of Turnitin. The Turnitin plagiarism checker tool is still fully enabled and available for instructor's to use on assignments.
To uphold the academic integrity of UC San Diego Extended Studies courses, your instructor uses Turnitin, a plagiarism detection software, to review your assignments and/or discussion posts.
As a student, you will have access to your Similarity Report sometime after submitting your work (depending on your instructor's settings), see How to View your Turnitin Results for any Assignment for more detail.
In this article, you will learn how to view your Similarity Report for any assignment your instructor has set up to use Turnitin.
Table of Contents
Types of Assignments with Turnitin Enabled
How to View your Turnitin Results for any Assignment
Pre- and post-submission Scans and Uses
Types of Assignments with Turnitin-Enabled
Turnitin is integrated into Canvas assignments but not discussions or quizzes, but your instructor may assign a separate Turnitin-enabled assignment so that you can scan your discussion post or quiz responses before submission. Please read the syllabus and all directions your instructor posts in Canvas so that you can submit your work successfully.
How to View your Turnitin Results for any Assignment
Locate and Open the Assignment
Look in your Modules to find the Assignment. Click the title of the assignment to open it in a page view.
Click Submission Details
On the right side of the page, click the link that says Submission Details (to the right of the New Attempt button).
Click the Percentage Badge
When your results are ready, you will see a small badge with a percentage appear. The percentage badge is the Similarity Score. Click that badge to open your Turnitin results.
Review the Turnitin Scan
You can now view your Similarity Report and investigate any items that have been flagged. Turnitin compares submitted documents against a database of Internet pages, archived pages that may not be available any more, a subscription repository of periodicals, journals, publications, and a repository of previously submitted papers.
In the column on the right side of the interface, you are given the option to sort between Top Sources and All Sources.
- Top Sources include the Overall Similarity score along with a percentage.
- All Sources provides a detailed breakdown of matching sources and their respective percentage. If you click on an individual source it will highlight the text within the article that matches.
For information on how to interpret the Similarity Score please read the following article on Similarity Score Ranges.
Pre- and post-submission Scans and Uses
Your teacher can use Turnitin at any time to investigate the authenticity and originality of any of your submissions or discussion posts.
Pre-submission Turnitin Scan (used with discussions)
If your instructor is protecting the discussion forum with Turnitin, you will scan your work in a separate assignment prior to making your first post, and you will use the report to hone your post before you officially enter it in the discussion.
If your instructor asks you to scan your work prior to submission, then follow the directions above to view your results, and if you score above your instructor's stated threshold (E.g., 30% for academic writing), then you will need to address the problematic areas indicated by Turnitin.
If you are having problems paraphrasing or citing your sources in an academic fashion, then you may wish to review the information from the sites listed below. Please also let your instructor know if you are facing any challenges in meeting the demands of your course right away.
Plagiarism and Scholarly Citation Information
- Plagiarism Overview - Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Best Practices to Avoid Plagiarism - Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Should I cite this? Flowchart - Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Common Knowledge and Attribution - Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Style Guide Overview with MLA, APA, Chicago Citation Information - Purdue Online Writing Lab
Post-submission Turnitin Scan (most common scan type)
Some assignments are to be submitted in their complete form, and Turnitin is used to ensure the final product is an original piece of student work. Therefore, before you submit any work, you should be certain that the writing is your own and that any outside authors/sources are properly cited according to your academic discipline or instructor's standards. If you do not know how to cite sources or paraphrase, you should reach out to your instructor immediately.
If you are submitting an assignment like a term paper, and your instructor expects the paper to be in final draft form, you will want to be sure your work is free of plagiarism, faulty citation practices before you submit it. Submitting assignments that are not your own, personally written work constitutes a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy at UC San Diego Extended Studies.
To learn more about student rights and responsibilities, the student conduct code, and the academic integrity policy that all students adhere to, please visit the linked sites below at our official UC San Diego Extended Studies homepage.
- UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies - Student Rights and Responsibilities
- UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies - Student Conduct Code
- UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies - Academic Integrity Policy