eSUBMISSION: TURNITIN

Turnitin is an online assignment submission tool within My Studies. It allows you to submit your work electronically for assessment. It can be used to handle the collection, marking and return of feedback of your work.

It is also used to check assignment submissions for 'originality'. It does this by comparing the text of a submitted assignment against text from a wide range of electronic material including journals, websites, and other students' work, including work from many UK universities.

Supported browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge. The recommended browser is Firefox.
Please note: there are known issues when using Internet Explorer 11 and Safari on MacOS 10.13+ (Affects: High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur).

Computer system requirements:

• Windows® 7, 8.1, 10
• Mac OS X Intel v10.7+, El Capitan 10.11+
• ChromeOS

Access the complete list of requirements at the Turnitin website.

Supported file types for Turnitin assignments: Microsoft Word (DOC and DOCX), PowerPoint (PPT and PPTX), Corel WordPerfect®, HTML , Adobe PostScript, Plain text (TXT), Rich Text Format (RTF), Portable Document Format (PDF), OpenOffice (ODT), Google Docs.

File size limit: 100MB

Q: I have received an error message saying that my file is too large to upload, what can I do?

Q: The formatting/font in my document is not displaying correctly in the Turnitin, what can I do?

Q: Can I download a copy of my work from Turnitin?

A: You may want to download a copy of your assignment particularly if your tutor is providing feedback and marks online. You can do this by clicking on the download button on the right and then you have the following options:

• Click on 'Current View' to get a PDF with the similarity report or feedback (dependent on which view you have turned on).
• Click on the 'Digital Receipt' option to download a PDF receipt featuring your submission information.
• Click on the ‘Originally Submitted File’ to download the Word document or PDF version that you originally uploaded.

Where possible, you should use MS Word (or Open Office Writer) to produce your written assignments. When you are using other software applications to produce your written file, you can go to Save as... > PDF to convert the file.

Turnitin Submission points typically look like the image shown below. Step-by-step instructions are provided on this page.

My submission point doesn't look like that - help!

Your submission point may a different logo to the one above, in which case you need alternative instructions.

If your submission point looks like the image below (with a blue and red Turnitin logo), you require the older Turnitin instructions linked underneath the image.

If your submission point is not a Turnitin submission point, please see our instructions on submitting a My Studies assignment. You can also contact the Service Desk if you are still unsure which instructions you require.

• Create your written assignment in Microsoft Word where possible.
• Use standard common font types (such as Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Calibri).
• Insert graphics, photos or charts as images that are in either png or jpeg format.
• Avoid using text boxes and WordArt in Microsoft Office applications.
• If you are copying and pasting text into your document from another source (e.g. a website), paste text into your file as ‘plain text’ to remove any hidden code.
• When you are using other software applications to produce your written file, you can go to Save as... > PDF to convert the file to a PDF, which is compatible with Turnitin.

Find your submission point, it should be in the Assessments and Marks area of your module (1), in a folder titled: Assessment Submission Points (2).

Click on the name of the assignment with the 'Turnitin' logo.

Note: If the submission point doesn't look like this, it may be another type of submission point. Check our esubmission page for further guidance on which submission point you are using

It may take a few seconds for Turnitin to launch, be patient. Once it has you will see the Assignment Dashboard with the name of the assignment at the top, and an Upload Submission Button (4).

If you wish to see the details about the assessment, click the little arrow next to the Assignment Name (5). We recommend you do this as it will tell you useful information such as:

• The Due Date
• The Feedback Release date
• When Similarity Reports will become available
• Whether you are allowed to resubmit before the deadline

Click the Upload Submission button to start the upload process.

Once you've clicked the Upload Submission button, a pop-up window will appear to allow you to add your digital file to the submission. You can either drag-and-drop your file from your computer or use the browse button to go 'find' the file on your computer or device.

The Submission Title will automatically pull in the name of the digital file you've uploaded. If your name is in the title, you should change this if the assessment is an anonymous submission (6). Otherwise, just click on the Upload and Review button (7) to continue.

You can now review your submission before submitting.

Note the title, size and word count (8). See how your paper looks using the preview (9), ensure that the formatting doesn't look strange after the upload. Note you can use the arrows to move between pages in the preview. Finally, if all is well, click on the Submit to Turnitin button (10). 

Once you click Submit to Turnitin, you should follow the instructions in Step 3 below that outline how to check your submission was successful.

Once you've clicked the submit button, you will see a successfully uploaded file (1) to the Assignment Dashboard. There will also be a record of the submission date and time. 

There will be a green bar with the successful message in it. Note there is a link to download your Digital Receipt (2), which we would encourage you to download for your records. You can download your Digital Receipt at any time by revisiting the submission point and clicking the Digital Receipt button (3).

You will NOT receive an email from Turnitin upon successful submission.

Your similarity report will take some time to process. 

Check your similarity report to ensure that you have cited your sources and have not unintentionally plagiarised. If you find corrections to make, edit your document and resubmit your work prior to the deadline. You will receive a new email receipt each time.

Your similarity report may take a few minutes to be processed. If it doesn't, try:

• Closing the browser window you are using a re-entering the assignment submission point
• Check the Assignment instructions (show in Step 2 above) to ensure you are permitted access to the similarity report
• Note that after 3 submissions to the same submission point, you will have to wait 24 hours for access to the similarity report.

To access your similarity report, click your similarity score within the Assignment Dashboard

Check your similarity report to ensure that you have cited your sources and have not unintentionally plagiarised. If you find corrections to make, edit your document and resubmit your work (if allowed) prior to the deadline.

You can find out more about interpreting the similarity report on the Turnitin website

You may wish to resubmit your work to a Turnitin submission point, for example due to a re-write or fixing an essay with higher similarity than you would prefer.

Go back to the submission point in your module, and click on it as you did before. Note that there will be a record of your previous submission. You can click the title of the assignment to review the assignment instructions (1), which will state if resubmissions are allowed. Note that when you resubmit, your previous submission will be overwritten.

To start the resubmission process, click the Resubmit Paper button (2)

Turnitin will give you a popup window about resubmission. Click the Confirm button.

Now follow the same steps as before to upload, review and submit your file.

Once your Turnitin assignment has been marked, and the feedback and marks have been released by your tutor, you can find these using the My Marks tool in the Assessment and Marks area of the module.

There is a detailed guide on using My Marks here