You can use Turnitin’s Similarity report as a source of feedback on your referencing skills, and may be able to use it to revise your work as necessary, before your final submission, depending on how your unit coordinator has set up the assignment point.
At Murdoch University, all students are required to agree to TII's End-User License Agreement. Turnitin may retain a copy of this work for the sole purpose of subsequent plagiarism checking.
How do I access and interpret my Turnitin Similarity Report?
Using exclusions and filters
Students may need to use exclusions and filters in Similarity reports to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the similarity results. These tools help eliminate certain content from the analysis that could otherwise inflate the similarity score, such as:
- Quotations: Direct quotes that are properly cited should not be counted as part of the student's original work.
- Bibliography: References or works cited should be excluded from the report, as they are standard and not unique to the assignment.
- Common phrases or technical terms: Certain widely used terms or phrases may appear in many sources and can distort the similarity score if not excluded.
Using these tools ensures that the Turnitin report focuses on the originality of the student's work, rather than unrelated or expected similarities.
Using exclusions and filters
How to use exclusions and filters in Similarity reports to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the similarity results.
Downloading a Similarity Report
Find out how to download a new Similarity Report as a student.
Generating a new Similarity Report after submission
Learn how to generate a new Similarity Report after resubmission.
Why am I receiving a high similarity percentage in my Turnitin Similarity Report?
| Possible reason for high % | Explanation for reason | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to reference correctly | You may have included someone else’s ideas, phrases or words without quoting them correctly. | Learn to use the referencing system at use in your school. ALWAYS cite your sources, in-text and end-text or in footnotes, depending on the referencing system you use. Provide a reference every time you reproduce or paraphrase someone else’s ideas, phrases, or words. Put quotation marks around the words of others that you have reproduced exactly. Keep a clear record of where your sources come from as you work on your assignment. |
Overuse of direct quotations | You may have relied too heavily on direct quotations without adding your own critique, analysis, or commentary on the sources. | Ensure that every direct quote you use serves a purpose in your work. You can paraphrase direct quotes to reduce the text similarity. Paraphrasing - putting ideas into your own words – demonstrates your understanding of key concepts: to others and to yourself. Be sure to reference your paraphrases too. |
Not paraphrasing thoroughly enough | Paraphrasing, or putting someone else’s words or ideas into your own words, is a skill that requires practice. If you don’t change the original source sufficiently in your own version, it may be detected as plagiarism. | When paraphrasing, try to change the sentence structure as well as replacing the original source’s words with synonyms (different words with the same meaning). You will need to retain keywords. You can identify the keywords in the original sentence, change their order, and try to create a new sentence based on the new word order. |
Overusing common knowledge and generic phrases | Overusing common knowledge and generic phrases in academic writing can lead to a high similarity score in plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin. | Common knowledge – facts that are well known and don’t require a reference – can be rephrased or replaced by analysis. Cliches - such as “in today’s modern world”, “at the end of the day” and “a perfect storm” - should be avoided. |
To learn more about referencing and paraphrasing, see the Study Success Toolkit
To learn more about academic integrity expectations, see Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP100)