Turnitin compares your paper against their very large database of web pages (including Wikipedia!), journals and publications, and repository of submitted papers (from all universities using Turnitin, including UoN), for any matching text. After you have successfully submitted a paper to Turnitin, you will see a Similarity Score, shown as a percentage %. For the first 3 attempts, this will be available immediately, after that it may take up to 24 hours. Click the similarity % to access your Similarity Report.
The Similarity Report includes the similarity score, which is the percentage of your paper's matches to other sources; and a report, highlighting any matching text, and giving a link to the source material. There is not a minimum/maximum score that you need to 'achieve', and the report does not assess whether you have plariarised material. It is there to highlight source material, where matching with text in your paper, and you can use this to check that your work is indeed your own and/or that you have correctly referenced any source material.
Students using a screen reader (e.g., Readme - Text to Speech Reader) can access a text-only version of their similarity report by pressing Tab + Enter upon accessing the Similarity Report.
Please look at these helpful guides from Turnitin Feedback Studio HELP for Students:
University of Northampton Plagiarism Avoidance Course.
This resource is to support you to develop good skills around academic practice and in order to avoid grounds for a referral for academic misconduct. It is divided into 3 sections:
UNPAC will give you the confidence and tools to help improve your academic integrity for your studies. It is a standalone module with short, engaging activities on all aspects of good academic practice, including finding and choosing quality resources, plagiarism and time management. As well as developing your knowledge and skills in these areas, it also gives guidance on the academic misconduct process at the University. You can complete the whole module, or focus on individual sections as required. Upon completion of all three sections, you can download a certificate of completion.
For help to avoid plagiarism please click to access UNPAC: https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/academicintegrity/
For help with Study Skills please click to access the Skills Hub: https://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk/