Turnitin

Turnitin

Grand Canyon University takes a proactive approach to supporting faculty and students so that academic work is original. The Turnitin resource allows both students and instructors to check written work to make sure it is of the highest integrity when it comes to the originality of text. GCU sees Turnitin as a support tool to better assist students as they learn about proper citation and giving credit to others while the student crafts their own thoughts into written form. By checking the originality of text, students and instructors can work together to improve the student's work and limit the dangers of plagiarism.

All GCU faculty are encouraged to utilize the Turnitin tool as a preliminary resource before grading student papers.

Citation and Quotation Tips

• If an author's words or ideas are quoted or summarized in your own words, credit must be given to that author by using an inline citation and (in most cases) a reference page.
• Paraphrasing is conveying the authors idea in your own words. This does not require quotation marks. 
• Quotations use the author's exact wording and require "quotation marks" around those words. 
• Hints when using quotations:
  • Use them wisely. 
  • Remember that the purpose of the assignment typically displays the wealth of knowledge , concepts, and reflections developed from the course(s).
  • A page or paragraph number is always required when using a quote. 
  • [sic] is used to indicate a mistake found within the quote. 
  • (...) is used if a part of the quote is eliminated.
  • [emphasis added] is around your own comments within the quotation. 
  • If not common knowledge, information must cite the material from which that information was learned. 
• Crediting sources requires both in-text citations and a separate reference page (there are specific exceptions to reference page entries , such as a personal communication or "ancient Greek and Roman works or classical religious works" (APA Publication manual, P 179). 
• In-text citations found within the paper should also be found in the reference page and vice versa.
• For proper use of citations, please refer to the American Psychological Association (APA) latest edition Publication Manual.

Faculty Turnitin Training Materials - Campus Faculty (ANGEL)

Instructors must require students to submit all written assignments of 500 words or more to Turnitin. This also includes lesson plans for education courses. This does not include worksheets, rubrics, personal reflection papers, personal journals, Power Point presentations, or spreadsheets.

The GCU required similarity percentage guideline is 20%. - a higher percentage should be marked down for content when grading and instructors should place this in the assignment rubric, or should take applicable deductions from the content area of an auto-rubric or existing GCU-provided rubric. Even if a student is under the 20% originality report requirement, an instructor is required to review the originality report to ensure the student has not plagiarized even a small portion of the assignment.  ***The course syllabus may indicate that a lower percentage is the cutoff for an assignment. Please refer to the syllabus for any assignment-specific TII originality report guidelines.

Turnitin (TII) Overview and Tutorial

Understanding Turnitin (TII) Originality Reports

Turnitin Video Series 

ANGEL & TII Concerns - Campus Faculty (ANGEL)

Instructors must use the GCU Requirements for Setting Up Turnitin in ANGEL to ensure originality reports are generated correctly. For example, the instructor must exclude small matches by 2%. Failure to exclude small matches by 2% will result in extremely high originality report scores and students may be unnecessarily penalized.

Due to the intermittent ANGEL connectivity issues, some students may be having problems submitting to the TII drop boxes and the ANGEL assignment drop boxes. Please work with the student if they are experiencing technical issues. If the student is having a hard time submitting their paper to the TII box set up in the online classroom:

1. Make sure that the TII drop boxes have been set up correctly, per GCU Requirements for Setting Up Turnitin in ANGEL instructions.

2. Make sure the student followed the directions for TII submission, as provided in Student Success Center > Succeed at GCU > Turnitin.

3. If it is still not working, contact Tech Support.