Turnitin Guide
Please note: If you have bookmarked this page, please remove bookmark and refer to the new guidance on the Turnitin Feedback Studio page
- Submit an assignment
- Viewing your Turnitin score
- What Turnitin scores mean
- Resubmitting an assignment
- Download your submission
- Viewing your grades and feedback
Submit an assignment
Browser requirements
Note: There have been some reports of students having difficulty submitting to Turnitin when using Microsoft Edge. You may need to add Turnitin to your trusted sites list or use an alternative browser (e.g. Chrome). For full compatibility requirements and other browser details see Turnitin Requirements. All university PCs have been set up to work with Turnitin.
Usually all assignment for a module will be in the Assessment section though some tutors may have put them in other section. Click the Assessment link the menu on the left to view the Assessment area.

You should then see a list of any assignments, or information about assignments, for the module.

Click the relevant assignment title and you will then see to your submission area.

Click the Submit button. You will then see the submission area. Your name will be filled-in by default. Add a title for your assignment and choose where you will be uploading your file from (your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive).

Once you have selected a file you should see the file name appear in the upload area. Click Upload to continue.

Turnitin will display an overview of your file. Check the details and confirm that you are submitting the correct file. Click Confirm to continue or Cancel to go back and change the file.

You will then see a confirmation page displaying your digital receipt and overview of the submission. Click the Return to assignment list button to go back to the submission area.

When you’re back in the submission area you will see the title of the assignment you just uploaded.
Viewing your Turnitin Score
If Turnitin Origininality Reports are turned on you will be able to view your score in the submission inbox area. Just after submission you may see the Processing message.

After a few minutes you should see your Turnitin Originality Score.

Click the score to open the full Turnitin Originality Report.

What Turnitin Scores mean
Please note: There is not such thing as “acceptable” threshold of marks on turnitin. No score is inherently bad or good.
- Turnitin scores are only an indication! Marks are not awarded on the basis of the similarity score. The similarity index (total percentage) on the report is related to the amount of text in the document you submitted that has been matched with text available elsewhere.
- The tutor has discretion to decide whether the quoted material is legitimate or not; Turnitin only finds matching texts from electronic sources available to it. The decision to deem any work plagiarised is made carefully, and only after in depth examination of both the submitted paper and suspect sources in accordance with the standards of the class and institution where the paper was submitted.
- It is not designed to identify or judge whether the assignment contains plagiarised material. The similarity index (the total percentage) is not used to “detect” how much plagiarism a piece of work contains. Instead it provides evidence upon which plagiarism can be more readily identified.
- Turnitin can be used as a tool to help you identify when you may be relying to heavily on quoted material, and when your referencing may need to be improved. It is not to be used in place of your own conscientious approach to acknowledging sources used in your work.
Resubmitting an assignment
If your tutor has set up the assignment to allow resubmissions you will see a resubmit button. Click this to add another attempt. If resubmissions are allowed you can resubmit as many times as you need until the deadline.
Please note: When you resumbit an assignment to turnitin your turnitin report score will return to processing. It may take up to 24 hours to generate the new report score.

Download your submission
If at any time you want to check what you’ve submitted or just get a copy of your assignment then simply click the download button in the assignment inbox (down arrow).

Viewing your grades and feedback
There are two ways to view your grades and feedback. You can go through My Grades or you can go through the assignment link where you submitted.
My Grades
Click your profile tab and select My Grades from the menu.

You will then see a list of assignments with grades available. Click the assignment for which you want to see feedback.

You will then see an overview of your assignment. Click either the My Paper or Originality Report link to be taken to the feedback area.

A new window will open with your assignment in. It may appear to show either your originality report (turnitin report) or a message that says No service. Don’t worry, just click the grey GradeMark button in the top left of the screen.

You will then see your assignment with the feedback. Overall comments are visible in the right hand sidebar. In text comments appear as blue bubbles – hover over them to view the entire comment.

Assignment link
In the assignment inbox you will be able to see the details of the Post Date for each assignment. The post date is the date when grades and feedback will be released.
Once this date has arrived you will be able to click the View button next to your assignment details.

This will open your assignment in the Turnitin viewer. You will be able to see your assignment with any annotations and comments made by your tutor. Overall feedback can be seen in the column on the right but you may also have a number of in-text comments seen as blue bubbles.

Simply hover over a blue bubble comment to see the full comment.

Your grade is visible in the top right corner of the viewer.

If your tutor used a grading rubric you will be able to see the breakdown of your grade against the rubric criteria by clicking on the rubric button (a grid of squares) in the bottom right corner.

To return to Blackboard at any time simply close the window.