Before you submit a course paper, journal article, or academic manuscript, use Turnitin to check that you’ve cited your sources fairly and accurately. Turnitin compares papers against a wide range of sources that have been published electronically. When you upload a paper, Turnitin generates a Similarity Report that highlights passages in that have phrasing similar to published material, allowing you to catch mistakes with using sources before your reviewers do.
How to Access Turnitin
Yale allows graduate students to access Turnitin reports themselves—for any paper they may be writing. When you click “Access Turnitin” on the header image, you’ll be given a link to join a a Canvas course where Turnitin is enabled. Simply submit your paper to an Assignment in the course and then open the Grades page to access your report. You’ll find more detailed instructions on Canvas. You can also view the Help Guide for illustrated directions on how to access your report.
The Poorvu Center’s guide to Writing with Turnitin can help you interpret your Turnitin Similarity Report. If Turnitin flags passages in your paper as too close to the language of your sources, the guide also offers strategies for summarizing and paraphrasing your sources’ ideas.
Additional Support
While Turnitin can help you understand whether you’ve cited your sources fairly, it can’t offer feedback on the work your sources are doing to advance your argument. For help using sources to develop your ideas or to highlight your paper’s contribution to a scholarly conversation, schedule a 1–1 writing consultation with a Graduate Writing Lab Fellow.
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