Academic Honesty & TurnItIn: Resources for Faculty

The Writing Center is pleased to provide resources for faculty on issues related to academic honesty and plagiarism. Definitions and procedures for these issues may be found here. We also encourage you to consult with your individual department and school/college regarding discipline-specific policies and procedures. Initial points of contact for this information will be your department chair and dean’s office for your school/college

Defining Plagiarism

Plagiarism happens when you use specific words, phrases, ideas, or structures from other authors’ documents without citing the source and giving credit to the original author. This means that emulating another author’s style, tone, organization or actual words requires that you credit the author.

Submitting another person’s work as your own is another, more straightforward, version of plagiarism. This means that copying work, hiring it out, having someone else edit your work, or using papers downloaded from the Internet are all forms of plagiarism.

So, you must be careful not to copy:

  • Words
  • Phrases
  • Concepts or ideas
  • Sentence, paragraph, argument, or sectioning structures
  • Any work that was completed by another person

Exception: Shared Disciplinary Jargon

To be clear, every discipline has standard terminology—for instance, “mitochondrial DNA,” “Greek Revival style,” or “Second-Language Learners.” Using this shared disciplinary jargon is unavoidable and typically is not cause for citation use or considered plagiarism. That said, you cannot ethically use the same phrasing or sentence structure from a source text, even in cited paraphrase.

Avoiding Plagiarism

You can avoid plagiarism by

  1. Crediting an original author in your text
  2. Using proper quotation and citation
    • Quoting means using the actual words of the original author. Even if you don't use every single word form a sentence/passage or use a small excerpt within your own sentence structure, you must still put all exact words/phrasing in quotation marks and include a citation in-text and in a list of references. 
  3. Paraphrasing with citation
    • Paraphrasing means restating the same information in a new way. It is okay to use a few of the same words, but it is very important that most of the words and the sentence structures be your own. Also, even if you paraphrase, you must cite the original author in-text and in a list of references. 

You are encouraged to include a paragraph or two about plagiarism policies in your course syllabus. At minimum, you should include the following text:

Students are expected to know, understand, and comply with the ethical standards of the university, including rules against plagiarism, cheating, fabrication and falsification, multiple submissions, misuse of academic materials, and complicity in academic dishonesty.

You may also want to include specific statements regarding plagiarism, cheating, etc. and how these issues may manifest in your specific course and discipline. You may consider, for instance, including one or both of the following paragraphs:

Plagiarism is the use of another person’s ideas or words without acknowledgement. The incorporation of another person’s work into yours requires appropriate identification and acknowledgement. Examples of plagiarism when the source is not noted include: word-for-word copying of another person’s ideas or words; the “mosaic” (interspersing your own words here and there while, in essence, copying another’s work); the paraphrase (the rewriting of another’s work, while still using their basic ideas or theories); fabrication (inventing or counterfeiting sources); submission of another’s work as your own; and neglecting quotation marks when including direct quotes, even on material that is otherwise acknowledge. Multiple submissions involves submitting academic work in a current course when academic credit for the work was previously earned in another course, when such submission is made without the current course instructor’s authorization.

Cheating involves the possession, communication, or use of information, materials, notes, study aids, or other devices and rubrics not specifically authorized by the course instructor in any academic exercise, or unauthorized communication with any other person during an academic exercise. Examples of cheating include: copying from another’s work or receiving unauthorized assistance from another; using a calculator, computer, or the internet when its use has been precluded; collaborating with another or others without the consent of the instructor; submitting another’s work as one’s own.

What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a useful tool for detecting similarities between written pieces of work submitted in your course and other types of written work. Please note that Turnitin cannot determine whether or not a document was plagiarized, only if it contains similarities to other documents. Faculty can adjust the settings on Turnitin to determine the types of documents used for comparison, including limits for online documents or documents previously submitted by the student.

It is also important to note that if an assignment asks a student to quote a large number of sources, this information will be highlighted as similar within Turnitin regardless of whether or not a student correctly integrated and cited sources. Similarly, a reference list at the end of a document will often be highlighted as being similar to other documents.

How Do I Use Turnitin in My Course?

Turnitin’s originalty checking service is integrated into your Canvas courses and can be turned on/off in relation to specific assignments. Faculty who are unfamiliar with Canvas or who have never used Turnitin previously are encouraged to access CU Denver’s Canvas-based recources.

If you plan on using Turnitin for your course, please include a paragraph describing how the service will be used in your course syllabus. Faculty are encouraged to make use of Turnitin as a learning tool in your course by allowing students to submit an ungraded assignment (such as a paper from a previous course) so that they can see what information is marked, how it is marked, and how they might revise to account for any similarities indicated by Turnitin.

The most effective use of Turnitin is as an in-course teaching tool. By allowing students to submit a graded assignment early and often, students will be able to see portions of their text that may require improved paraphrase; that may be missing an in-text citation; etc. Students who need assistance understanding their Turnitin results or revising based on those results are encouraged to make an appointment with the Writing Center.

If you believe that a student needs assistance with integrating quotations and/or paraphrase into their writing, please consider referring that student to the Writing Center or requesting an in-class workshop from the Center to address these issues.

If you believe that a student has committed plagiarism, or if you need assistance determining how to best proceed in responding to a student who has committed plagiarism, please contact Writing Center Director, Justin Bain, at (303) 315-7353​.

The Writing Center treats source usage, citation, and concerns about plagiarism as teachable moments.  We support student learning by teaching appropriate and responsible methods for quotation integration, paraphrase, synthesis, signal phrasing, and citations.

In almost all instances when plagiarism is seen in the Writing Center, it is both obvious and unintentional. That is, Consultants often see that a new paragraph is a different size, font, or style of writing than surrounding work. In these instances, we point the issue out to the student, who then quickly admits (for example) that they cut and pasted that paragraph in late last night so that they didn’t forget about it. Additionally, Consultants often work with students from countries or cultures that do not understand issues of knowledge ownership and citations the same way that American universities do. In both of these cases, the work of the Writing Center is to teach students what the issue is, why it matters, and how to revise it both to meet academic standards and to use sources effectively in their own writing.

In rare instances, the Writing Center works with a student whose paper includes blatant plagiarism and copying, and the student refuses to acknowledge these issues. In other rare instances, the Writing Center works with a student who has purchased a document from an individual or service. In these instances, the Writing Center Director contacts the faculty of record to discuss the issue.