Using TurnItIn to check our writing

TurnItIn can be used as a tool to check our writing, when we have taken notes, but are not sure where we got the material from. It is so very easy to simply copy and paste from electronic articles into our own notes, and if we are in a rush, we can forget to track exactly where our source data has come from. Ooops.

Good research practices can help us to not muck up in this way. Tara Brabazon has an epic workaround to avoid the cut and paste trap, suggesting that we use two computers: that we read our research articles on one device, and type up our notes on another (2022). 

However, that may not save us. Many of us, when taking notes while reading, unconsciously retain the rhythm and phraseology of the original writer's language. This can be a trap for our academic honesty... particularly when we lay this work aside and come back to it after some time. We may have no recollection of where the materials - or the wording - came from, even if we have added research notes.

This is where TurnItIn can be used as a tool to check where we sourced our material, or whether we have paraphrased sufficiently. The image accompanying this post illustrates largely verbatim notes from the originals, showing the sources in call-outs, from a similarity report obtained following a draft submission to TurnItIn. 

While the accompanying image is an extreme example, it is easy to see how using TurnItIn as a checker for our own honesty can keep us from inadvertently plagiarising. We are human, not machines, so cannot be aware 100% of the time. Using TurnItIn to prevent embarrassing ourselves is a great idea.

Let's be careful out there... but there is no harm in checking we have been careful, as well.

Sam

References:

Brabazon, T. (11 August 2022). Steps - Plagiarism and the PhD [video]. https://youtu.be/392Xhu-CgUQ