Turnitin helps instructors assess the originality of students’ work by comparing electronic documents to online sources and the Turnitin database. The software returns an “originality report” which rates submitted assignments and highlights text that appears elsewhere. Faculty can have their students submit their assignments to Turnitin or they can use it to assess select, suspect assignments (e.g., assignments without works cited pages, assignments without drafts, etc.).

To learn more about policies covering academic honesty, see: http://www.umass.edu/registrar/media/academicregs.pdf.

Note: UMass Amherst protects our students' intellectual property by storing all papers submitted by our students in a dedicated UMass Amherst database. This database is not searchable by other schools that subscribe to Turnitin. Only UMass Amherst faculty can search our student papers and exclusively for the purpose of grading course assignments.

Getting Started for Students (pdf, 211 kb)

Submitting a Turnitin assignment is very similar to the way you submit other written assignments in SPARK. Learn how.

For help using Turnitin in SPARK, call the OIT Help Desk or fill out an Online Help Request.

In addition to OIT's instructions, Turnitin also provides manuals, guides, and tutorials.

Note: These documents provide instructions for using Turnitin via the Turnitin Web site and may not accurately reflect the way the software works in SPARK.

Turnitin's Student Quickstart Guide

Turnitin's Full Student Manual

Student F.A.Q.

Turnitin Training Videos