Using www.turnitin.com

English9September 2010

Why can’t I just write it out and turn it in? Standard: Writing Strategies 1.8 – Design

and publish documents by using advanced publishing software and graphic programs.

ESLR: Use multi-media tools for communication.

Rationale: No matter what field you work in when you graduate from high school/college, you will definitely have to use a computer for both professional and personal tasks.

While preventing plagiarism is the primary purpose of www.turnitin.com, it is also important that you learn how to upload and submit documents using internet based programs.

Internet Tools You Should Know

There are several websites you need to be familiar with in order to be a successful freshman English student at Segerstrom High School:

www.dictionary.com – Many homework assignments for this class will require you to look up the definitions of words you don’t know. This website will help you to complete these assignments, especially if you do not have a dictionary at home.

http://src.scholastic.com/ecatalog; www.arbookfind.com; www.amazon.com – These three websites will help you look up word counts for your Independent Reading book reports.

www.turnitin.com – This website is where you will submit your summer reading assignment, your Independent Reading questions, and all of your essays. We will come back to this website in just a minute!

www.sausd.us/segerstrom - This is the school website, which you will need to access in order to find the English 9 page and/or your teacher’s webpage.

What Is Turnitin.com? You will be asked to submit every single essay

and book report (including summer reading) you write for this class to www.turnitin.com.

You will not receive a grade until you have done this, and if you do not submit your assignment on time, you will receive a homework card, as your work will be considered incomplete. It is important that you learn how to do this correctly!

Remember that www.turntin.com is a plagiarism prevention website. If you submit something that has ever been typed by someone else and published (def: posted online), you will be caught and sent to the office on a referral. This includes essays that other students have submitted to

www.turnitin.com – the system will compare your essay to every other essay that has been submitted to www.turnitin.com as well as every known published material on the Internet (including websites like SparkNotes and Wikipedia).

Creating an Account If you do not have

an account, click the link in the top right corner of the home page that says, “Create account.”

Creating an AccountTo create your account, you will need: An email account that you:

Check regularly Will not, under any circumstances, lose the password to Will not change for any reason during this school year Know is school appropriate If you do not have an email account, you can easily get one for free

at www.yahoo.com; www.hotmail.com; or www.gmail.com.

Access to a computer At home – make sure to let your family know ahead of

time that you will need the computer for an extended period of time. Problems with your computer are never an excuse for late or missing work!

The school library – make sure to bring your flash drive or email a copy to yourself because the hard drives are reformatted often.

Creating an AccountTo create your account, you will need:

Your Class ID# Period 5: 3447584 Period 6: 3447589

Your Class Password: jaguars Use the Class ID# and Class Password to set

up your account. You will not need to use these ever again. When you log in to www.turnitin.com, you will need to use YOUR email account and the password you created. Don’t forget these – ever! Write them down and store them in a safe place if you have to! Under no circumstances should you ever create a new account just because you forgot your password!

Creating an Account If you do forget

your password, click on the link in the upper right-hand corner of the home page that says, “Retrieve password,” and answer the questions to have a new password sent to your email address.

Enrolling in This Class Log in by typing

YOUR email address and password in the upper right-hand corner of the home page, and then clicking “Sign In.”

Enrolling in This Class Click on one of the links that says, “enroll in a class.” There is

always one on the left-hand side of the page; however, since it is a new school year, there may also be one in the middle of the page.

Enrolling in This Class Type in your

Class ID#: Period 5:

3447584 Period 4:

3447589

Type in your Class Password: jaguars

Click “Submit.” You should now

see this class listed on your home page every time you log in.

Submitting an Assignment Log in to

www.turnitin.com by typing YOUR email address and password in the upper right-hand corner of the home page, and then clicking “Sign In.”

Submitting an Assignment Click on the link for this class.

Submitting an Assignment You will see a list of assignments. Scroll through the list

to find the correct one. You will only be able to submit an assignment if the due date has not yet passed.

Once you have found the correct assignment, click on the gray button that says, “Submit.”

Submitting an Assignment Make sure that:

The pull-down menu for “Choose a paper submission method” says, “single file upload.”

Your first and last name are correct.

You have given an appropriate title to your paper.

Click the button that says, “Browse . . .”

Submitting an Assignment A “File Upload” box

will appear. Find the document you want to submit, click on it once, and then click “Open.”

Click “Upload.”

Submitting an Assignment You’re not quite done

yet! Forgetting this second step is a crucial mistake many students make! Look in the box that says, “Preview Paper” to make sure that you have submitted the correct paper. Don’t worry if the

formatting is not correct. Just make sure you submitted the right document.

If you submitted the wrong document, click “return to upload page” and submit the correct document.

Click “Submit.” You are not done until you do this!

Submitting an Assignment You should now see a green checkmark telling you that you

have successfully submitted your document, as well as a copy of your Turnitin Digital Receipt. You will need to either print a copy of this digital receipt or save a copy of

the email www.turnitin.com will send you when you successfully submit a document. If you do not have this receipt, it means we did not receive your essay and you will receive a homework card and a zero. The only way to prove that you submitted your work on time if there is a problem is to show us a copy of this receipt.

If you think there was a problem with your submission, email your teacher immediately and attach a copy of your completed work. This is the only way that you can prove your work was completed on time. Congratulations! You

may now log out and move on to your math homework!

A Few Reminders If you submit the wrong file on accident, you may overwrite

your own submission up until the due date. You may not alter the submission after the due date without your teacher’s permission.

Make sure you submit early – the server at www.turnitin.com gets busy when many students are trying to submit work at once (usually around 11:59 p.m.). If you don’t get to submit because you waited until the last minute and the server was too slow, you will get a zero and a homework card!

Once a due date has passed, you cannot make any more changes.

If you attempt to submit an essay or assignment that was not typed in Microsoft Word (the file should end in .doc or .docx), it often comes out in gobbledygook computer code and will probably be formatted incorrectly, which will affect your grade. Just use Microsoft Word! If your essay is formatted incorrectly – it will be YOUR FAULT, not your teacher’s! If you do not have Microsoft Word at home, there are many computers

on campus you can use, but you will have to plan ahead. We always give you several days to submit assignments to www.turnitin.com for this reason.

Once the time for submissions is over (usually 11:59 p.m.), your teacher does not have to open the folder again for you. It is YOUR responsibility to turn your work in on time.