TurnItIn.com

Walt Whitman High School subscribes to TurnItIn.com, an online plagiarism prevention tool. Several MCPS high schools also subscribe, as do thousands of other learning institutions across the world.

How it works: In English classes, most typed writing assignments are considered incomplete until they are submitted to TurnItIn.com. (On the assignment due date, students submit hard copies of their papers directly to their teachers, and they submit electronic copies to TurnItIn.com.) Once a student paper enters the TurnItIn.com database, it is compared to "billions of pages from both current and archived instances of the internet, millions of student papers previously submitted to Turnitin, and commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals" (TurnItIn.com). TurnItIn.com then provides teachers with Originality Reports for all papers; this allows teachers to quickly and easily identify papers that contain unoriginal material.

The Walt Whitman English Department considers TurnItIn.com an essential component of assessment. All Whitman English teachers require student use of TurnItIn.com. (Some Whitman teachers in other academic departments require its use as well.)

What Students Need to Know:

1. You will need an email address.
   Teachers strongly encourage students to use email addresses that are based on their names (e.g. "JaneDoe@hotmail.com"). (We're not always sure which of our students is, say, "BallerinaGlitterGirl@hotmail.com," so name-based email addresses help eliminate confusion.)
   *Don't have an email address? Want to create a new email address? Click here to set up a free Hotmail account.
2. You will need a class ID and password for TurnItIn.com.
   These will be provided by your teacher early in the semester. Write these codes down and store them in a safe place.

How to use TurnItIn.com:

There are two ways to learn how to use this simple program:

• Click here to view a short instructional video.
• Click here to read the instructional manual instead.

That's it!

Please note:

We realize some students and families do not have computer access at home. This in no way absolves students from typing and/or submitting papers to TurnItIn.com. Walt Whitman High School has a beautiful Media Center full of computers and printers that are expressly for student use. The Media Center is open daily and is brimming with brilliant and friendly staff eager to help all students.

View a Sample Originality Report

You're probably curious to know exactly what teachers see when they examine Originality Reports.

Click here to view a short video with a sample Originality Report.