Can Turnitin Detect Copy and Paste? How To Avoid Being Caught Copy-Pasting

The modern-day life of a student tends to be very hectic. From academics, extra-curricular activities, family, and side hustles.

The need to craft a unique paper that will pass Turnitin’s integrity check tends to be hectic. There have been cases where students have resulted in just copying work from another source.

So, the main question is, can Turnitin detect copy and paste? I will give you a detailed review of what it can discover and viable options for you to try out.


Can Turnitin tell if you copy and pasted something?

Turnitin can be able to 100% detect copy and paste. If your essay contains content that you have copied from another source and is not well referenced, Turnitin has the capability of finding it.

Turnitin can detect information copied from published books, journals, previously submitted essays, scholarly papers, etc.

Follow proper citations like MLA, Harvard, or APA to avoid issues with plagiarism. Here are a few tips to prevent copy and paste plagiarism:

  • Use adjectives and adverbs
  • Use moderate synonyms
  • Change the voice of a sentence. You may change from active to passive
  • Use quotations and proper referencing- RECOMMENDED
  • Use plagiarism checkers like Grammarly or Copyscape
  • Paraphrase

What does Turnitin detect?

Turnitin can detect plagiarism, copy and paste as well as instances of paraphrasing.

Also see: Can paraphrasing beat Turnitin? 

  • Plagiarism

Turnitin looks through the entire text, phrase by phrase, and can detect if your work is not authentic when you copy work from cited books or work that had been written and submitted before.

Additionally, if you use existing work and it got scanned on Turnitin, you will be caught.

  • Paraphrasing

Although proper paraphrasing can get used to beat Turnitin, poor rewrites can be detected. It can be a result of similar context, ideas, and sentence structures.

Overlapping texts in your essay can get detected by the system and get interpreted as plagiarism.

With recent system upgrades, Turnitin can now detect paraphrasing with ease, and you will have to be thorough when crafting your essay.

Change the structure of the original work, and phrase each sentence in your own words.

How Does Turnitin Work?

Turnitin uses advanced algorithms, which have access to millions of documents across the web, its database, and documents from other partner databases.

Once a paper gets scanned, it remains in the database and cannot get erased.

The system matches strings of ideas and compares them with existing essays from other students. Therefore, using similar word structures is a sure way to get caught.

The process

  • Source document (your essay)
  • Submission
  • The system runs the paper through the student papers database.
  • Your professor gets an originality report. It features a list of the sources you copied in case there is plagiarism.

How to avoid being caught copy-pasting by turnitin 

  • Hire an Essay Writer

Are you racing against time and find it gruesome to craft a unique paper? Try hiring homework help experts.

It is the most effective method of avoiding copy and paste. Some of the advantages of ordering a custom paper include:

  • You receive an authentic essay, free of plagiarism.
  • You receive your essay on time.
  • You calm your nerves because you will not be worried about ‘can Turnitin detect copy and paste?’

Your only task is to send the assignment instructions, and they will adhere to them without fail. A professional essay writer also ensures that they deliver a paper with the correct structure and fulfills the formatting guidelines. It will also be free of any grammatical mistakes.

The downside of ordering a custom paper include:

  • You must be ready to pay a considerable amount for a high-quality essay
  • You may pay to get a quality paper and end up receiving a poorly written assignment if you hire an untrustworthy service

There is a wide variety of custom writing services across the web, and it is your responsibility to research the most trustworthy ones. Get value for your money.

  • Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the most effective way of crafting original content. Turnitin has no way of detecting paraphrasing. The system only focuses on detecting similar phrases, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures.

You take an existing text on the same subject and rewrite it using your own words. You get an original text written by you. Ensure you maintain the key ideas, and the end product will be a non-watery text.

Paraphrasing demands time and focus, as well as high-level language knowledge. If you are not good at it, there are numerous paraphrasing tools available online.

Try the following tips for effective paraphrasing:

  • Use information from multiple sources and compare facts. The goal is to deliver original content and still make sense (should be readable)
  • Avoid overusing synonyms. Turnitin may be unable to detect the use of similar words, but your professor can if you use a word that fails to make sense in a particular context

  • Adjust the Language

Adjusting the language is a common way used by students to prevent Turnitin from detecting copy and paste. You find a different language with identical alphabets like those in the English language, then replace them. It is easy and free, and you do not require software.

However, the system may fail to recognize the symbols, but they may be visible to your professor.

  • Change The Format Of Your Document.

If you change the format of your document, Turnitin will not detect copy and paste. Change the text into an image and submit.  The process is easy and quick, and you can beat Turnitin.

Also see: Can Turnitin detect images? 

Take extra precautions because your professor can read and evaluate your essay. Additionally, avoiding formatting using macros because the Turnitin system can detect it.

  • Anti-Turnitin Websites

While there have been constant system upgrades, there have been numerous anti-Turnitin websites appearing. You get various options of encryption that help you aid fool Turnitin.

Only use these sites as your last resort after you have tried the above options.


 Conclusion

Can Turnitin detect copy and paste? Yes, it can. However, you now have a clear idea of how Turnitin works and the various options you can try out to avoid copying information from other sources.

Hiring a professional writer and appropriate paraphrasing are the most effective ways of ensuring you deliver an authentic essay.