Turnitin Draft Coach's Similarity Check

The Similarity Check tool in Turnitin's Draft Coach helps students maintain the originality of their work. By scanning the draft and comparing it to a comprehensive database of academic sources, websites, and other student papers, Draft Coach identifies and flags text that matches existing content. A report is generated that highlights potential instances of unintentional plagiarism, allowing students to revise their work and properly attribute sources before final submission. Please note students only have three Similarity Checks with the specific Word document in use.

  1. With your Word document opened in Microsoft 365 online, navigate to the Turnitin tab and select Draft Coach.
    Turnitin option on the Microsoft Word ribbon
  2. A new window on the right side will slide open. At the top of the window are four tabs of the tools within Draft Coach, along with the ability to select further down the window. You can select Similarity Check in this window or click the Similarity tab at the top of the window.
    Selecting Similarity Check from Turnitin Draft Coach Side window
  3. Either option will lead you into the Similarity tab, where you will have the option to Run Similarity Check via the button at the bottom of the screen.
    Image of Run Similarity Check button
  4. Note that within the same Word document, you may only run three Similarity checks. Once you click Run Similarity Check, the next window will remind you of this, seen below, where you can then confirm if you would like to use one of your three Similarity Checks. If you would like to use one of your three checks at this time, click Confirm.
    Confirming Similarity Score Check
  5. Once you confirm, Draft Coach will begin to run the Similarity Check where you will be prompted to not alter any text while the check is still running. Be sure to allow ample time to run the report as needed. You may also receive additional pop-up windows noting to please allow time.
    Prompt to not alter text in draft
  6. When the Similarity Check is completed, you will receive an overall percentage score. Below the overall similarity percentage will also show matching areas in your paper. These matches are color coordinated and listed numerically to help differentiate between each one. The similarity score simply highlights any matching areas in your paper so instructors can use this as an investigative tool to determine how the text may match against the source.
    Example of Similarity Check report
  7. Clicking into any of these matches will navigate to the area within your paper for you to review the text. The side panel will show where Turnitin found a particular source that matches the text in question. This can be a webpage, a student paper, or a published journal. This example shows a webpage where we can navigate to see the text. We can see in our paper that the text is very close to this source, so we will want to revise our document for proper in-text citations. At the bottom of the right-side window, you can also view a full report. Please see our Turnitin guides for more information about how to review the full similarity report.
    Example of Similarity Check in a Word document
  8. Draft Coach also provides helpful notes such as "What should I do with my score?" and "How should I use these checks?" that can help guide you as you make revisions based on this check before running a new Similarity Check.
    Similarity Check's helpful hints