Can Turnitin Detect Writing Style?: Can Turnitin Detect Wrong Referencing?

You might assume that producing exceptional essays begins with research and finishes with editing. However, you discover that there is still a requirement to undertake before you can turn in your document to your teacher for assessment. You must run your essay via a plagiarism detector to determine if it contains original or plagiarized material.

This is where software like Turnitin enters the scene. Its purpose is to promote originality and ensure that the work you are about to present meets the required standards. Nevertheless, can Turnitin detect writing style? Similarly, can the software detect wrong referencing?

Keep scrolling to answer these questions and better your writing skills.

Does Turnitin Check Writing Style?

Turnitin does not check one’s writing style. The software detects if you have copied material from another author’s work and finds instances of plagiarized content. Nevertheless, this process does not involve checking your writing style in composing the paper.

Most scholars and professional writers acknowledge Turnitin as one of the best programs to check and prevent plagiarism. However, it is not without problems.

Also see: Can Turnitin detect paraphrasing? 

For instance, as mentioned above, it cannot detect a writer’s writing style. This weakness is a major disadvantage to learning institutions that put severe measures to maintain academic integrity. Students still buy papers from essay bots even when teachers employ Turnitin to check their papers. Remember, Turnitin does not detect original papers, whether the learner wrote themselves or purchased them online.

Nevertheless, even though Turnitin does not check writing style, instructors do. Most teachers have background knowledge of the writing styles of their students. Therefore, when a learner submits a paper written by someone else, however original, the tutor will know and flag the cheating. They can do so by comparing the student’s previous papers to the current one to compare if the writing style matches.

Can Turnitin Detect Wrong Referencing?

Turnitin does detect wrong referencing. When Turnitin flags content, it almost always does so because you have not written or formatted the document according to its requirements. Proper referencing is part of its conditions. Therefore, when you reference your sources incorrectly, the software will certainly detect that and cite unoriginality.

When you have labelled your reference page “References,” “Bibliography,” or “Works Cited” in conformity with the required citation style, Turnitin will not flag it. It will be disregarded if a quote is surrounded by double quotation marks (“”) and an in-text reference.

It does not match the requirements for direct quotations, and Turnitin will flag it if it lacks double quotes, uses single quotes, or lacks a parenthetical (in-text) citation. The software checks your parenthetical citations to ensure they reflect the complete citation on your References page. Therefore, ensure that you reference your paper properly before you submit it through the software.

Nevertheless, there are scenarios in which Turnitin flags proper referencing. In such cases, the software indicates a higher similarity index when the learner has done everything correctly. This flagging is known as noise. Here, professors should provide a human eye and check the unoriginality allegations themselves.

Similarly, teachers can omit quotations and references from the platform’s similarity index and originality report when giving a Turnitin task. This might lessen “noise” and produce a more accurate similarity index.

How to Reference Properly

Referencing an academic paper might be intimidating, especially if you have never tried it. However, do not be alarmed; it is a skill you can develop with the necessary knowledge and practice. Please read on and learn the concept from the information below.

First, it is worth noting that there are several referencing styles, and the one to use depends on the instructions from your instructor. The most common include the American Psychological Association (APA), Harvard, and Modern Language Association (MLA). As a student, you should learn all of them because you never know the style you might be required to employ in a paper.

Different requirements for conveying source information apply to each referencing style. Some require the use of footnotes or endnotes for in-text citations, while others utilize the author’s last name and the publication date in text parentheses. Similarly, each style has its specifications for how the reference list or bibliography should be formatted, including standards for capitalization, italics, and quotation marks.

A reference list or bibliography is commonly required when citing because in-text citations frequently do not give complete source details. However, the bibliography is voluntary for formats offering complete source information in the footnotes.

Reference lists are often arranged alphabetically by the last names of authors. Here, every item in the list starts on a new line, and a hanging indent is used if an item takes up multiple lines.

APA Referencing Style

Use the author-date approach of in-text citation when employing the APA style. This implies that you should include the source’s last name and the year it was published in the text. For example, (Wainaina, 2004). Also, you ensure to include a comprehensive citation in the reference list after the essay’s conclusion.

Harvard Referencing Style

Similar to APA, Harvard requires you to provide in-text citations and include a reference list. In the in-text citation, you should include the author(s) last name and year, for example, (Obama, 2020).

The reference list should include the author’s surname, initials, year of publication, the book title (including subtitles if any), the book’s edition followed by ed, the publication location, and the publisher. For example, Obama, B. (2020). A Promised Land. 1st ed. Crown: New York.

MLA Referencing Style

When you cite, paraphrase, summarize, or quote from another source in your text, ensure to admit an in-text citation. There must be a reference entry in your reference list for each in-text citation used in your essay.

Include the author’s last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is used in MLA in-text citations. For example, (Carson 163).

Conclusion

So, can Turnitin detect writing style? After reading this article, you could agree that it does not. However, the platform effectively checks papers’ originality, aiding the preservation of academic integrity.

As a student, ensure to carefully read the information above and utilize it when writing your academic papers. All the best!