Does Turnitin Save Old Papers: Does Turnitin Remember Past Essays

Turnitin is one of the most acclaimed anti-plagiarism software tools used in schools and colleges across the globe. Many writers, editors, students, and educators find this tool very useful as it helps them tell the originality of their work.

Despite its importance and high ratings, some questions about the tool have gone unanswered for a long time, especially among beginners. One of these is whether Turnitin saves old papers. The answers are varied and depend on different factors. However, technically speaking, Turnitin stores everything that passes through its system.

Here is a detailed rundown on does Turnitin save old papers.

Does Turnitin Save Old Papers

Turnitin saves old papers by default and as part of their policies. This is crucial because the tool relies on its archive and other documents from different sites to determine if a particular submission is original.

If you are a novice wondering about finding your way around, Turnitin is an online-based plagiarism detecting tool mainly used by students and learning institutions. It checks submitted documents against its database or other websites to detect similarities.

As an online tool, Turnitin detects and helps prevent plagiarism. If you’re a student, you may have been instructed by your teacher or school to use this program. Universities and colleges also use it as part of their admission process. As a writer or editor, it may be something that your employer asks you to use.

When a student submits a paper, the tool stores it in its database, forming part of its new database. Further, it continually adds other materials from publicly accessible documents on the internet, journals, newspapers, and books. This means that Turnitin saves every upload and uses it to check new uploads for similarities.

Does Turnitin Remember Past Essays

Turnitin can remember every past essay passed through it. This is because every paper run through the system is automatically archived for future reference. This ensures that Turnitin can quickly identify similarities if you submit an essay twice.

It also means that if you run the same document after two years from now, it will give a 100% plagiarism result. Additionally, the tool checks and compares other sources for similarities and thus can detect any plagiarism.

On the other hand, Turnitin can fail to remember past papers if they are removed from its database. When you submit an article or other piece of writing, it will be checked against everything that has been submitted to the database previously and provide you with an originality report. After this process, you can ask your instructor to request the tool’s administrators to remove your paper from its database. After the removal, you can even use and resubmit the same article, and it will be marked as an original one.

That originality report includes sources where there is the use of similar language, cited material bibliographies, and quotes. The impact is that every other information associated with it is also removed, and as mentioned, you can resubmit it.

Does Turnitin Look at Past Students’ Work?

Turnitin can look at past students’ work and compare it to its database. The database comprises every scan made among other sources. Therefore, Turnitin can look at past students’ submissions, whether done by the student or someone else.

If you resubmit your content, Turnitin will also compare the resubmission against other millions of content and generate a report. It is good to note that Turnitin checks the entirety of a document to detect any slight similarity. Therefore, if you decide to resubmit your work, you should be careful about paraphrasing them or first seek removal of your past work before resubmission.

There are numerous tools you can use for paraphrasing, and the advantage is that Turnitin is limited in detecting paraphrasing if done right. It would help if you also considered changing the topic idea and adding more points to the original version to avoid detection.

But if you want to submit the paper as it is, this is called self-plagiarism and is a severe offence, just like other forms of plagiarism. Still, you can escape by requesting deletion of the previous paper before a new submission, as mentioned earlier.

The following is also another method of deleting a submission

• Click on “My Account” from the top menu in your profile.
• Select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.
• Click on “Delete Submissions” under Submissions on your account settings page.

Does Turnitin Save all Submissions

Turnitin does save all submissions. Although they are kept private, Turnitin automatically saves all submissions in keeping up with its policies and standard operating procedure. As part of its policies, you also sign their terms and conditions, which partly state you allow them to store your content. Therefore, you can’t claim you didn’t know about it.

Also, there are two Turnitin versions, all with different features that significantly impact submissions. Your instructor can see all submissions and their reports with the older version. However, every submission overwrites the previous one in the new one, but technically, the instructor can still see earlier reports if they want to.

There is, however, an exception to this, but differently. You can request its removal through your school’s instructor when you submit anything. This helps to maintain the integrity of everyone involved.

You should also not worry because Turnitin keeps all submissions safe and secure within their servers to detect overlapping and similar text in submitted papers and check for originality.

Conclusion

Turnitin is an excellent plagiarism checker tool. It helps students be better in academics and writing while allowing instructors to be more effective in determining the originality of a student’s work. Further, it offers an easy interface for beginners, while the more complex ones are ideal for experts.

All in all, Turnitin has helped solve many problems and will continue to be in use for a long time. Its features such as detecting past papers, storing every submission and old pieces endear it among instructors. On the other hand, students find it ideal because there are techniques for avoiding detection, such as using paraphrasing tools and deleting earlier submissions.