You've submitted your paper through Turnitin, and a report has come back with a percentage and a rainbow of highlighted text. Seeing this for the first time can be intimidating. What do the colors mean? Is a 20% score good or bad? What are you supposed to do with this information?

Relax. The Turnitin report is not a "plagiarism detector"; it is a similarity report. It's a tool designed to help you identify passages in your work that match text in its massive database of internet sources, academic publications, and student papers.

This guide will walk you through how to interpret every part of your Turnitin report, from the overall similarity score to the color-coded highlights, so you can use it effectively to improve your academic writing.

1. The Overall Similarity Score (The Percentage)

This is the most prominent feature of the report. It's the percentage of your paper that matches sources in the Turnitin database. Here’s how to understand it:

• Blue (0%): No matching text found.
• Green (1-24%): Typically a low level of matching text.
• Yellow (25-49%): A moderate level of matching text.
• Orange (50-74%): A high level of matching text.
• Red (75-100%): A very high level of matching text.

Crucial Point: The percentage is NOT a "plagiarism score." A high score does not automatically mean you have plagiarized, and a low score does not guarantee your paper is perfect.

For example, a paper with a 25% (yellow) score might be perfectly acceptable if most of the matches are properly quoted, cited common phrases, or a correctly formatted bibliography. Conversely, a paper with a 10% (green) score could contain serious plagiarism if that 10% is a single, large block of uncited text copied directly from a source.

There is no magic "good" number. Every university, department, and even individual instructor has different expectations. Always refer to your specific course guidelines.

2. The Color-Coded Highlights and Numbered Sources

The body of your paper will have various sections highlighted in different colors, with a number next to each highlight.

• What do the colors mean? The different colors (and their corresponding numbers) are simply used to distinguish between different matching sources. If you have five sources, your text will be highlighted in five different colors. The color itself has no meaning beyond separating Source #1 from Source #2, Source #3, and so on.
• What do the numbers mean? Each number corresponds to a source listed in the "Match Overview" sidebar on the right side of the screen. This allows you to quickly see which source a specific highlighted passage is from.

3. The Match Overview (The Source List)

This sidebar is your main tool for analysis. It provides a breakdown of all the sources that match the text in your paper, listed from the highest percentage of similarity to the lowest.

• Viewing Sources: Clicking on any source in this list will reveal the specific matching text from that source, allowing you to compare it side-by-side with your own writing.
• Interactive Highlighting: Clicking on a highlighted passage in your paper will automatically bring up the corresponding source text in a pop-up window.

4. Using Filters and Exclusions

This is the most powerful feature for refining your report. Look for the "Filter" icon (often a funnel symbol). Here, you can exclude certain types of matches to get a more accurate picture of your work.

• Exclude Bibliography/References: Your reference list will almost certainly be flagged as matching other sources. This is normal. Excluding it will lower your similarity score and let you focus on the body of your text.
• Exclude Quotes: If you have used quotation marks correctly, the text inside them will be highlighted. You can filter these out to see only the similarity in your own paraphrasing and analysis.
• Exclude Small Matches: You can set Turnitin to ignore matches below a certain word count (e.g., 10 words). This helps eliminate common, incidental phrases that are not unique.

What to Do Next: From Report to Revision

After filtering your report, go through each remaining highlight and ask yourself:

1. Is this a direct quote? If so, is it enclosed in quotation marks and properly cited?
2. Is this a paraphrase? Have I rewritten the idea in my own words and sentence structure, or is it too close to the original? (This is known as "patchwriting"). If it's too close, you need to revise it further.
3. Is it properly cited? Even if you have paraphrased effectively, you must still include a citation to the original source.
4. Is this a common phrase or terminology? Sometimes, standard technical terms or common phrases are flagged. In most cases, these are acceptable and can be ignored.

Use the Turnitin report not as a final judgment, but as a guide to help you become a better writer and ensure you are giving proper credit to the sources that informed your work.