What is Originality Check?

Writable's Originality Check (powered by Turnitin SimCheck) can be used by both teachers and students to check for plagiarism.

Updated over a week ago

As students learn to write, it's important to talk to them about digital citizenship skills and citing sources properly. While students learn this over time, having a way for both teachers and students to evaluate the originality of a passage can be helpful in writing instruction.

Based on feedback from our schools, Writable chose a plagiarism solution that helps to detect the most common ways that students in K-12 classrooms copy: from internet sites and from their peers.

Read on to learn more about Originality Check and how to use this powerful tool in Writable:


What does Originality Check scan?

Powered by Turnitin's SimCheck service, Originality Check scans the following sources:

  • Internet sites

  • Publications

  • Papers submitted to Turnitin's Database

  • Papers submitted to Writable

Most educators report that cheating in K-12 classrooms most commonly comes from other students and the internet. At this time we do not scan higher-ed databases for similarity. If you would like to learn if a specific database is included in the originality check please share some example sources with our team at support@writable.com.

You can read more about Turnitin's SimCheck search repositories here.


Who can use Originality Check?

Originality Check is currently available for middle school and high school teachers. While most Writable assignments do work with Originality Check, graphic organizers and short responses will not.

All teachers and students who use it will need to accept Turnitin's End-User License Agreement (read it here). If you don’t see the 'Originality Check' button as you grade student work, you may need to have it turned on for your account. To check if your account qualifies, please contact sales@writable.com or your Writable sales rep.

Note: HMH Into Reading subscribers will not have access to Originality Check. Please contact your HMH Writable sales rep for additional information.

Both teachers and students can check writing for plagiarism and similarity.

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