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Research Process Guide

Turnitin

Turnitin is an online service that checks for similarities between your writing and that of others. It is used as a way to detect possible plagiarism. If your professor is using turnitin, you will submit your papers to turnitin in Blackboard. For more information, please refer to the TurnItIn Tools and Resources page on the Academic Technologies website.

Revising Your Paper

You're almost done!  By this point you have gone through the writing process and completed your first draft.  You now have a couple of options:

  • Submit the draft to Turnitin to make sure you are not plagiarizing (see the box to the right for more information) and wait for your originality report.  Make any necessary changes. 
  • Submit the draft to your instructor to see if they will review it for any errors before the final due date and make necessary changes.

Double Checking Documentation in APA/MLA Style Papers

For papers done in MLA or APA style, it is important that for every source you list in your works cited or reference page, there is an internal citation within your paper and vice versa.  In a paper done in Chicago style, it is possible to list sources you've consulted but not mentioned in the text if you are compiling a full bilbiography.  To help you double check your documentation, as you are going through the rough draft of your paper, when you come to an internal citation, put a tiny pencil check next to that source on the works cited or references page.  Once you've finished going through your paper, you should have a check mark next to all of the sources on your works cited or references page.  If you have some sources without check marks this means:

  • you didn't use the source in the paper after all and you should remove it from your works cited or references page
  • you did use the source in the paper but failed to add in an internal citation so you need to go back and identify where it is missing and add it

Finally, if you don't find a source on your works cited or references page, you need to add it.

Last Minute Details

Be sure to review one last time the requirements of the paper before handing it in.  You've done so much work and you don't want to lose points for something minor!

  • Was there a page or word count and if so, have you reached it?
  • Do you need to submit anything else with the paper such as copies of the sources you used?
  • Does your instructor want any special binding or just a staple in the corner?