The Turnitin source matching tool is available to assist with ethical use of resource material. The originality report offers you a similarity percentage and also the percentage which refers to the percentage of words in the source referenced. Your similarity index percentage is a reflection of your use of others’ intellectual property located in the Turnitin database.  The similarity percentage offers you insight into material you quoted but it can also be material you paraphrased or summarized.  The similarity index is a reflection of the material in the Turnitin database which is similar to that in your submitted document. 

Turnitin uses the colors to highlight material you used which is in the Turnitin database.  Turnitin uses these highlights as an easy reference for you to see what material matches material in their database. The colors offer you the opportunity to check the source indicated by Turnitin as possible resource or verification that you did not use the resource. Remember: Turnitin does not necessarily contain your reference material, but you can use it to verify that you did reference the material correctly.

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