I know colleges use Turnitin to detect plagiarism, and I'm a bit worried about accidental plagiarism in my essay, even though I wrote it myself. Should I submit my essay to Turnitin before applying to catch any possible issues, or is that unnecessary?
It's great that you're being cautious about the potential for accidental plagiarism. However, submitting your essay to Turnitin before applying may not be necessary. Here's why:
When colleges use plagiarism detection software, they're mainly looking for serious cases where students have copied large portions of text from other sources or have used someone's work without proper citation. If you wrote your essay yourself, then it's highly unlikely that there will be any issues.
Additionally, when you submit a document to Turnitin, it gets added to their database and will be checked against all future submissions. This raises another concern: if you submit your essay to Turnitin before sending it to colleges, and then the colleges run it through Turnitin during their review, there's a chance it will show up as a 'match.' Although this can be explained, it could cause unnecessary stress for you during the applications cycle.
Instead, I suggest proof-reading your work, double-checking for citations of any quotes you include, and having someone else read through it to make sure nothing even accidentally sounds like it's not your original work. That way, you can feel more confident about your submission. Good luck with your application!
CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.