How to use Turnitin Draft Coach

Adding Turnitin Draft Coach to your Google Doc

Once Turnitin Draft Coach has been set up by your school, you will be able to use it on any of your Google Docs to help you work towards the final draft of your assignment.

  1. Open your Google Doc assignment.

  2. Select Add-Ons, Turnitin for Google Docs, and then Turnitin Originality from the top menu bar.

    If the add-on does not appear, you may need to refresh your page and try again.

  3. Draft Coach's panel will appear on the right-hand side.

  4. Draft Coach is ready to help! You can begin to use Draft Coach’s features within the side panel.

    Turnitin Draft Coach is still in Beta, which means we will be continuing to make improvements to it. You may notice some changes to the side panel on the right, and if you are unsure what they are or how they can help, you can check back here anytime!

Similarity Report

You will be able to run a total of three Similarity Reports while drafting your assignment. We suggest using these strategically to get as much out of the reports as possible.

  • Create a plan for using your reports prior to beginning your assignment.

  • Think about the length of your assignment and the amount of source material you’re referencing when determining when to run your Similarity Reports.

  • We strongly suggest that you make an effort to not use your reports all at once. Spread them out to help you improve your writing and citations over multiple drafts.

To run your Similarity Report:

  1. Make sure the Draft Coach panel is on the right-hand side of the page by adding the Draft Coach add-on to your Google Doc.

  2. Select the Similarity tab at the top of the panel or the Similarity Check card in the middle of the panel.

  3. Select Run Similarity Report.

  4. You will be shown how many reports you have left to run. Select Confirm if you would like to continue, or Cancel if you would like to continue working on your assignment.

    Please do not alter your text while the Similarity Report is running. You can make changes as soon as the report has generated.

  5. If you received matches to your draft, don’t worry! It is normal to receive some matches in a well-referenced paper and it doesn’t always mean that it is plagiarism. You can learn more about your Similarity Report here.

  6. If you have made changes to your assignment and would like to run a new report, select Run New Similarity Check. Draft Coach will tell you how many reports you have left to use.

    Running a Similarity Check will not add your assignment to our database so will not be used to match against your final paper.

You can open an interactive version of your Similarity Report by selecting View Full Report at the bottom of the side panel. This opens a new tab in your browser and will let you select specific matches in your paper and show you the match in more detail within the insight panel. If you select a match from the insight panel, it will show you where in your paper the match was found. You cannot make changes to your paper here.

Citations Check

You will be able to run as many Citation Checks as you like while you draft your assignment. You can either wait until you have finished and make any suggested corrections at the same time, or you can run a few checks throughout your drafting process and do it in stages.

To run your Citations Check:

  1. Make sure the Draft Coach panel is on the right-hand side of the page by adding the Draft Coach add-on to your Google Doc.

  2. Select the Citations tab at the top of the panel or the Citations Check card in the middle of the panel.

  3. Select Run Citations Check.

  4. You will now have your Citations Report! You can learn more about your Citations Report here.

  5. If you have made changes to your assignment and would like to run a new report, select Run New Citations Check.