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Flags in Turnitin Feedback Studio
Posted July 12, 2023
by IDLT
Turnitin will flag any instances of an unusual character within a paper. These flags will identify when a character has been replaced and unusual hidden characters.
Replaced Characters
Some fonts and characters look similar to the naked eye and are difficult to detect in a paper. This technique is used to “fool” the Similarity Report when text is copied and pasted from an outside source. Go to this example at Turnitin: https://help.turnitin.com/feedback-studio/flags.htm#example . First see if you can identify which characters are Greek or Armenian. Then, check the “Highlight Character” box and click Greek, Armenian, or Mixed.
Hidden Text
Another trick to “fool” the Similarity Report is to hide text by changing the color of the character to white. By using a white letter rather than a space, the Similarity Report does not recognize the words as a match. Hidden text can also be used to “stretch” a paper’s word count if the writer has not met the minimum word count for an assignment.
Visit the Turnitin at https://help.turnitin.com/feedback-studio/flags.htm for more information and examples of Replaced Characters and Hidden Text.