How to Legally and Safely Lower Your Thesis' Turnitin Similarity Score

For final-year students, the name Turnitin often brings up a frightening prospect. Many universities in Indonesia set a very strict similarity index (similarity index)—usually ranging from 15% to 25%—as a requirement for students to be allowed to take the thesis or graduation exam.

When your first Turnitin check results come back and the number is 40% or higher, panic is a natural reaction. However, don't rush to resort to underhand shortcuts.

This article will thoroughly explore how to legally, safely, and ethically lower the similarity score of a Turnitin document.

1. Understand How Turnitin Works First

Turnitin is not a plagiarism detection tool, but rather a text-matching tool. This tool compares your thesis manuscript to their database of billions of web pages, journal articles, books, and other student theses that have been uploaded to the system.

If a sequence of words is exactly the same as a source in their database, Turnitin will highlight it as a similarity. This explains why legal definitions, direct quotes, or even the names of official institutions are often detected as similar.

2. Master the Correct Paraphrasing Technique

Paraphrasing is a way of rewriting ideas or information from another source using your own language and sentence structure, without changing the original meaning. This is the most legal way to lower your Turnitin score.

Practical Steps for Paraphrasing:

Change the Sentence Structure (Active to Passive or Vice Versa):
Before: "The researcher collected primary data using a questionnaire distributed to 100 respondents."
After: "The researcher distributed the questionnaire to 100 respondents to obtain primary data."
Use Synonyms: Look for scientific words that have similar meanings. However, ensure the substitute words are still commonly used in academic contexts.
Break Long Sentences into Shorter Sentences: Sentences that are too long and complex are at high risk of having similar word patterns to the original source.
Read, Understand, and Write Without Looking at the Original Text: Read the source paragraph until you fully understand its essence. Close the text, then rewrite the concept using your memory and your own style. Don't forget to include the source citation.

3. Use Direct Quotations with Correct Format

There are times when you need to copy a statement from a figure, law, or theoretical definition in its entirety without changing a single word. To avoid being considered an illegal similarity, use quotation marks () or indented block text for direct quotations.

Most Turnitin settings on campus are configured to ignore text within quotation marks (Exclude Quotes) and bibliographies (Exclude Bibliography). If your quotation marks are formatted correctly, Turnitin will automatically not count these lines in the similarity score.

4. Avoid Dangerous Bypass Tricks

In desperate situations, some students are tempted to use dirty tricks to trick the Turnitin system. Some popular tricks include:

Replacing spaces with white characters or hidden letters.
Replacing some Latin letters with Cyrillic letters (such as the Cyrillic letters , , ) that appear similar on a computer screen.
Using automatic word spinners/online rewriters that produce illogical and unreadable sentences.

[!CAUTION] Using these bypass tricks is strongly discouraged. The latest version of Turnitin now includes the Flags feature (AI Detection & Document Manipulation). If the system detects any character manipulation, your document will immediately be marked with a red flag. Supervisors or examiners who see this red flag will immediately know that you are attempting to cheat, which can result in severe academic sanctions.

5. Utilize the "Exclude Small Sources" Feature When Possible

If your document's similarities are dominated by short, common phrases (consisting of 3-5 common words that are not actually plagiarized), ask your library or campus Turnitin operator if they have enabled the Exclude Small Matches / Sources feature (e.g., ignoring similarities under 5 words or less than 1%).

Officially activating this feature by a librarian can significantly lower the similarity score without breaking any rules.

6. Perform Regular Self-Checks

Tidying up your thesis while guessing which parts are affected by similarity is highly ineffective. You need to view the complete report of the check results (Similarity Report) to determine which paragraphs are colored (detected)(similar) and a link to the original source.

With this report, you can make targeted improvements only to paragraphs with a high percentage of similarity.

Accurate Turnitin & AI Similarity Check at Proakademika

Want to know your thesis's current similarity score before submitting it to the campus library? Or want to detect whether your draft is suspected of being written by AI (such as ChatGPT)?

Proakademika provides fast and affordable Turnitin checking services:

Turnitin Similarity Check (Rp 5,000/check): Checks without saving the document to the repository database (so your document won't be detected as 100% similar when rechecked by the campus). A complete PDF report with color highlights will be sent directly to you.
Similarity Check + AI Report (Starting at Rp 50,000/check): A dual report that includes plagiarism detection and the percentage of writing suspected of being created by artificial intelligence.

If you also need technical assistance with document editing after the check results are out, we are ready to tidy up the format of your writing through Proakademika Thesis Technical Services.