Turnitin Similarity Review
Most students who buy a similarity check are worried about a number. The number is the least useful part of the report. Markers open the full document and look at what is highlighted and whether it is attributed, and a student who understands their own report is in a far better position than one chasing a percentage down.
| Price | £25 |
|---|---|
| Turnaround | One working day |
| Submission type | Non-repository, your text is not stored |
| "Safe" percentage | Does not exist |
| What markers read | The highlighted matches, not the number |
| Free alternative | Your university draft submission point, if it has one |
What the percentage actually means
The similarity index is the proportion of your text that matches Turnitin’s index of web pages, published work and student submissions. It is a measurement, not a judgement. The software does not know whether a match is a properly attributed quotation or copied text, and it makes no attempt to decide.
This is why threshold advice is unreliable. A literature-heavy dissertation with substantial quotation, a long reference list and standard methodological phrasing can legitimately reach 35 to 45%. A short essay at 6% can be a disciplinary matter if that 6% is three uncited paragraphs from one source.
Some departments publish an internal guideline figure, often around 15 to 20%, as a trigger for a closer look rather than a pass mark. If yours does, treat it as exactly that.
The four kinds of match, and what each needs
- 1Harmless and expected.Your reference list, your title page, standard phrases like “semi-structured interviews were conducted with”, and subject terminology that has one correct form. No action. These frequently account for most of a high score.
- 2Correctly quoted and cited. Direct quotation in quotation marks with a citation and page number. No action, though worth asking whether you are quoting where paraphrase would be stronger.
- 3Paraphrased but uncited. You reworded an idea but did not attribute it. This needs a citation. It is the most common genuine problem and it is entirely fixable before submission.
- 4Too close to the source. A citation is present but the wording follows the original closely, with a few synonyms swapped. A citation does not license near-copying. This needs genuine rewriting from your understanding, or converting to a direct quotation.
Fixing what needs fixing
Paraphrasing properly
Real paraphrase changes structure, not just vocabulary. The reliable technique: read the passage, close it, write what it said in your own words from memory, then reopen it to check you have the meaning right. Swapping words while keeping the sentence shape produces exactly the matches that flag.
Citing at the right density
A single citation at the end of a paragraph drawn from one source is usually insufficient. If the whole paragraph derives from that source, signal it at the start (“Ahmed (2021) argues that...”) so the reader knows where your account begins.
Quoting less
Heavy quotation raises similarity and weakens the writing independently of the score. Quote when the exact wording matters, which is less often than most drafts assume.
What we will not do
Being explicit about this is more useful than the ambiguity common in this market.
- We do not help anyone evade detection. No text spinning, no character substitution, no AI humanising for academic submission.
- We do not guarantee a percentage. Anyone who does is either not reading your work or offering something you should not buy.
- We do not check work you did not write. If the document is not yours, a similarity report is not the service you need.
The reason is practical as well as ethical. Evasion techniques are detectable, they produce prose that reads badly to a marker long before software flags it, and the consequence lands entirely on you.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Editing and Proofreading Language, consistency, and academic register. Your argument stays yours. | £12 per 1,000 words |
| Referencing (APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago) Full citation audit and reference list correction in your required style. | £39 |
| Turnitin Similarity Review A similarity report plus a note on which matches need re-citing. | £25 |
A similarity review and a referencing audit together cost £64 and address the same underlying problem from two directions, which is why students usually buy both or neither.
Everything we support, with prices
Research Proposal
Aims, questions and a methodology your supervisor will approve.
Literature Review
Thematic synthesis that builds to a defensible gap.
Undergraduate Dissertation
Final-year projects, 8,000 to 15,000 words.
Master's Dissertation
MSc, MA and MBA, 12,000 to 18,000 words.
PhD Research Support
Doctoral chapter review and defence preparation.
Thesis Support
MPhil and PhD thesis structure and analysis.
Data Analysis
SPSS, R, Stata, Python and Excel with annotated output.
Assignment Support
Briefs, rubrics and draft feedback across eleven disciplines.
Proofreading and Editing
Language, register and consistency. Your argument stays yours.
Referencing
Full citation audit in APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago or OSCOLA.
Turnitin Similarity Review
A similarity report and which matches need re-citing.
Viva Preparation
Mock viva, predicted questions and defence coaching.
Presentation Design
Designed slides built from your dissertation or report.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Turnitin similarity percentage?
There is no threshold that means safe, and any service quoting one is misleading you. A 40% score can be entirely legitimate if it is quotations, references and standard methodological phrasing, all correctly cited. A 6% score can be serious misconduct if those six percent are uncited sentences from one source. Markers read the report, not the number.
What does this service actually do?
For £25 we generate a similarity report on your draft and go through it with you: which matches are harmless (reference list, common phrasing, correctly quoted material), which need a citation added, and which need rewording because they are too close to the source even with a citation. You get the report and a plain-English annotation.
Is checking my own work before submission allowed?
Yes, and most universities encourage it. Many provide a draft submission point in their VLE for exactly this purpose. Checking your work so you can fix citation errors before submitting is good academic practice. Check whether your institution offers this first, because if it does, it is free.
Will my work be added to the Turnitin database?
Not through this service. Submissions we make are non-repository, so your text is not stored and will not match against your own later official submission. That matters: students who check through a repository-storing service sometimes find their final submission flagged at high similarity against their own earlier draft.
Can you help me lower my similarity score?
We help you fix the citation and paraphrasing problems the report reveals, which usually lowers the score as a side effect. We do not help anyone evade detection, and we do not offer text-spinning or AI humanising for academic work. If your score is high because material is not properly yours, the fix is citation and rewriting, not disguise.
Does Turnitin detect AI-generated text?
Turnitin markets an AI detection indicator, and many UK universities have it enabled while treating its output cautiously because false positives are documented. It is scored separately from similarity. We do not offer any service aimed at defeating it. If AI assistance is permitted in your module, follow the declaration rules your department sets.
My score is high but everything is cited. Is that a problem?
Usually not, and this is the most common cause of unnecessary panic. Long block quotations, a large reference list, standard methodological phrasing and common subject terminology all generate matches. If every match is attributed, a high number is defensible. It is still worth checking whether you are quoting where you should be paraphrasing, because heavy quotation weakens a dissertation independently of the score.
Related services and guides
Full citation audit in APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago or OSCOLA, £39.
Language, consistency and academic register, £12 per 1,000 words.
Subject-specific assignment support across twelve disciplines.
Dissertation support at every level, from £499. Structure, analysis, editing and viva prep.
Thesis structure, analysis and defence support for MPhil and PhD candidates.
Aims, questions and a methodology your supervisor will approve, £99.
How we work, and what stays yours
WritingBays provides research support: structural feedback, editing and proofreading, data analysis and statistical interpretation, referencing correction, reference-only model exemplars, and viva preparation. We do not sell work for submission as your own. Your research question, your argument and your conclusions remain yours, which is what makes the support defensible in a viva and compliant with your institution’s academic conduct policy. If you are unsure what your university permits, check its academic integrity guidance before ordering and we will scope the work to fit.