1. You must have an email account. If you are in an online class, you already have one. If you don't, you need to set one up before you try to use Turnitin. You can get an instantaneous email account through the college if you haven't already set one up.
2. Save your paper to a disk. Put all the parts of the paper into ONE document. In order. Make a copy of the final document file on another disk or your hard drive. Put the second disk in a safe place separate from the first one. This means not in the same backpack. NOW you can TURNITIN.
3. Type Turnitin's address: www.turnitin.com into the address bar of your browser.
4. Click on User Login. If you've used Turnitin before, proceed to #6.
5. If you are a new user, follow the link at the very top that says: "create a user profile" Turnitin will ask for your email address. It will then ask for a password. It is NOT ASKING for the password for your email account. You are CREATING your Turnitin password. Select a password with at least one letter and one number that is between 6 and 12 characters long. (Good memorable passwords can be created by combining a number from your childhood that you'll never forget — the last 4 digits of your first phone number — with the nickname of your childhood best friend. The idea is to select 2 things that aren't going to appear in public records but that you can't forget.)
6. Complete the rest of the enrollment questions.
7. Log in to Turnitin. This is confusing. It asks for your email address and password. The password you need to provide is your Turnitin password that you just created or that you created in the past. If you created one previously it will email it to you.
8. Enroll in your Class. Enter the class ID# and password provided by your instructor. Click submit.
9. Click on the title of the class.
10. Select "Submit" a Paper.
11. Enter the title of your paper. Select the Assignment from the drop down box. You must make a selection even if there is only one choice.
12. You may either copy and paste your paper or browse and select the file from the disk. This second option works best because you are least likely to lose part of the document in the process. ****Please note: You can only submit one file. If you wish to create your bibliography and notes as separate documents, you must combine them into a single document prior to submitting them to Turnitin if your instructor requires them as well. (See #2 above.) Make sure you understand EXACTLY what you are expected to submit for your assignment. The system does not permit double submissions.
13. Click submit. Print a copy of the receipt for your records should there be any question about you submission.
14. The system does not permit submission of papers after the due date. You will need to get your instructor to override this feature in order to submit a late paper.

And REMEMBER, if you have trouble with this, or any other stage in the research process, you can ask for Help! Ask your teacher! Ask Librarians! If you need to, just hit the PANIC button!