The Lighthouse

At Massey University’s Academic Q+A we answer questions about study, assignment writing, referencing, and exams – more than 500 in the past semester.

In this post, we look back on some of the most frequently asked questions about assignments and exams:

• What does the similarity percentage on TurnItIn mean?
• Can I recycle / reuse assignments from previous courses?
• What counts towards a word limit?
• What are the rules around writing numbers as words (“two”) vs. numerals (“2”)?
• Can I use this website in my assignment?
• How much should I write in an exam essay?
• How do I convert assignment percentages to course grades and vice versa?

Tune in next week for the most common questions about referencing.

1. What does the similarity percentage on TurnItIn mean?

TurnItIn compares your assignment with Internet sources, books, articles, and assignments previously submitted by other students. The similarity score represents the amount of text that resembles those outside sources. It is intended to detect breaches of academic integrity (i.e. plagiarism).

The similarity number is supposed to be a kind of automated ‘early warning system’ – so rather than instantly marking you down, the lecturer will take a high number as a sign to investigate your writing further.

That investigation may lead to nothing (if there’s a good reason for a high number) or it may lead to a reduced mark, a failed assignment, or other penalties depending on the seriousness of the problem. That decision is made by the lecturer using much more than the similarity percentage, though.

But how high a number would trigger further investigation? Even a perfectly referenced assignment won’t get 0% – there are coincidences and acceptable reuse principles that return false positives. There’s a lot of variation between courses and disciplines, too. Lecturers mostly look for outliers – percentages that are higher than other students’ assignments.

If you are ever concerned about your TurnItIn score then it’s best to discuss it with your tutor or lecturer directly.

2. Can I recycle / reuse assignments from previous courses?

Under Massey University’s Academic Integrity policy, before you reuse any bits of an old assignment you need to check with your lecturer. See the breaches of academic integrity page:

“Submitting one’s own previously assessed or published work for assessment or publication elsewhere, without appropriate acknowledgement and/or approval.”

Lecturers are sometimes okay with recycled material, but it’s important to check first anyway (to fulfil the “acknowledgement and/or approval” part).

A couple of points to note:

• If both assignments were submitted to TurnItIn when you handed them in it will come back with a plagiarism warning, which is another good reason to check with the lecturer first!
• In some papers, you are asked to submit a draft assignment for initial feedback before handing in a corrected and changed version. In those cases, it’s expected that you will recycle text from earlier drafts. It’s when you reuse paragraphs from one course into another course that you can run into trouble.

3. What counts towards a word limit?

The OWLL page on word limits and assignment length has more information about this. The general rule of thumb is that certain sections are not included in a word count, but word counts always include text within the main body of the assignment.

The following sections are not included in the word count:

• Title pages and cover pages
• Reference lists and bibliographies
• Appendices

The following parts are included in the word count:

• In-text citations
• Quotations
• Figure and diagram captions
• Section headings

The following parts are a grey area – your lecturer can give you more advice on whether they should be counted in their assignment:

• Footnotes
• Abstracts
• Executive summaries

4. What are the rules around writing numbers as words (“two”) vs. numerals (“2”)?

The answer depends on your style guide. For example, in APA style these are the core style rules:

Use numerals (“2”) for

• Numbers greater than nine (10 not ten)
• Numbers in an abstract, table, or figure
• Numbers before a unit of measurement (5.2cm)
• Percentages, fractions, decimals, ratios, and formulae
• Times and dates (unless they’re approximate, e.g. about two months prior)
• Ages and quantities of money
• Table or figure numbers (see Table 6)
• Page numbers and other referencing numbers

Use words (“two”) for

• Numbers below 10 (nine participants selected…)
• Any number from the previous section that begins a sentence, title, or heading (but, if possible, reword the sentence to avoid putting numbers first)
• Common fractions (two-thirds of the students)
• Common usage terms (the Twelve Apostles, the Five Pillars of Islam)

For more details, see Sections 4.31 and 4.32 of the APA Manual.

5. Can I use this website in my assignment?

The validity of a website will depend on your discipline, the assignment type, and how you’re using the website.

First, I would distinguish between websites that you are using as an example and websites that you’re using as support for your points.

If a website is being used as an example, almost any website is okay. If your assignment topic was “online health promotion,” for example, then you might want to cite a few websites to demonstrate how it is done. The key here is that the website is the subject of your analysis.

More often, websites are used to support points in an assignment. Effectively, you’re using them like a book or journal article. In that case, there’s a much higher bar for validity. There are too many factors to include here, but these two pages on OWLL summarise them well:

• Evaluating source quality (see “online sources” on that page)
• Identifying academic sources

6. How much should I write in an exam essay?

There’s no (even approximate) word count that applies in exam situations. It’ll vary based on your writing style (are you verbose or concise?), the discipline (more writing in the humanities, less in the sciences, usually), the topic, and more.

Every lecturer I’ve ever asked about this says that it is not the word count that matters in an exam, it’s whether (and how well) the essay addresses the essay question. They usually say that you should just aim to write as much as possible in the time available.

Lecturers mark based on relevance to the question and the paper much more than on absolute length. To put it another way, when I was marking exams (years ago now) a short essay that actually addressed the question always scored higher than a long essay that just regurgitated a bunch of facts without connecting them to the topic.
It’s also worth remembering that everyone is in the same situation: everyone will be pressed for time and writing as quickly as they can.

To get a clear picture of what can be achieved in a real exam, try writing a practice essay in exam-type conditions: no notes, no computer, and strictly to the time limit.

7. How do I convert assignment percentages to course grades and vice versa?

I’m not aware of a university-wide approach to the conversion between marks and grades. The Massey exams webpage gives this advice:

“The cutting points for grades vary depending upon academic guidelines. Any student wanting more information on the cutting points should contact the appropriate College Academic Director’s office.”

You could also ask your lecturer how it is handled in their course.