This guide for instructors explains how to request permanent submission and composition deletions from your administrator, based on your institution’s account settings.
In this guide:
Depending on your institution’s account settings, instructors can send requests to administrators to delete submissions from their assignments and from all of Turnitin. Administrators have the option to approve or reject any requests that are sent. If the deletion request is approved:
Submission and composition deletions cannot be requested from Turnitin Support and can only be managed by your institution’s administrator.
- The submission will be removed from the instructor’s and student’s assignment.
- All reports and any associated grading will be deleted.
- The submission will not appear as a match to any future submissions.
Is the deleted submission still showing as a match in existing Similarity Reports? Existing Similarity Reports that show the deleted submission as a match need to be refreshed to provide an updated similarity score.
The process and details for sending a deletion request to your administrator differs slightly depending on which assignment type is being used.
Still have questions? Check out our FAQs on the process for deleting submissions.
(Classic) Standard Assignment
- From the assignment inbox, locate the submission that requires deletion from the repository and select the three-dots menu under the Options header. From the drop-down that appears, select Request permanent deletion.
- A modal will appear and provide you with additional information about paper deletions. Read through and select Continue.
- Choose a Reason for Deletion from the dropdown at the bottom of the modal. Select the blue Continue button to proceed.
If the assignment settings were changed to No repository after submission, the settings need to be restored to Standard paper repository in order to complete a paper deletion request. If the settings have always been No repository, you can simply remove the paper from the assignment inbox yourself to remove it permanently.
- Review the details of your request to ensure everything is correct. Then, type “DELETE” into the text area at the bottom to confirm your request. Select Confirm to submit your request.
- While your request is pending, you will see a trashcan and clock icon in the assignment inbox beside the Submission ID column of the paper you requested the deletion for.
(New) Standard Assignment
Just need to replace an existing submission? As an instructor, you can resubmit on a student's behalf, and that will overwrite their previous submission.
To send a deletion request to your administrator:
- Access the assignment and locate the submission you want to have deleted.
- Select the three-dot-menu at the end of the row and then select Request deletion from the dropdown options.
- Review the confirmation, and when ready to continue, select the confirmation checkbox and then the Request Permanent Deletion button.
- The request will be sent to your administrator and the submission will be hidden from your assignment. If the request is rejected, it will reappear.
Student Writing Assignment
There are two types of deletion requests for Student Writing assignments.
Deletions are permanent and cannot be recovered.
- Composition deletion: Deletes the in-progress version of your student’s document and the final submission.
Compositions are not added to the repositories. For more information about repositories, view: the Report Settings section in the (New) Standard Assignment settings guide
- Submission deletion: Deletes the final submission of your student’s work but leaves the in-progress version of your student’s document.
Deleting a submission
When deleting a submission, only the submission is deleted, and the composition remains.
- Access the assignment and locate the submission you want to have deleted by your administrator.
- Select the More menu at the end of the row.
- Select Copy Submission ID from the dropdown options.
- Then, contact your administrator with the ID of the submission that you want to delete.
- If your administrator deletes the submission:
- It will be hidden from your submission list, but the ability to copy the composition ID will remain.
Students can still access the composition even if the submission is deleted.
Deleting a composition
Deleting a composition deletes both the composition and the submission.
- Access the assignment and locate the submission you want to have deleted by your administrator.
- Select the More menu at the end of the row.
- Select Copy composition ID from the dropdown options.
The composition ID can be copied from the submission list prior to the student’s final submission.
- Then, contact your administrator with the ID of the composition that you want to delete.
- If your administrator deletes the composition:
- The submission will be hidden from your submission list, and you will not have the ability to copy the submission or composition IDs from the More menu.
If a request is rejected, the submission will remain in your submission list with the ability to copy the submission and composition IDs.