STUDENT NUMBER 221138579

STUDENT NAME RISTO JUNIAS

SUBJECT CODE EAP511S
CLASS GROUP D
LECTURE’S NAME Lyamine Yolanda

Table of Contents
 REPORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT...............................................................................................................................

1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................
2. Discussion.....................................................................................................................................................................
3. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................................
4. Recommendations........................................................................................................................................................
Introduction 
In this report we will aim to find the various sources that have led to the high number of students
at NUST with poor or substandard writing abilities 

The NUST SRC has been made aware of the large numbers of plagiarism cases at the
university and is aiming to find out the main causes for the rampant plagiarism at the institution 

In the discussion section of the report the causes for plagiarism will be elaborated on before a
conclusion and a recommendation is later given.

Discussion 

They are used to a collaborative learning environment 

(Why Do Students Plagiarize: Common Reasons, 2021) In school its very normal for students to
help each other with their homework and assignments but in university it is expected that
students do this work for themselves this can lead to issues especially for first year students
who will need time and additional guidance to learn how to do their work by themselves. Thus
it can also become quite difficult to distinguish between what are shared resources such as
lecture notes. 

They have not been taught how to properly cite

For students at NUST they may only learn how to properly cite and reference in their second
year when they take EAP. This combined with sloppiness during the writing process may lead to
issues where students are not able to distinguish what was written by themselves and what was
plagiarized. This can then be further worsened as oftentimes when students are studying,
(Jacques, 2022) they are studying information from multiple sources, and they may not
remember where they got this information from so to these students what they may believe
what they write down is entirely their own words. 

Fear of failure 
(Hanski, 2020) For many students in Namibia education is seen as the only way that they can
make a future for themselves so the pressure is oftentimes quite high, especially for students
from underprivileged backgrounds and students on bursaries. This pressure can lead to self-
doubt which can make students want to plagiarize or cheat by failing a module or the semester
could spell the end for their university careers. This fact can be proven by looking at the
number. These stats are not NUST specific but (Hanski, 2020) 86% of students will cheat while
at university and a further 54% feel that cheating is necessary to obtain competitive grades . 

Conclusion
In this report, we aimed to understand the reasons for the poor writing abilities of students and
how that has contributed to the number of plagiarism cases at the university. There are
multiple reasons for plagiarism, but the main ones are academic greed and lack of knowledge of
what are acceptable writing standards. But it is important to remember that not all plagiarism is
intentional.

Recommendation
Education is the only way to improve writing standards, where students are taught early on
how to properly cite and reference. Leniency is advised for the semesters where students have
not yet been educated on how to cite but for the following semesters, severe punishments
should be imposed to ensure that students attempt to adhere to the imposed writing
standards.
 
Signature: R Junias

12 October 2022
 References 
Hanski, M. (2020, October 27). Why Students Plagiarize: 5 Reasons You Probably

Ignored. On College Life and Writing | Bid4papers Blog. Retrieved October 12, 2022,

from https://bid4papers.com/blog/why-students-plagiarize/

Jacques, M. (2022, September 29). Top 10 reasons students plagiarize & what teachers

can do about it (with apologies to David Letterman). kappanonline.org. Retrieved

October 12, 2022, from https://kappanonline.org/cleary-top-10-reasons-students-

plagiarize/

Why Do Students Plagiarize: Common Reasons. (2021, September 16). FixGerald.com.

Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://fixgerald.com/blog/why-do-students-

plagiarize