Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

PROPOSAL: PROCRASTINATION ISSUES AMONG STUDENTS AT UiTM

SUNGAI BULOH CAMPUS, SELANGOR.

1. INTRODUCTION

Everyone put things off until the last minutes sometimes. Procrastination appears to make
university students postpone and delay their academic work, becoming self-excusive and
ignoring their academic responsibilities during the entire course of studies. In education
and training, the term academic procrastination is commonly used to delay in academic
activities. It may be intentional, incidental or habitual but significantly affects the learning
and achievement of university students.

According to August John Hoffman (2008), procrastination can be defined as any

negative consequence of delaying, postponing, or simply putting off important projects
due to poor time management. Besides that, August John Hoffman (2008) indicate that he
also add a second component to this definition where the practice of procrastination
prevent individual from becoming successful in any endeavour that they pursue.

Furthermore, Monica Ramirez Basco (2010) believes that procrastination is a common

behaviour and doing it once in a while doesn’t usually cause problems. It seems a
common practice that university students put off their academic work and they delay in
preparing and submitting their assignments and also presentations, completing projects,
and even preparing for the examinations. In the beginning of a new semester, nearly every
student makes a goal or promises to their self to finish work on time by doing his or her
best and make a good grade. But in reality, most of the students put off the work in delay
or until the last minute. Despite this popular trend ever by putting off work, most of the
students regret to procrastinate.

Monica Ramirez Basco (2010) also stated that procrastination is hard to change. It is not
something that we can just decide to give up and then completely let it go. It is a habit
that automatic does not require thought or planning. Most of students will start the day
saying that they will not take that path, fall into the habit and yet without realizing it.
Procrastination might be that slight pause where intend to do a task but hesitate and then
turn away.

Page 1 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT

One of the main characteristics of academic procrastination among students in UiTM

Sungai Buloh campus is the postponing of the initiation or completion of academic
assignments even though working on these assignments was intended. It showed that
procrastinating students began to study later than non-procrastinating students. As a
result, the timeframe for working on assignments decreases, and the conditions for
succeeding at the task become unfavourable and difficult (Patrzek et.al, 2014).

The issue is procrastination affects the students’ performance. It also decreases

effectiveness and compromises both mental and physical. This situation might result in a
deadline effect which mean the closer the deadline, the less time is available and the
higher the pressure on the students. When procrastinating, students feel that there is little
time left before a deadline and that delaying an academic assignment is likely to result in
academic failure, they may pursue different forms of academic misconduct to account for
the time lost and to avoid negative effects. All students struggle with procrastination and
they like to put off a project until the last minute or wait to study for a big test until the
night before

Behaviour’s such as copying and pasting can lead the procrastinator to a plagiarism from
the Internet are easier and faster than drafting an original term paper honestly. Using crib
notes (cheat sheet) or copying from others on exams could also be interpreted as copying
strategies with the aim being to avoid or overcome the negative effects of academic
procrastination, such as decreased performance due to postponed studying or failure to
learn. Thus, procrastination can lead to stress, frustration and poor performance and
grades. Furthermore, procrastinating students may perceive an unethical excuse as an
adjustable response to the immediate needs of the situation.

In response to this problem, our study proposes to investigate:

 Why do students procrastinate?

 What’s the effect to the students when they do procrastinate?
 Is it the student’s does not have much enough time or they do not believe
themselves?

Page 2 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to figure out why students’ procrastinate and what are the
associated consequences among students at UiTM Sungai Buloh campus. This study
suggests several research objectives to be attained as below:

a. To find out the reasons students procrastinate when it comes to study and
assignments.
b. To identify the solutions to avoid procrastination among students’ at UiTM
Sungai Buloh campus.
c. To determine if procrastinate is related to gender.

4. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

Student life consists of several strands namely stress, the academic world and student life. This
research investigates these three strands together and also gives conclusions and
recommendations why do students procrastinate and how to improve upon the actual status quo to
positive well-being. Besides, this study is very and significant for university students who like to
avoid from engaging in procrastination especially in academic world. This study is also important
for students to understand the importance, advantages and effectiveness when engaging in
procrastination particularly effective in terms of personality and emotion. Furthermore, it is hoped
that this study will benefit as a reference to the UiTM Sungai Buloh campus and others university
throughout Malaysia in providing information and a clear understanding and also the perception
of students towards the effectiveness when engaging in procrastination.

Page 3 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

5. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This main limitation of this research is that only focused on the perceptions of students
towards the reasons and effectiveness involve in procrastination among students at UITM
Sungai Buloh campus. Thus, this study was conducted among students in all types of
Faculty in UiTM Sungai Buloh campus randomly. The findings of the study cannot be
generalized to all university nationwide and the number of respondents for this research is
50 questionnaires. Another limitation of this study is the duration is quite short for
conducting this study.

6. PREVIOUS STUDY

Betül Toker & Raşit Avcıb (2015) said that we have many occasions to say “later” in our
lives, such as when paying bills, making appointments, or doing homework. However, the
longer we put off our tasks, the more they accumulate, and the less they are likely to be
completed. Sometimes, tasks left for later are entirely forgotten, but at times, they are
done at the last minute. This circumstance is defined as “procrastination” in the literature.
In contrast, according to Idit Katz, Keren Eilot, & Noa Nevo (2014) procrastination
involves delaying the performance of a task until the person experiences distress about
not having performed the activity earlier.

Previous study from Idit Katz, Keren Eilot, & Noa Nevo (2014) is to explore the role of
motivation in the relations between self-efficacy and procrastination studies suggest that
low self-efficacy is a central reason for procrastination. Overall, the entire findings of this
study suggest that although self-efficacy has a central role in procrastination, it is not
enough by itself to explain why so many students of all ages tend to procrastinate with
regard to their homework. This result explains the mechanism that underlies the observed
relationship between self-efficacy and procrastination. It is students’ self-efficacy that
influences the type of motivation, which in turn influences the level of procrastination.
Although the direct path between self-efficacy and procrastination remains negative and
significant after entering autonomous motivation, the significant decrease in this path
suggests that the contribution of autonomous motivation cannot be avoided.

Page 4 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

The experiments conducted by Ping Xu, Claudia Gonza´lez-Vallejo, & Zhe Hong Xiong
(2016) in China and the US investigated the impact of state anxiety on behavioural
procrastination. Overall the findings support a self-regulatory theory account such that the
negative emotion associated with anxiety motivates people to increase the effort towards
reaching a goal and take proactive measures for the most important task, thus reducing
procrastination. These results suggested that anxious people might find it difficult to wait
as their perception of time is distorted. This is congruent with the results of the current
study. However, it is not clear whether the overestimation of time alone could be a cause,
or if both the overestimation of time and the prompt to take action were caused by some
other mechanism associated with anxiety.

The findings of study conducted by Fuschia M. Sirois. (2014) also provide some insights
into how to alleviate some of the stress associated with procrastination, and in doing so
perhaps provide insight into how to reduce instances of situational procrastination.
Interventions that focus on increasing self-compassion may be particularly beneficial for
reducing the stress associated with procrastination. Evidence from a study examining the
effects of a related construct, self-forgiveness, on procrastination supports this
proposition. Students who had high levels of self-forgiveness for procrastinating on
studying for their first midterm examination reported less studying procrastination on
their subsequent midterm examination.

Page 5 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

7. METHODOLOGY

This study will be conducted at UiTM Sungai Buloh campus. This subject of this study
will be minimum of 30 students from faculty of medicine and faculty of dentistry. In this
study, we conducted uses quantitative methods. Creswell (2003) described quantitative
research as objective in nature, whereas Naoum (2013) defined is a an enquired in social
or human problem based on a hypothesis or theory composed of variable, measured with
number and analyzed with statistical procedures. The students will be given a
questionnaire with a request to answer the questions and return the questionnaire. A
questionnaire consists of several questions printed and online typed in a definite order on
a form or set of forms. The questionnaire is given to respondents who are expected to
read and understand the questions and write down the reply in the space meant for the
purpose in the questionnaire itself. The respondents must answer the questions on their
own. For online survey, QR code will use and students can scan using smart phone then it
will link to the form. The survey was not limited to grade level. Instead, the only
qualification was that the participant was a currently enrolled student UiTM Sungai Buloh
campus.

Page 6 of 7
 Sample EWC 661: ENGLISH FOR REPORT WRITING

REFERENCES

Basco, M. (2010). The procrastinator's guide to getting things done. New York: Guilford
Press.

Cresswell, J. W. (2003) Research Design: Qualitive, quantitative, and mixed methods

approaches (2ndedn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Hoffman, A. (2008). What every student should know about procrastination. Boston MA:
Pearson Education.

Katz, I., Eilot, K., & Nevo, N. (2014). “I’ll do it later”: Type of motivation, self-efficacy and
homework procrastination. Motivation & Emotion, 38(1), 111–119.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/10.1007/s11031-013-9366-1

Naoum, S. G. (2013) Dissertation Research and Writing for Construction Student (3rded).
Landon: Routledge.

Patrzek, J., Sattler, S., Van V, F., Grunschel, C. and Fries, S. (2014).Investigating the effect
of academic procrastination on the frequency and variety of academic misconduct: A
panel study. Studies in Higher Education,40(6). doi:10.1080/03075079.2013.854765

Sirois, F. M. (2014). Procrastination and Stress: Exploring the Role of Self-compassion. Self
& Identity, 13(2), 128–145.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/10.1080/15298868.2013.763404

Toker, B., & Avcı, R. (2015). Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral-Theory-based Skill Training on

Academic Procrastination Behaviors of University Students. Educational Sciences: Theory &
Practice, 15(5), 1157–1168.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/10.12738/estp.2015.5.0077

Why Do Students Procrastinate? (2017). Retrieved from

https://gradepowerlearning.com/why-do-students-procrastinate/

Xu, P., González-Vallejo, C., & Xiong, Z. (2016). State anxiety reduces procrastinating
behavior. Motivation & Emotion, 40(4), 625–637.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/10.1007/s11031-016-9554-x

Page 7 of 7