Module Information
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Seminars / Tutorials | 20 x 2 hours (1 per week = 10 seminars per semester x 2 semesters) |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | Semester 1 Identify and select a case study document within fields of management and business and write a critical review of the paper (500 words) | 10% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 1 Identify and select comparative academic and professional media documents to analyse differences in audience characteristics and subsequent styles of writing (500 words) | 10% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 1 Interpret the requirements of a given essay/report question requiring critical review of the strengths and weaknesses in selected comparative documents (500 words) | 10% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 1 Essay/report (1500 words) | 20% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 2 Proposal for individual research essay or report (choice of format allows flexibility for those wishing to pursue professional careers or postgraduate studies) (1000 words) | 10% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 2 Actual essay or report (2500 words) | 20% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 2 Team-based comparison and contrast of themes delivered as oral presentation | 5% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 2 Individual oral presentation on research | 5% |
Semester Assessment | Semester 2 Self-reflexive report on writing and communications development (1000 words) | 10% |
Supplementary Assessment | Students will re-submit any failed assignments identifying a new topic that is distinct from the original failed piece/s of work. The word count will be dependent on the actual failed tasks, but will not exceed the original word counts identified above. The maximum word count for re-submission will be 7500 words. |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
* Analyse and appropriately interpret the needs of a given writing and/or communications brief
* Display a critical awareness of the differences between academic and professional discourse
* Identify the relative values of reference materials from a wide range of published and media resources
* Evaluate the effectiveness of their own writing, communication and research strategies at all stages of the writing and/or communications process
* Target the needs of proposed research interests
* Work effectively in self managed teams
* Identify needs for drafting oral presentations from written documents
* Further develop skills in self reflexive assessment of the needs of a range of written and oral communication practices
Aims
This module will be useful for:
- Second and third year students who need to further develop writing ability as a result of writing development needs identified from year 1;
- Second year entry students on internationally agreed 2+2 programmes;
- Second and third year students who need to develop an awareness and appreciation of finer nuances of written communication in academic and professional life;
- Students who wish to pursue the development of writing with a view to career plans that may involve significant professional writing responsibilities;
- To provide pathways to writing at higher levels of critical and self reflexive complexity for those intending to pursue postgraduate studies.
Brief description
In semester 2 the module develops upon the themes of semester 1 to engage students with the development of an extended portfolio of work that builds on individual research and/or professional interests. This would be facilitated by formal proposal, individual written work, team-based comparison and contrast of themes, oral presentation and self-reflexive report on writing and communications development.
Content
Semester 1
- What is academic and professional English? How is communication at this level shaped by academic and professional communities?
- Essay & report structures
- Identification of critical audience characteristics and how to write to an academic or professional brief
- Avoiding plagiarism and bad practice in academic contexts; use of citation, reference, bibliography and acknowledgement
- Identification of critical issues in using web-based research material and how to recognise academically and professionally structured text through professional approaches to writing for the web
- Language development as required by given student groups; e.g. functions of present and past tenses, active and passive voice, noun phrase sentence patterns and repetition of noun phrases.
- Revision and redrafting of writing for academic submission and professional publication
- Establishing style and voice in writing a research proposal
- Evaluating appropriate structures and methods for conducting small scale research
- Critical reflection on theoretical and practical issues in team work, cooperative learning and group dynamics
- Synthesising points of comparison and contrast, or parallel threads for developing critical review in cases of original theories and/or practices
- Aspects of oral communications
- Differences between speaking and writing for varying audiences
- Development of self reflexivity in report writing that can inform approaches to critical writing
Module Skills
Skills Type | Skills details |
---|---|
Application of Number | Structuring and sequencing in essays and reports. |
Communication | 1) Groupwork within the module; 2) communicating ideas through sequence of graded tasks. |
Improving own Learning and Performance | Through all seminars and tasks; written identification through reflective report. |
Information Technology | Use of computer network for researching essays, identifying case study material, planning and writing essays. Some tasks will be submitted through Blackboard. |
Personal Development and Career planning | Consideration is given to the needs of professional communication through all tasks. |
Problem solving | Identifying writing topics, topic analysis, interpreting essay questions, creating writing task, essay and report structures, identifying strategies for learning. |
Research skills | Independently proposing essay questions, researching subject matter related to tasks, essays/reports, identifying suitable case study material, reviewing material. |
Subject Specific Skills | Rhetorical and linguistic analysis of subject specific text and tasks. |
Team work | Groupwork within module. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6